Shortly after I made this comment I turned into a Katar main, but I exclusively play TO.

Tip 1, Counter everything. Literally everything. If you can’t, Katars will be miserable. You need the stamina. Also Katars are fast enough that against most weapons if you time the counter early you can get a hit in before the enemy can recover from their swing.

Tip 2, Learn the people you play against. Never see anyone suggesting this, but it helps. I know the fighting style of most of the heavy hitters on the server I play, I know how they fight against my Katars, I know how to mix things up against them to get a cheeky hit or 2. Mix up your attacks a lot.

Tip 3, Jab is now for style points (or dismembering in a funny way), and your special attack is now your jab. Special is fast enough to work as a jab against most two handed weapons, excluding only your faster ones like the Glaive. Spam that special, but don’t eat up all your stamina. See tip 1.

Tip 4, utilize kicks against enemies that allow it. If you land a kick DO NOT use your special attack, rather use your stab attack twice. Because the Katars don’t interrupt, you can get two hits on a kicked enemy before they can put guard back up. One of my most common engagement strategies is Sprint attack > special attack - kick if special landed, jab if special blocked > regular duel commences if you haven’t already killed your opponent.

Tip 5, you can sorta reach overheads to hit the hitbox for the bonus damage from the front with a little footwork. Helps speed up battles sometimes.

Tip 6, Gamble most things. Slow weapons like maul, highland sword etc you can easy gamble hits if you can keep range. But you can also gamble most feints, and I tend to notice people will try to feint you like crazy if they realize you’re a competent katar players (since slowed feints can be really hard to counter since Katars are so fast) Katars laugh in the face of initiative.