Do you still actively play? I used to play a lot a few years ago. I've been debating getting back into it but I'm not sure I have the patience to relearn the combat and I'm sure those who still play are monsters at this point.
Yep! I don't get the chance as often as I'd like, plus Helldivers 2 fever has hit, but I still enjoy when I can.
The modded servers are insane. There's new horde mode options as well.
The skill ceiling is higher than ever before, but there is still a good distribution of newbs. I've been training my 1vX by concentrating the practice against bot. Do a local deathmatch, spawn a bot and ToggleDamage and ToggleStamina in the console and just play around without pressure. After that, do local Team Deathmatch in Arena, join Red, spawn in training sword and then "AddBotsTeam 2 1", then since the bots are quite good at circling, run to the side of a supply box and practice 1vX parrying. It's helping me not always commit to a riposte and keeping myself aware of multiple more things on the screen at once.
That is very accurate. I play in spurts every 3-6 months and thankfully was at a baseline level to not get totally stomped every game but it's probably at least as bad as you'd expect.