This character (and also any sword users) is easily going to be the hardest to do status sprites for since they have a progressive stance system (that rewards constant damage output with more damage - keeping up your momentum while moving, basically. For sword users it does things like extra defense, extra attack, or a decent chance at countering enemy attacks depending on the stance).
They're gonna be doing weird poses constantly. So, they make perfect practice for 'tricky' sprite poses. This is my first attempt at spriting one and I'm super happy with how it came out, so I have confidence for any other tricky/pose-is-mostly-from-scratch battler sprites in the future. References help.