If i had to say anyone i guess i would say Danzu. Most of you probabbly dont remember him he used to play 9 or 10 months ago or something like that. He was the only actual 1h cav on NA at the time, all cav players were lancer cav and no one thought 1h cav could be a viable build. That was also around the time i had started playing, my main was 2h and my alt was lancer cav i kept under 25 to avoid repairs. I soon found myself playing my cav alt more than my 2h main so i wanted to change my main to cav. But i dindt like the fact that i wasnt one shotting people with a lance at 25 and i dindt think i would if i was 30 either, althogh it was cause i didnt know how important speed was, if i was riding a courser not a charger id be doing alot more damage. I knew from single player that 1h cav does more damage than lancer cav but that it was also alot harder and wasnt sure i could do it online against human opponents who are for the most part more intelligent than the warband AI.
But then i saw danzu and although he was riding a cataphract and wearing heavy armor he was a 1h cav and he was able to do pretty well as a 1h cav player, not great but pretty well. Seeing him play kind of gave me not only the idea to switch to 1h cav but also that it was completly doable if you were good enough and worked at it enough. So i went 1h cav, first longsword + sheild and once i was good enought to consistently hit with the longsword i moved up to the morning star and after awhile i got hitting with that down too. After not too long i started doing very well as 1h cav, scoring 30+ kills in many games. It was easier to get so many kills at the time as 1h cav because due ot the fact that there were no other real1h cav players and handt been for atleast a long time people did not know how to defend against it. They acted as if i were a lancer cav player when it came to defending themselves.
Sheilders would put up their sheilds allowing for an easy bumpslash kill, others would try to run to the left or right which can work against lancers due to their lack of range of motion, but for a 1h i could easily swing out to the left or right and kill them. And with the power of the build i was one shotting even tin cans. So after i had been doing so well with the build for awhile topping score charts other players started to take notice and they too saw that 1h cav was actually a viable build and quite a bit of peole started atleast trying out the build if not switching to it completly. Sure 1h cav isnt as popular as lancer, but now at-least there is actually a 1h cav population on NA . And im sure diggles will say something about 1h cav, but ive seen him many many times since i started playing as we both play quite a bit, and it wasnt until 2 months ago that i ever saw him on a horse playing 1h cav (he always plays as a sheilder), so no diggles you did not inspire me to be 1h cav.
