Thanks for trying it out! My reference is more on Nioh and Bloodborne instead of Dark Souls. But just like your assessment, it's not there yet.
Hammer was meant to be useful when you're surrounded because of the wide sweeping arcs, but I too, find limited use in it because I get hit before my attacks connect. I'm thinking I'll add flinch resistance to the player for the hammer so the attack still continues when you're hit. Spear charged attack is an impale, I'll experiment with adding some forward push to help with the range.