A lot of really good points in these last two posts!

Shore - I have thought about doing something like that, I even have states for the different attacks/blocks already set up. You said that you check attack progress - doesn't that mean the animation percent?

Germanunkol is right though, there's less skill involved this way and it looks less realistic. Right now, I can detect the exact moment that the swords touch, then place the particle effect there and play the block sound. I can put in different swords with different sizes and shapes and it will still work. If the player blocks a second too late and his sword doesn't quite make it in time, he will still get hit...it feels very responsive.

The direction they face is also an issue. In my system, I lock the two combatants in place, but that's because I want to make people use the block moves instead of just running away from the enemy and then running in to attack real quick, and running away again.