I just came back after over 1 year away, and it seems like the variety of builds I see that can work has increased dramatically for the better.
I seem to remember that it used to be it was pretty much just a Heavy Armor + STR + 2h/pole spam-win-to-fest,
but now I think a slightly more balanced STR:AGIL build can work (at least for pub battle/siege).
Of weapon changes... I'm not sure anything is super different but this change is an obvious and nice one so that 1h is not awful-for-anyone-other-than-specialists now.
I'm carrying an axe or crushthrough weapon almost all the time now due to so many shielders though!
(8 athletics atm and its easy for me to ctach up to someone and try to stab but it will ALWAYS glance)
8 athletics would mean fairly low powerstrike and thus more glance would it not?
I don't know how I ever played with less than 6 ps after I tried out 8+ PS back in the day and found how fun it was. heheh