You can't be aware in all directions at any given time. That's not possible for a human. That being said, there's tons of people whose awareness is utter shit and they deserve to be backstabbed. One problem is that horses makes pretty low noise and you can't really decide from the noice how far away they are, how long it'll take for them to reach you or even in which direction they're charging from.
Melee cav (especially lancer) is by far the easiest class to play. They're able to pick their own fights, one-hit pretty much anything and escape fast from every possible danger at any given time. All that just for a mediocre increase in the repair bill. Any cav with decent awareness and decision-making should be top-scoring in most of the maps if the build/gear is not utter crap.
However, I don't think cav needs a hard nerf. I think the bumping is too good, considering you can bump down any infantry player even at very low speed. I would suggest that the amount of speed required to bump someone down should be increased. Otherwise I find it fine.
The blocking is not the problem, the force-field is. You can stab a horse in the face, but the shield/lance block will take the hit even though it's not even close. Blocking on horseback should be possible of course, but they should find a way to get rid off that bug
OK and did you tried to be lancer for one gen? To be effective you need champion horse and high riding skill 6 riding minimum.
Fighting inf is not hard,but inf can still kill you if they jump in opposite direction of ur lance swing,and that speed bonus you get is going against you. Agile 1h like byzantium plavor do this thing a lot.
Fighting inf and archers is not so hard,but fighting other lance and 1h cav and HA is the real thing. That require skill,and expirience.
1h cav will always use their shield raised and then try to stop you with their horse,and that shield will apsorb all impact from lance,and then they will cut ur horse to pieces and even kill you. Domusperkele,byzantium royans and few others use this tactic.
lace cav on arabian warhorse that is champ and with mw lance will paly like they are easy pray,but they will make attack and while the lance is still in air move their agile horse and stab you in face. They can dodge anything,and cut ur horse to pieces. Lungy ball with champ rouncey and mw light lance is very nasty opponent. Gk Kerrigan is best lancer in this game and he can kill aware piker. Fallen thimas was good lancer.
Hitboxes are fucked up with lance cav because if you are comming from behind enemy lancer you need to aim a little away from lancer body,but if you ride straight to him you need to aim little in front of him,and if you are comming from side you need to move again in front of him to be able to hit him. If you have lance or light lance you will not be able to cocudh enemy cav from side. So you need a lot of feeling for lancing to know when to release lance,where to aim,how to dodge arrows,other horses,where to move,where to not move,when to attack piker or archer,and when not.
Yeah there is not much blocking involved in cav,but it require skill. Yeah we can all see that my old friends on coursers that only couch ppl on spawn,but they die very fast when they encouter other cav.