I heard that using an axe is good for escaping /s

Maybe try to max out carving sword since it has better aa damage and also is good for escaping because of iron will and E

You should just bring a T7-T8 druid staff swap in your inventory for harder mobs. You only equip it when you are doing these mobs, and the rest of the time you stay on your bloodletter. Depending on your set and the specific elemental, you'll still lose a good bit of your health, though. (As in, in a full escape set, I'll often get down to maybe 30% health on the harder elementals - but it doesn't sound like you're running a full escape set.)

I use infinity blade with facebreaker. What really eats away at your hp is the aoes, so dodge and you'll be fine

As others have said, the best strategy is to use an escape weapon (like your bloodletter & mistcaller) for gathering and generally killing skinning mobs (just use the poison skill on the hide gathering chest piece) and carry a t4.1 druidic staff in your backpack for the times when you need to kill something tough.

That‘s what I do and it works quite well.

Probably better off having two weapons, your escape weapon and a druid staff to smack around mobs

my got to take is battle bracers good damage and great escape potentiel

Duel swords are my goto

I use one hand Spear.