Well I hate to break this to you but Ironhelm still will likely not perform as well as Crucis.
In all my runs and testing between Crucis and Ironhelm, Ironhelm is not as strong on Elites as Crucis is. Now the flipped side is, I was able to get Ironhelm up to the level of Heavy killing as my Crucis… but it required Tier 4 Thrust, Tier 3 just won’t do it. I also had both Flak and Carapace to +20%. That allowed me to 2 shot Crushers on with at least one Head Shot, and one shot Ragers again. Still took two on Maulers but that’s still doable.
You might still have to use Flamer with Ironhelm to soften them up, though its for a different reason than you’d use it with Crucis as that one can’t penetrate a couple of light targets before discharging into an Elite. So with Crucis you have to use Flamer to hose off the small stuff, Ironhelm you might have to use it to soften up heavies.
Still I was able to run Auto Pistol (with Blessings) with it comfortably and I’m sure Shotgun will work. But it required T4 Blessings to get it close enough to Crucis. (Note this is Damnation level, lower it should be fine)
So you did need a God Roll… to get it there I had 80% Damage and 79% First Target, plus Thrust T4, and Flak + Carapace 20%
That’s been my experience with the ironhelm as well. I have some excellent ones (not godrolls) but they miss the mark on a bunch of breakpoints that my crucius hits without even having thrust on it. I actually have a crucius in storage with thrust so i’ll have to try that out with the new buffs.
The ironhelm has some usability advantages despite this, i’ve been using mine reasonably well in games but there are moments where it can feel bad to not get that onetap. I kinda think of the patterns the way i think of ranged weapons. Theres a “light” “medium” and “heavy” pattern. I wonder which the crucius will turn out to be. Ironhelm is clearly the “light” hammer.
I mean… If the ironhelm was as good against elites add the crucis, then the latter would have no point even existing, right?
The ironhelm is for CC and mixed high value target damage, it’s not designed to crack crushers and maulers like the crucis does.
That being said, not hitting even logical breakpoints for its role is painful, I agree.
I haven’t used any of the TH options yet, I just don’t like the poor mobility, attack speed. However, didn’t the last patch changes undermine the reason why Ironhelm was introduced in the first place?
Not really. Hitting the target you want to hit with a hi powered lengthy wind up attack still has value over hitting a poxwalker. It certainly reduces the pain enough for me to consider risking going back to the crucius again.
What it did was fix the bugginess regarding power Blessings and Hit Mass. For example, when you would charge it up and hit a group with an unarmored rager in it with something like 3 stacks of Thrust, it would hit it as if it weren’t a charged attack and just swing right through it.
What they added was damage for the light attacks, which aren’t something you use on Thunder Hammers much in higher difficulties, mostly due to the fact the Heavies are the Clearout, Crowd Control swings AND the high damage swings you use when you charge it up to hit something. The Ironhelm throws a little monkey wrench into it though by adding an overhead after the first 2 swings which hoses up your dodge dance. So that instead of… Heavy Swing Left to right and right to left, dodging into the swings… becomes… Heavy Clearout>Heavy Clearout> Push>Heavy Clearout>Heavy Clearout>Push on the Ironhelm.
The real change was removing the Animation Lock after a Charged heavy swing down to .5 seconds from 1.1 seconds. This allows you to now block or push after a Charged Heavy and applies to BOTH versions of the Thunder Hammer now.
NOTE: Crucis is slower, but hits harder on Heavy Elite Mobs… but Ironhelm is faster and you can technically use the Light attacks in lower difficulties in place of the heavies.
Just press block after every 2 heavies, or mix in a push. Hybrid movesets with unique combos are way more interesting to play IMO. I’m glad to see a moveset like ironhelm added to the game.
