For a start:
Yes I'm a polearmer and yes I'm a frequent visitor to the duel servers and enjoy duelling quite a lot in general and so my opinion is completely and utterly biased.
While hiltslashing was never a *problem* in my opinion (counterable, hard to master, fun), "fixing" it might have been warranted for ping reasons and other - fine. But this fix only solved the problem partly, worsened it in some aspects and caused a lot of collateral damage.
I will try to outline the main issues:
1. Only solved part of the problem
Hiltslashing is still very much possible, although more effective from one direction so it's become more situational. But still. All those high-ping players who have problems with incorrect positioning will still suffer while the low-ping players just get an easier time countering something that was already counterable.
2. Worsened it in some aspects
By making the rightswing the piece of garbage that it is now for both 2h and pole, you made hiltslashes harder to counter. One of the ways of countering a hiltslash was to do what they did but reversed and step into a turned sideswing. Now that option is basically just gone for the rightswing of 2h and pole. I can't speak about the 2h leftswing due to lack of experience but the pole leftswing was always complete garbage (slow, short and awkward) and thus I no longer have the option to counter hiltslashes with anything but the stab. And while I manage fine with my heirloomed poleaxe (33 points of stab damage), a lot of weapons will be extremely vulnerable to hiltslashes with this change.
3. Collateral damage.
One word: Spam.
While getting hiltslashed can suck indeed, getting spammed because your animation is so shite sucks infinitely more. Fighting onehanders with their leftswing/overhead and speed is a pain now, and while here again I remedy the problem by stabbing (an option not available to everyone) it's still bullshit and makes fighting as a 2h/pole, ironically, much, much harder for high ping players on a shitty connection. People are strafing to the left like crazy now just to exploit this weak animation and it leads to stale and boring melee combat. I find myself stabspamming especially polearms but also 2h now to *great* effect, something that just should not be.
4. Looks retarded
No, I couldn't find better words for it. While this could be viewed as quite a pointless argument both the pole and the 2h right swing (especially the 2h) look really awkward. The polearm animation is just really slow and the 2h looks like you're freezing for half a sec. While the awkward look I would cope with any day if it improved gameplay, these looks worsened it. Rightswing holds are now pretty useless for example.
5. Slooooooower
The general trend of melee combat that is. A quick glimpse at the servers and it's pretty obvious that people grasp the basics of melee just fine. Even an untagged peasant nowadays usually blocks a few swings and retaliates. What we need is no longer a bigger window for people to climb in, but rather a bigger room for development imo. Mod is still addictive as fuck, but it starts to feel a bit tedious when you reach a certain level.
Selfish pole lobbying
My experience of the polearm animations:
Stab: Good, solid fast attack. Great for feints and holds but much shorter than the 1h/2h counterparts. Works much like a regular swing.
Overhead: Short, awkward and slow. Good for blockstunning and surprising people but not much else. Gets you spammed pretty easily.
Rightswing: Good, solid animation. Adequate rather than exceptional but it grabs range and speed (feel) over the leftswing and works well together with the stab for your mainstay attacks. Works well for feinting.
Leftswing: Pretty bad usually, but a decent situational attack and nothing really *wrong* with it. Short and slow, but decent for feints. Gets you spammed by faster weapons used by better players.
Essentially, as a polearmer I fight with two main attack directions and two supplementary - a nice balance even though it can make you a little stale sometimes. With the rightswing nerf only the stab remains as a decent main attack option and that causes a heap of problems. Stabs are wonky, require technique to pull off and have a big tendency to glance on backpeddaling foes. They suck vs. shields and have the occasional thruststun to deal with. These weaknesses were nicely compensated for by the rightswing - but no more. This has made polearms weaker than what I hope you intended, and is another reason why I think this change should be reverted.
Sorry for any mistakes, I put this together in a rush. I will add more when I get the time, but this is at least a brief sketch of what I find wrong with this recent change.
EDIT: ...really? was it that horrible?
