Early on, run away lol. I'm serious here, pick your battles carefully as a low level character. Also, when packs of enemies/monsters, try to lure them away one at a time.
As for the actual combat controls. They take a bit of practice but once you get the hang of them they are really good as you have a lot of control over your moves in a battle rather than just click click click. They seem clunky and hard to use and like you can't hit a thing early on, but train in fighting skills and you will suddenly begin to notice a huge difference
