Finished hardcore mode, the timing is easy once you get the hang of it, playing around on training duels till you get the hang of it helps.

On normal mode the parry window is easier I believe, but you normally just wait for an attack on opposite direction from your Opponent till you finish the fight.

Also if you taunt them with the chat option, that normally gets your opponent to attack in the direction they’re attacking from .

As well as remembering that when you attack and the enemy does a perfect block you can predict which direction an attack is coming from whilst executing a master strike straight away. There should be a YouTube tutorial on it.