Siege last night was at least a quarter maul/mallet users, and they were all at the top of the scoreboard. I'm sure it's balanced on battle, but the siege server dies when too many people start mauling. I've made mauler STF characters, and it's the only class that can reliably top scoreboard on siege doing only 1 thing; overheads. No need to sideswing or even block.
I hate that once you are crushed through once, you might as well go get a sandwich, because there is nothing you can do to avoid the subsequent crushthroughs. With the change on the test servers, you at least have to put a little thought into your strategy; you can still hold sideswings to force a block stun, then overhead. You can't just mindlessly spam overheads, which was the best strategy previously.
Long maul is a different beast altogether, because its side swings are so slow that almost anyone can 'spam' them. They get one chance to land an overhead, and if they fail, they are probably screwed. But the 2h mauls can maintain the attack/block paradigm just like any 2h sword.