For anyone who still struggles with the combat depth keep the following in mind and the rest you'll pick up naturally.
- Your characters auto attack
- With each attack your artes charge up
- With each use of your artes your special charges up
- Specials have charge levels with 4 being the highest
- You can activate other party members specials with ZL
- Auto attacks can be cancelled into artes.
- Cancel attacks into artes the second they hit.
- Don't always use specials straight away charge them up to higher levels first or level 4 if possible.
- Activating your party members specials after your own is a special combo and deals a tonne of damage especially with level 4.
- Go into your menu and check your character artes for a description of what they do, for example some drop potions for extra healing, select your artes based on strategy.
- Blades have different roles (Healer, Tank. Attack) be mindful of them.
- When you switch blades in battle it doesn't reset their charge on artes and such.