1 hand no shield. Mostly Cons and some Pros.

[TheAppleSauceMan]

I decided to hijack this thread and turn it into a love letter for 1-handers.

You can tell that when the original developers worked on this game, they put the most thought into the 1-handed playstyle.

1-handed animations are drastically different than both poles and 2h. 2h has good animations that go at a relatively constant speed. Poles have a fast, short thrust and a fast right swing, but everything else is kinda "meh".

1-hand animations have a slow chamber, but a lightning-fast swing. They have a short, fast left swing that often hits the head, and a long right swing that is good at taking people by surprise. Both the overhead and the stab originate from the right side of the player model. Because of that, each 1-handed attack has a better side to be attacking from. It's not some bullshit, cookie-cutter animations. You need to know where the enemy is in relation to you, which way they are moving and which way you should move in order to select the best attack for each situation. There are pros and cons for each attack depending on a million different factors. When you really get into 1-handers, you realise that there is much more depth than with 2-handers & poles.

Shields add another layer. For some situations they are great, for some they are terrible. When dueling, you're better off without a shield as shields telegraph your attacks. When fighting a shield breaker it's also good to put it away since the stun from getting your shield broken sucks. Not to mention the fact that they slow you down a hell of a lot. Also, depending on what shield you have and the strength/weapon of your opponent, you can even get shield stunned. However, shields are great utility items. They're great for blocking hits for teammates, for pushing through held points on siege, blocking ranged, blocking multiple people at once, etc. Shields themselves could use a bit of diversity, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Now if you look at 1-h weapons, they are the most balanced set of weapons in the entire game. Once you get past the peasant weapons, you can make a valid argument for pretty much any weapon in the set. Each one has its pros and cons.

If you're fighting with or without a shield, there's just so much more that goes into it than with any other weapon type. That's probably why I've stuck with it for so long. I could go 2h & crossbow and min/max my character to hell, or I could play a fun, interesting class with almost limitless depth.

Yeah, 1h is the best.

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[Taser]

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[TheAppleSauceMan]

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Proud of you for getting the reference. 

[Rage_Guy]

----you wont hit your allies

Be careful when stabbing, if you have a mate really close at your right, you can accidently hit him.

[duurrr]

first of all, bouncing with a 1h is a player skill issue unless very low PS

second of all, 1h no shield is damn fun but it makes me tilt to get "2 hit" when i need 5hits on anyone but archer, i also run from tincan, because its just not worth it... miss 1 overhead out of the 10 i need to hit and then proceed to get 1 shot.

avoid situation that could be frustrating and it gets a lot better, i respecced to 2h recently but its just not that fun anymore

[owens]

Polearm feels goofy and 2H is boring,

1H is the most fun but also the riskiest.

I love using the shortest, sharpest weapons possible the shorter and meaner a 1H the better.