Like hell it is. Saw alot of 1h only players survive till the end of the round in battle? I saw 0. Shit range, weaker hits than other weapons, low survivability, stab is useless, some classes have better hitanimations, very easly prone to getting kicked, instant target for cav and ranged. All it has is speed and leftswingspam. It wasnt worthless before true, but it was far from powerful.
What game are YOU playing? 1h stab is fucking AWESOME, you just arent using it properly. It isnt a lolstab, or a pole instastab, its for stabbing ppl who are stood behind you. L2P is my best advice.
EDIT: also: Leftswing spam? Problem is, most 1handers are russian/polish dudes using spammitar/pick, they dont have any idea how to get decent hits because they spend all day spamming shit. RIGHT swing is the king of 1handed swings, nice phantom range on it.
But there is a bigger problem, and thats weapon hitboxes: all hitboxxes in mount and blade on weapons are straight lines, so the larger the curve to your blade or the head of your axe, the more offset this line is from where you would imagine the weapon hitbox to be: meaning large axes and curved blades hit VERY early in animation. If they could fix this, it would be come evident how good 1handers are, since they are inherently nerfed by having the smallest models, so the smallest offset between what you see and what you get.
I have not explained this well, if anyone wants better explanation I can go on paint and make some diagrams. In an ideal world, the hitboxes on weapons would match the model, but it would massively nerf all axes, curved blades and large headed blunt weapons, and the whine generated would be audible in the next solar system.