1h when shield is on have disadvantage in feinting.
Care to explain why? I find feinting a lot easier with my shielder because I don't have to worry about directional blocking.
When it's off, they don't have initiative to feint (range, range, range).
Only if you've made a really slow turtle build which can't run faster forwards than the average player can run backwards.
Not really faster than even greatswords, due to multiple factors (stun), with light shields happens.
Wait, what!? You think that getting stunned once off (haven't had it happen to me more than once in a fight with someone) means that a scimitar or side sword is slower than a greatsword? What other factors do you have in mind?
Polearms also have to buy pike to counter cav.
Polearm users are expected to have to use polearms...what's your point? Regardless, my polearm alts can take out almost any cav (except the very best) with a long voulge or even the long hafted blade.
Shield is not only protection against ranged but also burden (sloooooooow, cant dodge well).
I find it a great burden to not be able to dodge those arrows and, instead, only soak thousands of them up with my huscarl.
2h is great for teamwork, it's already great in melee. Just help your team, not expect to go solo. 2h is dominating the servers, it's surely not UP. More like OP.
I have to agree with Xant on this; the more skilled players go with 2h/polearm builds. I don't think I'm amazingly skilled, but I find my thrower and turtle builds too easy to be fun (except as stress relief), so I prefer to play my 2h and polearm builds.
Also, to put it bluntly, you have problem just with huscarl and side sword.
I'm not sure what this means (I can't understand what you're trying to say). I think you're saying that I'm only complaining about the huscarl and side sword. Even if I was, that's still a viable weapon selection (just because there're others, doesn't mean people won't choose the best). However, I'm talking about a range of shields (though huscarl stands out as the worst; I turtled a guy with a polaxe today and he hit my shield 6 times without it even coming close to breaking...he didn't get a 7 because he was dead and I still had full health) and a range of weapons (elite scim, cav sword with it's ridiculous range, etc).
1h have shitty footwork with shield, without shield footwork is comparable. 2h have range advantage, that coupled with footwork advantage, build advantage and animations advantage owns against the shield.
You've really gotta drop some of this stuff. Build advantage? Because they might have put those 6 or so shield points into an extra 3 agi or str? That's meant to give them some massive advantage over you when you don't even have to manual block? The animations aren't an advantage; the swings with 1h seem as fast to me as 2h, except 1h swings are harder to see. 2H stab further, that's it. Shouldn't be a problem if you know how to click the right mouse button.
That super side strike have -20 range, and require aim, it's not instant head hit, every strike can be aimed.
Most of my left to right swings with my 1h are head shots, unless I'm looking at their feet.
2h is dominating because it's most powerful. Everyone can top the scoreboard. ATM i top it. It's not telling anything about it's duel abilities.
I can duel with you too. 2h have better animations.
I really have trouble understanding what you write. I can't tell if you have no point or if you simply can't express it well.
Anyway, in light of this thread I spent most of my game time today picking 1v1 fights with 2h and polearm users. Occasionally they won (some of the absolutely amazing players can block basically anything), but most players who weren't renowned for being the best on the server lost significantly more than they won. My shield was rarely broken (aside from when I got ganked) and when it was the enemy usually had very little health left and died quickly. I'm not saying I'm skilled; I would never beat people 1v1 that much with my 2h - I'm saying shielding is easy mode for duelling.
Edit: I can barely even see that picture; it's so bloody small! Upload the full size version, not the thumbnail!