Well, this needs clarification: 1hander with shield is not the same as 1hander without shield. Shield slows your blocks and your movement.
2hander has vastly superior animations, and is VERY popular:
Currently I play an archer, with +3 warbow, here is my build:
Attributes
Strength 18
Agility 18
Weapon proficiency
Available points: 0
One Handed 50
Archery 150
Skills
Iron Flesh 5
Power Strike 6
Athletics 6
Power Draw 6
Weapon Master 6
But my REAL pride and joy is my sidearm, the GODLIKE and MIGHTY:
+3 Short Sword.
29 cut, 29 pierce, and 103 speed.
With this baby I have owned SO many players. I seldom glance and bounce, and the stab is GODLIKE. I go from backpeddling to putting my hand thru enemies chests in an instant. If I get your head, your gonna get 1/2 hit.
But since this weapon is so pidly, and even with 'loom pack mod (FINALBOSS, your mod is BOSS, thanks) you cannot tell it is a +3 easily, MANY are the players who see an archer, think: OOOH Im gonna pwn him, and end up eating 1handed stabs for breakfast. Also with nice footwork (a quick stepback after the stab and a half step forward) you can link a facestab into an overhead before they can react, usually ending the round for them.
Only drawbacks to 1handed is having to live in your enemies pocket, moreso with a weapon like mine (81 lengh). But with clever usage 1handed is the most rewarding. I have always found it easy to use range/speed on 2handers and polearms to rape ppl, but mastering 1handed and killing players with more range, speedy animations, armour, wpf, STR and dmg with a weapon that costs 100 gold to upkeep will never cease to make me smile.
PLAYERS TO WATCH to see 1handed used well: Osiris (currently a 2hander I believe, but his smooth spinning and chopping style has always made me fear him)
Massasin: Kastu is always a good player but his running off/coming back superaggresion is very effective.
Theres SO many more but those 2 are very cool to watch.
PLAYERS NOT WATCH: SO MANY bad shielders out there, but the worst are the ones who do well, eg Leoking: High level and reliance on a overpowered shield make him lazy with his awereness and swings.
Inshort: 1handed is GREAT, it just takes a little effort to learn.