Reading through these pages:
Joker... Wtf.
...and i find myself agreeing with Phyrex.
A bit more of a calmed down opinion then:
I still don't like this change. At all. I'm not hating on it because it nerfs my class/playstyle (polestagger removal did that, and that was a great change), I just really don't like
how it affects
my gameplay as a poleaxe/1h sword + shield player..
Firstly:
The turnchange can be handled yes, but it requires what according to me is already overly encouraged and boring as fuck - backpedaling. When walking backwards you can keep your opponent basically right in front of you, and while you doing really quick stabs is still very wonky, awkward, and as it feels now based on luck it's workable. The overheads work fine obv.
When going in close (my style when facehugging is a really frantic one - which I'm sure is true for a lot of other players), even though I've tried, I still find myself again and again basically totally relying on sideswings which is ineffective, and from my perspective also very, very boring.
That is from the perspective of using a poleaxe, which is a weapon long enough to be used to backpedal (even though I REALLY don't like being 'forced' to go down that route) but what about the 1h sword? Well, since backpedaling is not really an option with such a short weapon (81 length) and the 1h stab is the most delicate to land of them all i simply fail to find any kind of use for the stab anymore. Sure the 1h holds up better in sideswing-only offense, but the stab (and the overhead to a certain extent, it's even more of a bitch to aim now) really feels redundant.
Most of the issues I have with it are related to the offensive side of my polearm gameplay.
Firstly there's a bit of general "even a hamster could block it all-whine". Since sideswing-only is basically the viable option for frantic offensive gameplay, playing offensively and pushing, especially when you're trying to fight several people at once is extremely frustrating at the moment.
And there are also more concrete minor issues that go with it. If you heard someone running/riding up behind you when you're fighting someone you used to be able to just turn around and give them a quick stab. Especially for 2h vs. cav this is real important, since you basically have to bait the cav for them to go after you, and the stab is the only attack with good range. Aware, experienced cav players on nimble horses could react quickly enough to avoid inevitable doom, but now anyone and their granny can do it since you basically have to turn around and then start a stab, which is way too slow. Now in a lot of situations you're just fucked instead, and I really don't like that personally.
Countering kicks when on the offensive is another thing that is now really annoying. If someone was being defensive and kicked in a bad spot you'd naturally punish them with a quick turnstab. Now that's basically gone it further encourages being defensive.
Stupid spam (bad 1h leftswingspam, fast spear/staff spamming, 'fake' 2h hiltslashing) is a big problem/annoyance with a slow weapon/mediocre connection. Turnstab was the answer (both pole/2h), especially on NA servers it was immensely useful to stop/discourage all the stupid spam. I'm saying that because I know that there are lots of people who live far away and on truly bad connections playing on EU, and this change, from my perspective is a "fuck you" to them as well.
Another general thing I don't like about it is that it puts a tighter restriction on how to play based on your weapon. If you have a 2 dir polearm, or really just any long weapon all of a sudden your offensive gameplay is completely fucked and you're forced to play a backpedaling lamer to be effective.
It also fucks up the range control of 2h, which is really bad imho. Excellent 2h players continously found new ways to fuck me up using the stab. It was great fun and one of the things that really made fighting 2h different to pole/1h. Now it's just one slow stab before I get in range and then sideswingspam. A lot less tricks. Meh. Game was already slow and all but a select few players were really easy to block.
And really the feeling of it all is just off. It's like I'm playing Quake but the crosshair comes waggling behind World of Tanks-style.
It turned my gameplay really boring. I still do great, but it just feels "meh".
Just some words on what the hell the idea/vision behind this change was would be great. If it's the first step to make it more 'realistic', or you're working towards something like Joker's derp "numbers SHOULD make you win" then I'd be really sad.
So basically you're saying that realism doesn't matter at all and that we should be playing yet another fantasy game here, even tho there's more then enough of 'em in the market ?
Inbefore stupid comments: yes i know this game has tons of unrealistic things in it but this realism you seem to despise is the thing that drives so many people to play a game like this, maybe these thousands of players are fed up with fantasy games already and want something close to realism for a change ? Maybe its engine is not perfect but why not at least reduce the number of anomalies in it since we can't erase them completely ? If you want fantasy I'm certain we can recommend tons of other games to you and your group of advocates against realism. Also - I'm not saying that these realism advocates, as you call them, are 100% right all the time but at least they are trying, some of their ideas are quite decent as they try to improve the game while on the other hand if it was the likes of you in charge we'd probably be playing lightsaber duels and nothing else. 
I don't give a squirt of piss for realism if it fucks up the gameplay in any way.
Gameplay>>>Realism
But gameplay doesn't have to be opposed to realism.
It's really about immersion isn't it? If it's one thing that video games as interactive media have over just watching a movie it's immersion. I mean, if you'd just want realism then you can as said just watch a movie, read a book or go to the museum.
Now I'd argue that Warband is one of the less immersive games out there when it comes to visuals (a lot thanks to them being quite dated, but sure I guess you could improve that department by not adding stuff like bright pink armors etc.) but man can the gameplay suck me in! As a melee guy, I get quite immersed because of the smooth, polished and unique mechanics of the game where it feels like I'm intuitively controlling my character. The speed, style and precision of my controls are depicted in my character's behavior, and heck, in most other player's as well. It's very easy to see at a quick glance of someone meleeing if they're a noob or someone who knows what they're doing, and a lot of high profile players I can recognize simply by looking at their style of play.
When they then make this change which puts a much harder limit on the turning speed my immersion takes a heavy hit to the balls and falls whimpering to the floor as the controls for stabbing/overheading becomes much less intuitive. The game says "no, you can't be that fast!" It's kind of the same feeling you get when playing shooters on console. It just feels way better with a mouse and keyboard.
Really long post, I know. Sorry.
