The melee attacking animations are overally pulls back / cocks their arm(s)/weapon way too much

[MeleeSlaaneshFnE]

So, sooner or later, I think it should be changed.

 

[Lord Irontoe]

I agree. It feels very unresponsive. But with manual blocking as the default, you kind of need those long windups in order to properly telegraph the attacks. If the attacks came in with Warband's speed, there'd be a ton of complaints about it being too hard to block in time. So I don't know a solution that doesn't require overhauling the whole combat system.