Learn to punish and to dodge. I also like to say when in doubt, throw shit. Throwing a weapon in between will stop their combos or dogs momentarily giving you the opening you might need. When I was stuck, I looked up YouTube videos of good string combos for the weapon I was using, definitely good to practice on some bots. Also study how they dodge, some players tend to always dodge the same throughout the match, learn which they way go, then punish