I am pretty sure the hitbox only registers in the mace itself giving plenty of room for missing the ability, but even if that is not the case I did noticed how inconsistent pressing 1 tends to be. If not intentional it should at least have a visual update so those should-hits look more like no-hits
I switched to using only 2 and 3 looking to cheese hero making them dodge towards the walls where I can consistently get hits with 2, which tbh felt really boss like of my part to be unfair like that.