Originally posted by Seraphim:

SLAAAAAAAANDDERRRRR!!!!

Ya but what is it good against? You say both: " ideally use it against swarmy enemies " and "weapon suffers in: Crowd Control"
Take the dragur, you are always facing against two but often 3 with a high chance of a ranger. The axe needs you to attack a good bit before them or they stagger you first. The bronze atgeir already stuns them with less stamina used.
The atgeir allows you to run around and regain stamina. The longer the fight, the easier it is. The battleaxe slows you by 20%, not only do you need a ton of stamina, but you don't have the time to regain it.
Wolves? Running away isn't often worth it. You need them stunned. Not only does the battle axe require you to start attacking even sooner, but you don't have near enough stamina to attack the whole pack. The atgeir gives you stun time and allows you to force the other wolves to go around each other. You can gain back like 5 stamina after each stun increasing your effective stamina.
Now if you're fighting two trolls? or a set of lox? Sure, I could see the battle being better then the atgeir, but why melee them in the first place?

You know what I don't get? Just give it more range then the atgeir! It's a massive chunk of iron at the end of a long handle, it literally would do more damage if you grip the handle and the very end! Something to give an archer spacing while dealing lots of damage? Now it's got a true niche.