After playing 1h no shield for the month or so that nudge has been out, I have come to the conclusion that nudge is
most useful against: >Slow/heavy armored players and people fighting in water, because it's harder for them to footwork their way out of a nudge
>Ultra defensive players (especially shielders) because they fall easily to the hold+nudge technique
>Players who are stuck/ immobile for any reason
>New players
least useful against: >Backpedaling players
>Players with long and heavy weapons (weapon stun)
>Players who know good footwork, or know how to abuse kicks
>Agi builds
The way I see it, the nudge is for 1h+no shield is what the hiltslash is for 2h. They both take a fairly small time frame to learn, and longer to master. When they are incorporated into someone's playstyle, they are great moves for quickly dispatching a player you know will fall for it so that you can quickly move on to another target.
Is that a bad thing? Maybe. With 1h no shield you sacrifice quite a bit (range, damage, animations, weapon weight) for an admittedly pretty sick move, but I have to ask, how many strategus battles have there been where you have 1h no shielders in the top of the kills list? Or the top of the scoreboard? Personally, I have been in none where this was the case. It's usually a shielder with all the points, a 2h/polearmer/cav with all the kills, and the one or two dedicated 1h no shielders sitting dead middle. As for battle, I can only speak for my experience on the NA battle server where I spend most of my time playing, but Sandersson_of_Frisia and I are the only 1h no shielders I see topping scoreboards at all.