after a long time of playing on max difficulty(since ver.6), i got pretty good at blocking attacks manually.
since i got the new animations mod, i found that i can't predict the attacks as well, so i end up dodging a lot.
so my advice is to practice dodging, overhead & thrusts by moving to the side. swings by moving back.
when the enemy is keeping you back with a pike, quickly move to the side and back as only the tip will do damage.