I'm slowly getting used to the new combat. (playing on hard)
1. Prepare for battle (use potions, blade coatings etc)
2. Dodging is way better than blocking (as you are almost always facing multiple enemies). If your timing is right you have 1 or 2 guranteed hits. After that retreat.
3. Use your signs. Aard is great to get some space between you and those hardhitters.

Played ~1h and am enjoying the new combat system. (although controls could be more responsive)

There's an option somewhere to turn some of the QTEs off, but I didn't check them out as they don't annoy me that much.

Zedblade, maybe try lowering the difficulty level? Until you get to know the mechanics well enough it might be worth it, lower some of the frustration value.

Yes, it is difficult and frustrating, but it's not impossible.

1.Use potions before combat
2.Use all the signs
3.Every enemy has some weakness, be it speed, lack of armor or being just stupid (like those crossbowmen)
4.Divide and rule
5.Don't be ashamed if you have to dodge like Lara Croft, you are outnumbered and some enemies are medieval tanks.
6.Never -NEVER- let them surround you. Who the hell turns one's back on a giant, full-plated warrior, anyway? And if they surround you, don't parry, it's useless. Dodge and run. Parry in 1vs1 fights.
7.Bombs are your best friend.

I usually go for the weak guys first, then for the big guys.

I think I've gotten the hang of it. To me there was no ease in, they just threw it all at you and expected you to just know how the combat system works. It was the 20 odd deaths that got me good enough to get through it pretty easily. That's not how you start a game. It's like teaching someone to play chess not by explaining the pieces one by one and giving them a few easy practice rounds, but by just throwing them a chess board and matching them up with a world champion... while a dragon blows fire at them.

Anyway, I'm past it and the awesomeness the game has to offer is starting to show. So Yay.

Hello,

I think the difficulty is far too high for a prolog. I died a dozen times to get past the trial by fire. And now i am supposed to fight 4 soldiers and a knight in the monastery courtyard. On normal. Till trial by fire it was fun but after that it gets frustrating as hell. It needs a serious rebalancing. Normal should be achievable without lightning sharp reflexes and 50 tries.

In other games the prologue is for new gamers to get used to the game. Not to get abused by 5 elitesoldiers and a dragon on normal (knightmare) difficulty.

Your tips are usefull here, thank you all.

Have a nice day, back off kicking some ass in the monastery courtyard.

Edit : Arrrr what a fight. Its called Trial by fire for a reason. Now i am prepared for everything :).

The prologue mission can be relatively easy even on hard difficulty if you play it in sequence and understand each of the Signs. The Signs is really important, you MUST use them or you won't survive far especially when facing a horde of enemy. And your health will slowly regenerated (not sure outside the combat only or not), so be patience and plan your attack. This is not your ordinary hack a slash ala DMC game.

quick question. how do the potions work in this game.

i know in the witcher 1, i could not use some potions because they had too many animations dealing with that potions, like cats grace is it? you know the one that helps your dodging and all that. it had this big shiny purply aura around geralt all the time when he drank it.

my computer ran the game perfectly in any setting from lowest to maximum, YET if i drank that potion, no matter the graphic settings it would be like running like 10 FPS or something rediculous.

hoping that the witcher 2, that the potions have no stupid animations involved with them that would screw up the games fluidity

Do not whine about difficulty, for once a game provides a challenge...

I also think it's important not to confuse the (exagerated?) difficulty with the quality of the prologue design. The story is engrossing, though I can understand reloading 20 times could taint that experience. It will probably be toned down a bit to satisfy less patient players (same as DA, which used to be quite more difficult at release).

I do hope we get more options for crowd control in later stages of the game... stun multiple ennemies for example?

I'll have to study the skill trees more closely.

I haven't tried them all yet, but it seems like they won't. They're more stat-enchancers now (except for Cat obviously, that changes your perception, but not too distractingly)

The game is way too hard on normal.
I died at least 15 times at the part with the dragon, because I catched on fire or got slashed to bits. Later I had to fight a huge group of armored knights and got killed there 15 times as well.
Every time I have to fight a group I die several times basicly.
The prologue is not good over all in any respect imo, not only the difficulty.
I hope the rest of the game is better. The Witcher 1 was far better so far.
The combat system is way too "autoaim"-y. You can't really choose what to attack or from what to evade by rolling. Often times Geralt rolls to an enemy or attacks an enemy I didn't steer to at all. That got me killed numerous times!
Evading all the time is not fun anyway. I understand they didn't want to turn the game into a button-masher but still. You can't even attack in any direction quickly. If you get surrounded you will be doomed.

Yes, but pyrotechnics work as well ;-)
Try locking on enemies with the Alt key, it helps a lot.

will try that, thanks for the advice :)

Damn it is really hard on normal difficulty. I just can t get pass the dragon part..i always catch fire and die. Hope the difficulty ain t that high further along

Yup, only out of combat.
Right now, combat routine seems to be:
1. start running circles around the enemies.
2. when one enemy gets a bit ahead of the pack, stun him with aard (i think it's aard) sign and hit him a few times.
3. go back to 1.

It is effective, it takes long and it is extremely silly. :(