I can't emphasize being slower and more deliberate with movement enough. Remember that you automatically block incoming attacks with reasonable success (amazing with heater shield) if you're not attacking. Even just practice taking small steps around your opponent and block his attacks - take steps SLOWLY - that means you tap the key amd WAIT, don't confuse "tap" with "mash" lol.
If you take slow and easy steps and focus your cursor on the enemy, sometimes aiming a bit towards the oncoming attack to get better angle, you can actually block MOST attacks. If it looks like one is going to hit you, or you dashed of mashed yourself into a drunkard and let your guard down; you can usually hug the opponent to lessen the blow or evade it entirely.
The final basic move is stepping backwards to dodge blows entirely.
Use a combination of all of them. Take deliberate steps towards or away from the opponent. Never forget you can block if you dont attack.
When it comes to combat and attacking, i think thats another post ill make sometime at your request, but the gist of it is reliant on you making small deliberate movements so you dont wobble around. Generally you want to move in the direction of your attack. So if you top-down attack then crouch to add more speed and force
Left-to-right, move right. Vice versa for the standard RtL. Eventually you will start learning when you augment your motion with more keys you can get better shots in more situations, for example sidestepping with a thrust or top-down to hit an enemy that would otherwise have dodged the thrust, hitting the legs (really good vs shields), etc..
P.s. is there any recommended way of recording gameplay? As is my hardware is pretty subpar.. id love to make videos though
Most of my pugilism matches are 2 shot KO, half of my duels are 1 or 2 kills or KO. I basically just grind master elimination for 2g per win.. not to float my boat, im probably 100 hours into this game, which isnt a lot in the greater scheme but i certainly remember playing the beginner arena for the first 10 times and i was sure the chick with the shield was unbeatable hahaha. Hoping the AI improvements and ogre fights will make it more challenging.