Not sure how head hitting, same reach, faster, and less glancing is worse to you. Just agree to disagree, then.
*dedicated short 1h player*
this is why then, i've played with effectively the same sword (95 reach 1h) since i started playing warband (pre-ordered, played almost every day since), and can just guarantee that the new 1h animation is
-that the new 1h animation is DEFINITELY
significantly shorter, i am absolutely 100% certain of this
-that, if you have high damage (high ps, weapon damage), it doesn't bounce at the start of the animation like it would in the old one, making it appear faster. unfortunately, as i'm a balanced build (18/21 170 WPF nordic war sword), and i therefore don't have incredibly high damage, the beginning of the animation does bounce as much as it did on the old animation, therefore making the attack effectively useless for me
-as for head hitting, i used to find it much easier to head hit with the old animation personally, directing your aim towards someone's head i honestly didn't find hard, and the ability to direct at people's feet was nice as well
the new animation is probably a lot easier for people who never really understood how to use the right swing; newer players, people who use really long and really short 1h, however for those of us who use medium builds with medium 1h, it's absolutely murdered the class.
players i used to kill with absolute ease by target switching right swing or by surprise outranging them with some backpedal and some rightswing, i'm now dieing to frequently, as i have completely lost my ability to outrange and target switch. i understand that if you are just facehugging someone and spamming with a short weapon it doesn't really matter which swing you use and perhaps the new one is nice as it hits earlier in the animation because of your high damage, but as for me, like i said, it has completely broken my playstyle.
please change it back.