I haven’t played AC6 yet but the fact that you’re bothered by unreactable damage makes me think you’re playing this like Souls. But it’s not Souls, it’s a shooter. Be preemptive? Make your own movement pattern hard to follow.
A very glorified DPS race is more or less what a duel is in a shooter.
My first playthrough sitting at 32 hours... (sopuli.xyz)
…and I’m not even done.