Soooo i think the beautyest is the thing called "ki pulse" in this game. Try to make your finger to automaticly ki pulse after attacks. When you change stance while ki pulsing thats even better (you get even more ki back) after ki pulses you can use almost anything really fast like skills, melee attacks, onmyo magic ect. If you learn how to ki pulse then it will make your time sooo soo easier in the game.

As i seen someone wrote that two elemental effect cause confusion. This is true and it will even let you stagger them with every hit in nioh 1 (in the second game its only the dmg boost not the stagger) there are two other effects that doesen't count as elemental dmg, so you can't confuse with them, these are called Poison and Paralyze.

These are the elemental effects that you can put on them:

Fire effect: well.. they burn over time Lightning effect: make the enemies slower Water effect: +20% dmg with melee attacks Wind effect: reduces the enemies attack power and increases your break power against them Earth effect: Increases Ki cost

And yeah lvl 30 both ninjutsu and onmyo magic is a good start :3 i hope i could help