Paul said there is a 50% probability of poles staggering. That DOES NOT MEAN that half of all hits will stagger, its possible to go 10 hits without staggering, likewise it possible to chain 10 staggers, its probability, not a counter.
With that in mind, and all other annoyances:
CRUSHTHROUGH is most powerful, by far and away. Player using crushthrough 1v1 against good player is probably gonna get spammed if he tries to overhead. But since only a tool uses a maul 1v1 against non-peasants, lets present the context where you really see it being effective: Deep in melee, either heavy field combat or urban/indoor combat, you edge into the fight, block a bit, strike a few guys, stab an enemy out of your path, next guy up has a maul. Your options:
1/ You cant go back, since your teammates invariably hug your back (CURSE the fuckers!)
2/ leftswing and rightswing spam is out, cause of walls, teammates, and enemies in the way.
3/ You can go for stab, if you have stab, or JUST overhead.
3/a) Overhead. With a large weapon, thats it, your dead: You hit the teammate behind you's shield, the maul flattened your head, you go down in heavy melee, unless heroic shielder steps over you (I SELDOM see this, but always do it: teammate goes down and you have shield, SAVE THE FUCKER, its not science, hes your friend, shield him while is defenceless you fucks, cmon) and takes the next maul hit, your dead.
3/b) Stab. You go for the stab. Usually one of 2 things happens. 1/ You whiff, cause mauler with STR build, he wears plate and he likes it, thats his thing. You whiff, he doesnt, your dead. or 2/ The intelligent mauler knows its gonna be stab cause you cant swing at him, so he sees it, chambers it with overhead, crushes your dreams and head. Your dead.
4/ You hesitate for a second, one of the OVER NINE THOUSAND pikes takes a shot at you, you downblock, maul crushes your face.
There is no other options when locked in a melee, crushthrough is by far the most powerful weapon modifier, add to crush the fact that crush comes packaged with knockdown....your fucked.
Bonus vs shields and knockdown...both are counterable: Your enemy pops an axe out, you slip shield onto your back, he pulls out a spammy knockdown, you can just block, with or without shield, and just be careful about timeing so you dont get hit.
I usually play in low armour, so I'm 1hit to everything with few exceptions. S key heroes with high AGI usually kill me, but having no armour makes you apreciate things properly: Knockdown doesnt matter if the hit kills you, bonus vs shields doesnt matter if you can block, polestun is stupidly overpowered on already ridiculously too fast/dmg poleaxes but still requires that they HIT you. But when you are deep in the fight, the one thing that cannot be defeated is crush. In some nice space, sure, maulers are commiting suicide facing up to me 1v1, but of course every weapon has a place: I dont take my spear indoors, I dont fight off horses with my sword, I only use my shield when being shot at. I wouldnt take a bow into melee. Likewise a maul belongs at the back of the wolfpack, but when its in it's correct place, wielded by a decent player, its pure murder, there is no fighting it.
