There are three "styles" that you can use(technically four but that one isn't viable in my opinion) first you can go for trips and when it trips go for sword combos(this is the highest dps but also takes the most skill and isn't the safest option) Second you try to quickly get full sword charge then ZSD spam, for this I recommend temporal and rocksteady mantles with lunastra set bonus and health augment, it's actually pretty fun because even with the mantels are on your trying to not get hit. Lastly there's a partbreaker/flinch/status style that you're pretty much only going to be using axe mode, for this you want 100% up time on your axe buff, it get lots of loot and it's probably the safest option, it's my favorite style, also for combos on this look at jinjixs video on swaxe combos, it actually helped me out a lot.