There are quite a few more tactics involved than spamming 1 or 2 or whatever. I have learned that doing that only leaves me out of stamina for more important skills like Provoke, Sentinel, etc. Plus another good tactic to the current system is to start a battle regimen when you are nearly out of stamina, this lets your stamina bar's recover while others join the battle regimen.

Auto attack is unnecessary, Just adapt to the current system in place. It just needs improvements such as lag times and animation of attacks.