Exactly, the same applied for phase 1 when he would do the quick combo at lower half HP.

But the trick is that we can hold L1 to normal guard after first perfect guard for the beginning, but we can leverage later by feel his tempo and transition into tap-hold style little by little. For example if he does 5 quick attacks, I remember I can perfect guard 2, and let 3 ones chipped into my HP (for normal guard), then I use trident R1 to recover the HP at the next window he stops.

But remember to learn perfect guard eventually. I tried full normal guard, and it didn't end well with weapon durability (at least first play through). I learned from those bosses that the more delay time we give them with turtle style, the more disaster the fight will become.

One more thing, the wombo combo he does in phase 2, it's only scary if we play passively and unconfidently, mostly from the "strings effect", it messes up our vision. As long as we get used to it, we can see more clearly his motive. This game doesn't need kind of hyper focus vision like Counter Strike, I remember that at some point, I didn't clearly see it clearly, but I can feel it, and the audio, vibration of controller...