I’ve played around with different weapons main-hand, and what I find most useful for this combo are really fast attacking weapons, like daggers, or one hand axes. While it doesn’t let you explicitly block attacks, it does help mitigate damage quite a bit, and is more versatile than a basic shield with no other buffs.
It is a helluva mana drain though until you specialize in restoration and cut the mana cost in half (with one train). I use it offhand, while attacking main hand. There is a very good spell line you get, in restoration, that will protect from both magic and also add gives big boost in AC (around 40 for first tier, when shields are only giving half that – I saw later tiers in a nearby town for about 60 ac/resist). I am doing this right now, and to answer your question: Sort of.
