Then don’t try combos, 90% of the time you’ll fight outnumbered and you have to adapt, find a good technique that suits you. I shared you mine, it’s not perfect but I can definitely tell you that you can land combos and do nice combats. BUT first you have to have a technique that allows you to survive. A technique that “puts food on the table” on a daily basis, so to speak, something you can rely on to finish the combats quickly if need be and once you have more experience you can try nice combos or a more traditional combat style.
I think you’re trying too hard to do the right things while your opponent is just trying to kill you as fast as possible.
In a 1vs 1 you have the time to see the attack coming, remember Bernard’s advices! Once the enemy starts his attack you have to act. Forget about parrying or blocking, in a sword fight if you have to parry or block it’s because you failed your positioning, it means you put yourself in a situation where the enemy has an opportunity to attempt a strike. You need to dodge attacks by either stepping aside or stepping backwards. The enemy will fail to hit you and he’ll be defenseless for a short moment. That’s why I insist on not parrying or blocking. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t parry or block if you forgot to move when it was the time, but it should be your last resort.
In a 1vs multi things are different. The opponents will 100% of the time try to surround you, so there’s no time for a nice 1vs1, here the goal is to survive and reduce as quickly as possible the number of enemies in front of you. Thus, the technique in circles where you lock/unlock your enemies with TAB as fast as possible to attack the enemy closest to you. With the help of poison and perks that increase the bleeding chance this allows you to quickly take down one or two opponents.
But both combats require you remain mobile, get close, dodge, in a 1vs1 you can do a swing strike because you have more time. In a 1vs multiple when you have 5 guys around you, the thrust strike is faster. Strike, then step back to “break” the lock that sticks you to your opponent. Unlike movies where the hero has the time to chain attacks on the facing opponent while the others wait for their turn instead of bashing him to death, KDC is realistic they’ll surround you, hit you and incapacitate or kill you in a matter of seconds. That’s the way it is, do not try to resist the game mechanic but adapt instead.
Reducing the difficulty in your situation won’t help, because you resist the mechanics of the game, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do at the right moment, even if you slow down to 10% of the speed but still do the wrong thing like blocking instead of dodging the result will be the same.
As I was writing this, I just met 4 Cumans that were robbing merchants, the combat lasted 40 seconds, they managed to hit me just once. It wasn’t a nice fight, I charged the first one, an archer, 2 swings because he was unprepared, the 3 others tried to surround me, a quick thrust in the neck of another archer and I only had the last 2 armored dudes to kill, I stepped back trying to line them in front of me, thrust then swing on the first while the other with the pole tried to flank me but by the time he did that his friend was dead too and then a simple dodge, with a pole he’s slow, a thrust and a swing + swing in a quick succession and they were all dead. Damn I wish these merchants would give me something, say something instead of standing with the arms like that.
. What matters is that you can play the game and enjoy it. Last tip, do not progress too fast in the main story, give yourself the time to level up, if it’s not already the case, Alchemy, stealth and reading. They matter mid-game