>Utility can kill. Water, occasionally.

Water, naturally, is deadly, but you don't see water shifters very often, and avoiding them would be easier than any other type. Utility forms, as far as I've experienced, get crippled even by minimal str loss to the point of being unable to do much damage at all.

>This has always been the case.

I don't think that even if it's how it's always been means it's how it should be. Give them some ability to use gear-given bonuses, etc., which would already give them a LOT more versatility, after all it's what every other class in the game can do.

>A barrier'd porcupine/orangutan would do alright, assuming the
>warrior's other spec isn't spear/staff or polearm.

And porcupine/orangutan would just happen to be the "cream of the crop" forms, and barrier doesn't grow on trees. That still leaves most of the non-offense forms pretty sadly vulnerable to any class with ability to cause decent stat damage.