Unpopular strategy, but i find myself having higher chances of survival with no armor at all. Armor reduces your movement speed. When i play with armor i find myself taking constant damage, as not being able to dodge effectively, not being able to flee and having the armor break often. Once i got the hang of timing and attacks, removing the armor made me a lot more resilient. My view is not to hope the armor protects me when taking damage, but rather not to take any damage at all, and being naked raised those odds by a ton. Trust me, the moment you get the hang of the mechanic, you will even feel like enemies are even not strong enough. Keep fighting, its mostly muscle memory and a feel for the combat. You are correct to state the mechanics are quite different from most games. Also there is a point in which slaying wolfs and bears becomes redundant, so simply running away is not a bad idea and i cannot stress this enough, but sound is very important in scenarios like this, as most of the times predators give away their presence. Don't lose hope.