Both you and your shield seem to take less damage if you time a block just right. But honestly given how slow most enemies are, how long they take to telegraph their attacks, AND the fact that you can abuse the vertical plane to easily sidestep them, you don't need to in most cases. If they bunch up, try to get them all to attack at once, dodge, and then counter-attack with a heavy attack. With a decent weapon and good strength, unless they're really high level, you should be one-shotting the basic Natives with a heavy attack, if not a single regular attack. If you're really struggling, make a beeline for the Level 2 Smash skill which lets you cancel out of a heavy attack, giving you an extra safety net.
BTW, you didn't use the /exp cheat, did you? You might have inadvertently made the game harder instead of easier.