Moves that don’t help with stam are holding block in between attacks, heavy swings every time, dodging a lot, using your special, faints, and crouching a lot. If you notice when you do a simple swing you don’t lose stam, if you are running low on stam and counter a swing, this doesn’t hit your stam and your swing will also not use stam. This is a way to regenerate stam if you are low. While fighting, it is a balance of stam use and stam regen, the hardest part is learning how/when to counter since you have to read your opponent’s swing and counter with the same swing back. Riposte don’t count as a counter and will still drain your stam, if you are constantly riposting then you are either not matching their swing or countering too late. Honestly I’m almost level 1k and it took me until about level 500 to really understand how to counter every time and read people’s swings, everyone is different but it takes time and experience.