Good to hear. I have an unpopular opinion that it actually doesn't matter that much. I don't like how they play this live, only playing the E string with light downstrokes. It sounds much better in my opinion to play the full 5th. There are other songs where downstrokes make a lot of difference but not this one imo. I expect many down votes for this opinion on downstrokes but prefer not to "live on my knees, conformity".

I agree, I always use my index finger to press the second fret to get that E 5th for the palm mute, then use middle finger and pinky to do the G-A-A#-A 5ths.

One peculiar thing about the riff is how the chorus is actually played B-B-B-B-C-B-C-C-C-C-D#-B, but I always thought it was C-C-C-C-C-B-C-C-C-C-D#-B, since that's how it sounds on the recording. But tabs always say it's B. I guess they just palm muted it really hard...