It was the only setup… In fact, it could be argued that in Vanilla One-Hander and Shield was the “meme” setup.
People used Two-Handers on Enhancement as late as MoP. There are videos out there of people still managing to do good in PvP situations up to MoP with a Two-Hander. Was it memeish? Sure. It certainly was not intended by Blizz but people still did it because people liked it.
Of course not, outside of 1h and shield it was the only option and the option that did the most damage. Of course in Vanilla, when dual wield didn’t exist, it wasn’t because of aesthetic. What kind of argument is that?
PAST Vanilla though, post Dual Wield’s introduction to Shaman, people still used Two-Handers. Heck, in TBC PvP a lot of people still used Two-Handers over Dual Wield for big burst, often times swapping weapons in a fight.
I get that you are trying to paint a narrative and are limiting your scope to Vanilla but making statements like “They didn’t do it for Aesthetic” in Vanilla… Really? Of course they didn’t, they didn’t have choices.
ALSO I am not saying Dual Wield should be removed. Literally NO ONE is saying Dual Wield should be removed. We are wanting choice! The same choice others have had and are getting back (Death Knights, Monks, Etc.)
You don’t get to dictate that, the Devs do and the player base has a right to give feedback. The same thing was said about classic “It will never happen, it shouldn’t happen.” and about the pruning “Those abilities are gone forever, deal with it.”
Well, deal with this. The player’s voice matter whether you like it or not, and we are doing what we are suppose to. Giving feedback on what we would like to see.
And yet its beloved by many in the communities and forums and they reflect that heavily with numerous topics over the years on it. The numerous people using a Two-Hander in “meme” builds because they love the idea. In fact, my post in the depruning thread references quite a number of threads on the matter going back to 2018 and there were even older posts that are no lost because the old forums are no more. Threads that were easily searchable in only a minute and not even close to the total number of threads on the topic.
No one is forcing you to use it, we just want the same choice other classes and specs have! If the idea of choice is that distasteful to you that you are upset other’s want something that wont affect you personally, that is truly petty. It always amazes me, just like people who get upset when people want a race they personally don’t like and would rather it never be a thing just because they don’t like it (Vulpera being a great example).
Those of us wanting Two-Handed as an option are not saying “We want Dual Wield removed!” we are saying “We want choice!”
I have yet to see anyone requesting a Two-Hander option say they want Dual Wield removed, no one is asking for that, no one is asking that your preferred play style be destroyed. We are asking that our preferred play style be considered, that is all.