I know it's not the purpose of the game being balanced but i would say that:
Swinging the sword it's quite useless, due to it's slowness and probability that you and your enemy hits each other at the same time
Blocking as well is not very useful, you have to wait all the time before your opponent swings another time, just like holding the shield in dark souls, just a waste of time.
The meta in this game is throwing the sword: fast, a lot of range, a lot of damage, and you can even take your weapon back.
Other than this the game is a lot of fun.