The issue truly is that the change, design-wise, was really half baked. The designers wanted to cut back on what they saw as a degenerate behavior in the game so they made a change. However, outside of those degenerate scenarios, the changes negatively affected the use cases for the ability creating clunky moments instead of meaningful or more importantly, fun moments. The better solution that solves both problems would be to simply change the ability to fully recharge after getting a kill, otherwise trigger the short cooldown. Degenerate behavior targeted without limiting the fun factor of smashing rank & file enemies in the head with a hammer