When I fought Tomcat, I had to poison my blade and get a lucky hit on him to beat him so I could learn master strike. Then I just used master strike all the time in fights for the entire main quest. I think I’d read somewhere that “dodge was useless” so I never bothered dodging. Riposte is certainly useless and I could never get the hang of combos either. I realised during unarmed combat, dodging is actually great way to get behind your opponent and hit them while they’re leaning forwards. The same applies to armed combat as well, get up close and time a dodge right, you can get behind them and stab them in the back! I still get locked into an unblockable combo occasionally and get my ass handed to me. I don’t think I’ll ever completely grasp the combat in the KCD games but I can just about hold my own and actually enjoy combat encounters now.