Well after about 20 tries (on normal) including the help of a walkthru I finally managed to slay the beast. Maybe a bit tricky on normal level? Not sure how others feel about it.

I have a few issues here and one is that when I've been knocked over, get up and start running the opposite direction, he carries on running in the wrong direction for 0.5 seconds before actually turning around. Combat in general seems sloppy to me as well. Like when I press E repeatedly to block he would only actually block every 3rd keystroke. Sheathing / unsheathing when striking Q too quickly it just doesn't do anything. It thus feels delayed and unresponsive. Same with roll diving, seems unresponsive at times.

I also noticed when dying during the boss battle, I can't click yes / no to load last save point. It's just greyed out, so I need to press ESC then load manually. Not sure if this is by design but is rather annoying if you die every 2 minutes.

Another issue, at first I only has a steel sword and just before battle, he draws an invisible sword it seems. I guess he went for the silver sword but that wasn't in my inventory.

In town people sometimes seems to pop out of no where? Like out of thin air someone would just appear on the docks. It's not like my PC can't handle drawing distances either. I have a ATI HD6850
At night there was a man telling a story around the campfire. Then all of a sudden he got up and went to he's room but just carried on telling the story. Seemed a bit strange.

Overall though amazing graphics, sound and ambience. You guys really nailed it here.
But the game just seems a bit buggy and unpolished to me.

All the best

Not personally a fan of QTE for boss fights. Took me about 11 tries, most of them because I didn't see the QTE prompts flash on the screen. Yeah, I've noticed this issue as well. It's annoying, but not generally a big problem. I've not encountered this issue (or at leas, not noticed it). One question: you say sheathing and unsheathing when you press Q. If you didn't remap your keys, Q is used to cast your signs. Sheathing/unsheathing is done with 1 for steel sword and 2 for silver sword. Click on the greyed out yes/no. It then changes to an interactable button. At least, it does for me.

Yeah, sorry I meant 1 and 2 for sheathing sword. Sometimes when pressing these keys, nothing happens.

I don't get the bubble at all on the yes/no buttons. When clicking nothing happens.

It it just me or do the drowners deal too much damage? I had 3 or 4 attack me after exiting through the waterfal and I couldn't beat them at all. I experimented with different signs etc.
Eventually I just ran away from them. Maybe drinking potions would help but just seems a bit silly for only 3 enemies. Blocking also seems useless after the 3rd strike or so.
What do the combat designers want us to do in a case like that? Just run away?
Don't think I've ever played a game where only 3 basic mobs overpower me in a matter of seconds.

Well, there are people who think the game is more or less trivial now (such as that guy who's beating the whole game on insane with a pickaxe).

If you're having trouble with basic mobs, try using bombs. They're made by alchemy, so you'll usually find yourself making a net gain in ingredients anyhow.

I recommend running around with several Dancing Stars, Zerrikanian Suns, Grapeshots, and Red Hazes ... using them can often turn a difficult fight into a trivial one.

Completely agree about unresponsive combat. It really is an annoyance from a great game.

To the OP: where is your silver sword?

The problem is Geralt will automatically draw his sword when a battle starts. By you clicking on 1/2 you tell him to put it away. You click before he draws it and then the command is queued up and executed, thus putting the sword away. I suggest either always having the sword out when in the wilderness or not hitting 1/2 to draw it as it will automatically come out. If you don't import a witcher you need to go to Flotsam to buy one or make one.

Yeah I have had the invisible sword and the not sheathing problem too... but it went away after a few mins when I clicked around... I have a much bigger problem now though, which I have posted :( It's stopped me entirely from being able to get past the Kayran at all, because the part where the Kayran is about to break free keeps repeating itself, and after reinstalling, lowering graphics, and doing all kinds of nothing has helped... and I know it is not the copy of my game because I played it past the Kayran before, then my hardrive crashed and only on this new hardrive does it keep doing this... URGH someone please help me what do I doooo!

I know. You get the plan pretty much when you step off the boat. Maybe that's why tj=he Drowners seem so tough?

You need to get silver ore from the dwarf smithy by the wall inside the quarters.
You need a few other items which I had already.
After that just ask the smithy to make you one.

Took me ages to find him but he's only available at daytime.

I figured as much. I just think it depletes way too quickly. It's borderline useless.
I'm sure as the character levels up this will get better but I don't think they struck a very good balance here, especially so early in the game when we're still adjusting to an already clunky combat system.

I noticed the sheathing issue as well. I just run around and pressing 1 and 2 alternatively, and I can immediately see how sometimes the game does not respond to the keyboard input at all.

Btw for the dying after boss battles, I pressed RMB a few times and after a second or two's wait I was able to choose yes/no again (it was previously greyed out too).

Blocking does not get better with higher level unless you invest in the riposte and the reduced vigor for blocking skill in swordsmanship tree. Or any skills that increases your vigor.

Thanks for the tip.

It's a shame about the vigor draining so quickly. I see tough times ahead.

Hopefully the unresponsive keys will be sorted in the next patch. Combat is such a big part of the game and needs to be perfected.