I keep dying in combat. Am I doing something wrong?
EDIT: Upgrading my gear to rank 5 helped a ton. Thanks for the advice.
I just started playing and pretty much every hostile creature other than dodos can destroy me easily. I'm only level 2, I have the upgraded saber, and I get that survival games are usually harder at the beginning than at the end, but on god, everything melts my hp in 2 hits. If I misjudge my stamina one time in a combat and don't have enough to dodge, I'm basically guaranteed to die.
The optimal combat strategy, from what I found, is to maintain just enough stamina after attacking to lightly jog out of enemies' range when they attack and just keep jogging until your bar is full again. It seems like a really chickenshit way to fight but it's the only thing that lets me survive more than 2 combats in a row without having to run back to camp to wait for my health to regen.
Is there something obvious I'm missing, or do I just need to accept that I suck until I get better gear? Exactly what level do I need to be to start freeing the captive crewmates? I haven't figured out a way to beat the 4+ pirates at the same time and I can't pull them individually, from what I can tell