It seems like whenever I fight humanoid opponents I can't avoid getting hit unless I absolutely demolish them in the first few hits.

Skeletons are so jumpy, and in addition to being humanoids they use the monster-invincibility-jumpback, but they aren't too difficult when you get really good armor.

Orcs hit quite hard and very suddenly (but I actually have an easier time than with humans).

Humans seem to be the problem. I try to use the 4-hit combo, but the lag in between the 2nd and 3rd hit allows them to hit me. I can't block (actually, the ability to block seems to have a global cooldown after ANYTHING happens, making it almost useless) and attempting to jump back is too slow as well, letting them hit me there.

Maybe I'm not supposed to be comboing them at all? I just can't seem to find a decent method of fighting them without just trading blows...

I do like this game! :D I've played this on and off for over 6 years, I think.

I actually have no idea what you mean by 'what side he doesn't block', though. Different game?

I'm pretty much ready for anyone in the game at this point though, I'm just finding that some stronger enemies knock down a lot of my health (when I feel like, as a master swordsman with 100+ strength and 115 melee protection I shouldn't be having trouble with nameless peoples...).

I meant where he leaves himself open. Some guys always keep their guard up on their left but leave their right open, so you hit their right side and vice versa. The same can be said for high and low. Some guys guard their head (high) so you go at their body (low) and some guys do the opposite so you in turn swing where he ISN'T blocking. Sorry if I'm not making any sense, it's been a long day and I'm half asleep. I just can't help myself, I love talking about this game.

Wait, we are talking about Gothic 1/2, right? There's only one block.

Your block yes, but not your opponent. And yes. I've never played 3.

... Wait, WHAT! O_O Enemies guard specific portions of their body when blocking!?

I clearly need to fight more humanoid opponents! I did NOT notice this at all.

Something like that. It may be more of a dodge, I'm not sure, it's been a while since I played. What I do know is that certain guys are susceptible to certain swings over others because of how they move/block. Just practice. You'll get it.

Beside working on your timing, I can't really give you an advice.

But you can look here on a fight on how to beat Kharim on low level. Shows perfectly what calm and knowing your moves can do.

Low level Kharim fight Also, parry only works in one way, blocking your weapon from hitting the opponent, regardless of the attack type.
There is no such thing as blocking high or low attacks, meaning that if you hit and opponent blocks, you won't do any damage.

Nicely done, whoever did that :D

Ok, I'm really seeing that specific NPCs attack in specific patterns from that video. I wasn't aware they so consistently attacked in the combos they could use. This new train of thought will help in my next game.

It's really standing out to me that I REALLY did NOT fight many strong human enemies. I clearly spent most of my time on non-human enemies and when it came to human enemies I generally just plowed through them with pure power (well, a little finesse, but not on the level of pattern recognition in the video). Yeah, I really hadn't noticed any kind of specific area guard(in fact, I don't even remember seeing enemies block, they all seem to just take it and then retaliate, or jump back[not guaranteeing they never block, I'm just not remembering it]). I have to assume he's talking about a different game than Gothic 1/2.

My bet would be he talks about different parry animations. Mistook those with different parry styles, that are non-existent in Gothic 1.

Kind of off topic but it shouldn't cause a divergence: been playing G-III for a while and getting confused about the older two Gothics that I played in order. Is there a stab in G-I/II like in III (that enemies apparently can not or have a hard time blocking)? Definition of stab: pressing the right click and left click at the same time with a one-handed weapon).

If there is any such thing I haven't come across it. The attacks seem to be divided into 3 categories: direct aggressive attacks, left swings and right swings. Direct aggressive attacks can be chained into combos but I don't think there's a specific STAB type attack that dividuates itself from the other attack types.

No, there isn't. Gothic 3 melee combat is much more complex, each weapon style performing differently when doing power attack, stagger attack, spin attack etc etc.

Thought so but, everything in I and II is getting blurred in my mind. It might be hard going back to those G-I controls but I might have to play each at least another time.