so far in my experience as a 1h/shielder this has been an overwhelmingly successful patch in reducing the amount of bullshit shenanigans by 2h/poles. Its affected some of my high turn overheads/left swings, but nothing I cant deal with, knowing that there is alot less chance these guys will be able to hit me.
As a poler, I have to say that I think the current patch on NA works very well with polearms:
Spears: I used to suck ass with them since I had to turn to land a stab which is a big tell and the side swings are shit [I was better off using a cudgel with 0 wpf and low armor than a spear with 100 wpf and medium]. Now, I don't have to turn and land stabs a whole lot more
Bill: The only reason why I turned in my previous gens with a bill was because I had to. Now with the patch, I don't have to pull any bullshit [although I do back pedal and use kicks a lot more]. The only bad part is glancing at face hug range, but oh well.
Battle Fork: It's like the bill, but doesn't glance at nearly as short of a distance [as in they can be closer to me without my glancing]. I really never used it before, but I can sneak hits on people often enough, it's easier to tackle shielders with than the bill [due to shorter stab stun and a lot faster speed], and it can be pretty brutal with polestun.
I don't have too much trouble landing overheads, and when it's going to fail, I generally know that I fucked up as opposed to being surprised. The only problem I've been experiencing is when somebody hugs one of my sides [with a 2 directional] since I have no real response aside from block, block, attempt to kick. Being able to spin stab wouldn't really solve that since they can hit me before my stab even has a chance to glance. So overall, I say that this is a buff to polearms [and the polestagger removeal will be a significant nerf but oh well].
