@LukeAlmighty i've never suffered the pain of slow travel because i would slide down a slope or stairs then cancel into a glide to get insane speed that i can maintain with my high stamina. unless you mean the 0 movement speed while overburdened which you can ignore via grappling hooks

with speed like this i only needed like 4-5 levels in HP since almost nothing can hit me frequently enough to wear through the shield. i might catch a stray 30-power attack if i'm fighting something in a very small space but enough HP to survive exactly 1 hit without a shield has carried me through the whole game