Oh, then maybe I should play a bit. Last time I did, a couple of weeks ago, the balance was good... I wonder what happened in the meantime to make polearms so overpowered.
There's a world of difference between something being the strongest and being so overpowered. Its more like a subtle advantage. Ofcourse this is a very personal opinion, playing as a polearmer felt the easiest to me. The German poleaxe is overall the best infantry weapon in my book. Even when they are just balanced with the other melee classes, polearm gives you versatility like no other. Being a lancer or a pikeman, its all possible with polearm wpf. This makes polearm the best class.
I think 1H is the best class but that it's a general good balance right now.
Only the right swing is comparable length-wise to the greatswords.
Which is half the attacks you use anyway, oh and the rightswing is as long as the overhead, don't underestimate the range of the polearm overhead. Used a german poleaxe for the bulk of my polearm time and I never felt at a disadvantage range wise or speed wise, however I felt a big advantage damage wise compared to my time as a greatsworder.
You mean shielders or do you mean 1h without a shield?