Please make the Ironhelm special attack ALSO trigger the moment it hits either an elite or special enemy, don’t make it solely dependent on cleave, because that is a dysfunctional and frustrating system.
As it is, the special attack only triggers in set circumstances and doesn’t work against half the really threatening enemies in the game, like flamers, shotgunners, snipers, etc.
What use is it when it is so unreliable, shouldn’t it just be replaced with a completely different function then?
Also, for a crowd control weapon, the third top-down heavy is a huge handicap - when you are surrounded by a horde with such a slow weapon, you cannot afford for one of your attacks to only hit 1 enemy, it just opens you up to attacks from all sides and makes them interrupt your chain.
This puts the Crucis head & shoulders above the Ironhelm in high level play in terms of survivability and being able to manage big crowds of enemies, the attack pattern of the latter has led to a lot of frustration and injury in my case, to the point where I just went back to the old hammer in spite of the new one claiming to be better at crowd control…it simply is not.
The light attacks having cleave is a nice bonus, but the heavy attack pattern just doesn’t work with this weapon type.
While I agree it isn’t usually ideal, I’m fine with it and you usually can find a way to work around it. You can either do 2 heavy attacks and block cancel or 2 heavies, 1 light into a 1 heavy 1 light combo (it’s simpler for me that if you swing a heavy attack from the right, you can do another heavy, if you heavy attack from the left you need to do a light attack or block cancel). It makes it different to play from the crucis besides just the special attack.
As for elite/special prioritization I 100% agree with you.
Actually it also has cleave and in a tight mob it will hit 3-4 enemies. Depending on your needs you can also weave in a light attack or a push-attack instead to reset the chain. That’s how I do it. I find the overhead has some niche utility so learning how to use the pattern is part of the fun for me.
Otherwise I completely agree with your posts. I see no reason not to allow class based hits. Its only been helpful one time in my many games to cleave a toxflamer and hit a crusher.