Tao should know that and maintain an insane range, his range is about a few hundred meters so the starting distance is already large,
And Diavolo can't cover that why? He has normal movement while time is skipped, everything else doesn't, one of the main benefits of time skip is being able to reposition one's self, allowing him to cover large amounts of ground and even "fly" while time is skipped given all the times he literally floats in what would normally be the sky while time is skipped, like the time where Polnareff flung himself in the air, Diavolo skipped time and met him at the peak of the toss, and just kinda stayed there. Also if Tao actually did that and for some reason Diavolo couldnt close the distance, Diavolo would **** off, prepare and come back when everything is in his favor, Diavolo isnt a stranger to strategical retreat if he's at a disadvantage.
and diavolo wouldn't know about Tao's durability so he would wouldn't start with durability negation although he can probably get around this with epitaph.
He would, he abuses Epitaph, he'd see his attacks do nothing and then react accordingly, I'd wager he'd even do this without bloodlust given the character doesn't have any morals and the only real counterargument to him not doing it is because he never did in canon, even though in canon every time he hit someone they basically dropped dead so it's not quite the same as someone like Jotaro actively not doing it, but regardless.
You can also argue that Tao can tank durability negation attacks as his whole body scales to his durability because he can tank attacks like kamehameha which attack everything.
The Kamehameha doesn't attack the heart or blood vessels in the brain. Tao's internal would have superhuman durability, but they'd also be drastically below his external durability because that's literally how this works. Like, Mike Tyson is Peak Human/Street but even his brain has the consistency of a stiff gelatin.
Also if diavolo keeps skipping he'll get tired and will never get to attack, this might actually end up as an endurance battle. I still lean towards Tao because he can force Diavolo to tire himself out by maintaining distance and using range.
No he wouldn't? Skipping time doesn't cost stamina, absolutely never even implies that's the case, he's basically DIO when it comes to skipping time, this isn't Jotaro (Who even then, only real had a issue with time stop after coming out of a coma and heavily weakened, to the point his Staying dropped to an E), if Diavolo does nothing but sit there and spam it, it wouldnt be him losing stamina, it'd be Tao as Tao still has to attack, move around, and exhaust lots of his energy to even attack at range (He cant exactly use Dondon Ray like a hundred times), and the energy he exhausts in time skip still adheres to Tao once it resumes, while all Diavolo has to do is sit there and think to skip time, in which time skips and he's completely invincible, and given he uses Epitaph to know exactly when to skip time and when to resume it (And he can even use Epitaph while in the time skip), and he can spam it, Diavolo is never getting hit and he's definitely not exhausting himself before Tao does.
Ignoring Diavolo has ludicrous stamina to begin with, he'll keep fighting and continuing to kill even while he's near death, can't breathe and went through shit like puking up a hundred razor blades or tearing scissors out of his throat, or in one case, basically actually dead, given he tried to attack with King Crimson even after his Stand was brutalized and literally crumbling apart.
If Diavolo is bloodlusted, there is no fight, he wouldnt even be scratched by the end of the fight. Time skip+precog makes it so and from there's it's a matter of simply getting in range, and given how disorienting time skip is to everyone but him, after a few of them Tao would simply lose track of Diavolo making it kinda hard for Tao to increase the distance when he doesn't even know which way to go or where Diavolo is coming from.
