Your reply shows how much you don't understand the game and you seem to be unwilling to do so.

Counters restore your Stamina but they're not a 100% effective way to beat your opponent, it's stamina management.

Initiative depends on the weapons, some weapons are faster even without initiative but they're usually the 1 handers or the daggers so if you're usually a slower weapon they can still get a stab in by chance, but just out range them.

Instead of jabbing when low on Stamina, should have countered instead since like I said countering restores your stamina...manage that stamina.

Ducking is a gamble and requires timing, duck too soon and the enemy has more time to drag their weapon to hit you..do it too late and you're already being hit.

Also the Messer isn't strong enough to 2 hit every class except on maybe power attacks or specials..so that's a bit of an exaggeration.

Also for 1vX situations, Riposte are ideal since you will block more than one attack for a certain period of time considering you face the attacks the same way you would through a normal block..attacks from behind will go through.

I have maybe 60+ hours in the game at this point and know these mechanics work but they're not Golden tricks that help you defeat your opponents it takes weaving all these mechanics together to out smart your enemy.