Yeah the half moves suck but well you get things to make up for it. And while striking can be real rough, as long as you have some way of dealing decent damage out of melee you should be able to overcome it. In this case hat would have been jabs, thrusts, and flurries wih iron swords, chop can work but you really would need trapping to make the damage worthwhile enough. Just accept that you might need to thirst early in the fight and pick where you fight accordingly and you will be ok.