hot take:
Combat is not something distinct from 'role-playing'. Far from it! Violence is an emotionally intense situation that can bring out parts of a character you wouldn't otherwise see. A fight is a chance to explore and express a character in ways you otherwise couldn't.

the issue is that so many games treat combat as a mini game of skill that's sort of cut off from the rest of RP. You drop into initiative and now you're playing a tactical mini game and matters of expression get sidelined.
Which robs the fight of a lot of emotional impact.

Example:
A vamp character of mine got into her first on-screen fight recently. I made some sub-optimal choices but those choices showed something about the PC. The sheer furious sadism of her actions revealed a more fanatically religious side of her that you don't see otherwise.

So that's my advice. Think about how a character would *actually* respond to violence, and what it says about them. Are they frightened? angry? Emotionally detatched? On an adrenaline buzz? sadistic? Why? How can your actions in combat express that? What does it MEAN about them?