IMO it depends on your build, your gear setup and your pockets:
If you are using tornado WW build - a very significant portion of your total DPS comes from the tornado ticks - which uses only MH damage, using Skorn produces far heavier ticks with the tornado than any 1 hander setup could
If you are using skorn for a tornado build - you do need IAS on your gear - base 1.0 APS will not generate enough fury from the tornado ticks - you need to increase it to approximately 1.4 APS to be able to sustain WotB on a single target with a skorn.
For farming low MPs with a skorn you could easily drop life steal passive or even one of the DPS passives and take animosity for extra rage generation which would alleviate the rage starvation to a certain degree, however one of the biggest issues with skorn in low MPs is that mobs die from tornadoes you leave behind too fast - tornado does not tick enough times to generate any rage at all oftenly if mobs die from 2 damage ticks of it
If you are going with another build HOTA or throw - you are by far better off with 1 handers - skorn is far too slow for either of these to keep your WotB up.
Rend - if you are using this to just heal yourself while main bulk of DPS comes from somewhere else - then 1 handers are better as the APS will increase the response time and you basically save yourself from death by having faster response as OP mentions, if you are using rend as one of the main damage dealers - then you are better off with a skorn (builds that use rend to one shot all white mobs - single cast and move on to the next pack)
In terms of the prices - if you are looking to farm low MPs - then you do not need high DPS 1 handers and you can get 200-400k gold cost 1 handers with 1k DPS or so with CC / OS. If your aim is to go for rankings on diabloprogress (some of us laugh at the idea, some people actually take it seriously and invest loads of USD to get there) then you are better off sticking with a skorn because the paper sheet DPS of it will produce the same result as a pair of 1 handers would for about 1/4th the cost: If you are looking at a good high end skorn with 14XX DPS 500 STR and 180+ CD the equivalent you'll need in 1 handers is about 150 STR each + OS + CD>80% + 1180 plus plus plus DPS and we all know the prices for those
End of the day this comparison is equivalent to comparison of a blonde vs brunette, which is sexier???
I would go for Unforgiving passive, with this I can keep sprint up at all times while farming. Stacking some IAS to get it closer to 1.30-1.40 is also going to gelp a lot.
leap with stun to hold mobs in place and stop incoming dmg + hota smash for those champions. Works great
How on earth do you get the fury for all that?
Fury is not a problem for me into the frey together with leap and overpower is enough to keep it up. If you are having trouble you can easly switch one passive for one that gives more fury regen
PVP will be based on dmg reduction or items nerfs (only for pvp).
They have said many times that the game wont be never balanced for pvp.
Trust me... soon after pvp is out there will be changes to balancing it. Thinking blizzard will do anything else nomather what they have said in the past is just naive. All you can hope for is that it won't affect pve.
a nice vid showing skorn build:
I would go for Unforgiving passive, with this I can keep sprint up at all times while farming. Stacking some IAS to get it closer to 1.30-1.40 is also going to gelp a lot.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Svenny-2142/hero/11952139
Fury is not a problem for me
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Svenny-2142/hero/11952139
leap with stun to hold mobs in place and stop incoming dmg + hota smash for those champions. Works great
Trust me... soon after pvp is out there will be changes to balancing it. Thinking blizzard will do anything else nomather what they have said in the past is just naive. All you can hope for is that it won't affect pve.
cat butthole.