TLDR: Survivability is a waste in softcore, so unless these helmets are way too overpowered they’re a waste of mf/skills/ias/cast rate since thats what matters in softcore. One way to make survivability more valuable in softcore is make dying more meaningful possibly by meaning XP bar is lost in its entirety, with 15-25% regained by recovering initial corpse). Otherwise, just recognize that not everything has to be some softcore oriented runeword and this is already great for those that don’t like dying in softcore and already overpowered in hardcore since its too cheap to make and better than 99% of all alternatives
Final edit TLDR: the same people who don’t like these runewords in softcore are the same people who would be very upset if smoke or lore never existed and you just released them with this patch. That doesn’t mean that they’re bad runewords, just that they don’t fit the very narrow “efficient” style of play in softcore and only softcore where survivability is a waste.
The problem with items like the helm cycle for softcore players(hardcore players will be more than happy with the helm cycle, they’re OP for their cost and should be nerfed to 45 max res 8 sorb due to how efficiently they make other helmets irrelevant) is that death isn’t meaningful in softcore. The penalties are too low, and thus things that are focused on increasing your survivability aren’t usually worth it unless they drastically increase your ability to survive as a trade off for mfing increase/clear speed(very few items do this). In softcore death is a minor inconvenience. Survivability early doesn’t make a huge amount of sense when you lose so little XP from death.
When softcore players can just use 3 ptopaz crown/4ptopaz armor/wealth and face no real consequences, there is no real way to make this helmet cycle(and any other items like it really) appealing without making it have MF/cast rate/Ias/Skills except to people who are irrationally averse to dying in softcore. The people who are “upset” by these runewords would similarly be upset if smoke or lore never existed and you released those runewords today. Not everything has to fit the narrow super efficient softcore meta now for those runewords to be good.
How to make survivability more valuable in softcore - increased penalties for death
If you wanted to make gear that’s focused on increasing your ability to survive more appealing in softcore, the way to do that isn’t to make the most overpowered survivability item ever. Its by increasing the penalties for death substantially. Like, maybe wiping out the entire experience bar on death and only returning maybe 15-25% maximum of your bar when and if you retrieve your first corpse(possible reducing that total ever downward as you die more). That may be too punitive to most softcore players, and there may not be an appetite for that now, but it would make actually gearing your character into something that isn’t a glass cannon in softcore more of a priority instead of just a waste of time/something totally inefficeint.
I don’t think the helmets need buffs other than the poison one since poison is so unlikely to kill you making the helmet is just a waste even in hardcore. But increasing loss of experience is one way to make this type of item(or any item that focuses on keeping you alive) more appealing.
another solution is just to recognize this is still an option if a softcore player wants it but recognize that not everything has to be an end game item oriented to softcore players and that hardcore players are still players too, and its a very different game/gearing style where this helmet is already too good compared to other options. Blackhorns may as well not exist. Gambling circlets early will now be a waste of time. Rockstopper is a luxury since this helmet is already too good for its cost. I can go on, over the whole loot pool, and its just not worth it. This helmet is too good for hardcore players, but due to the way softcore penalizes death isn’t that attractive to softcore players and probably can’t be without making it way too good in general.