I was thinking about getting the Swiftstrike... It's speed bonus is great, but the status for that thing just plain suck to me. I want to use it so I can make my Faust much faster, since I already have a Medium speed bonus with my Vog Cub Coat, but If I'm in some desperate need of defending in tier 3, this shield would just break on one impact.
So is it recommended or not? With speed comes a consequence of poor defence.
From my experience with speed ups, speed doesn't do much. The big pause after your swings isn't affected by this speed up, or isn't affected much. Get a real shield so you don't die all the time in T3.