I think the problem is that the difficulty is somewhat inconsistent. I'm playing on normal, which gave me several sufficiently difficult, challenging battles - the ballista and temple yard in the prologue, the Nekkar-filled cave near Flotsam, the duel with Letho... It took me several tries to win each of those, and I had to come up with a proper tactic each time. Other battles inbetween, though, have often been extremely simple - even without using enhancements, potions, bombs, signs or anything, just hacking away with my swords, I easily made it through on first try.

Another thing that occured to me is that the difficulty in The Witcher 2 is less "variable" than in other cRPGs. For example, in other games you can just use more healing items if you take a lot of damage in a battle, but for Geralt there's no way to heal during combat - you can drink a potion beforehand to get some regeneration, but even that's not possible sometimes (e.g. Letho). Also, if the monsters get too strong for you, you can't really even out the odds by doing some grinding, since you don't earn that many xp by killing enemies. Maybe that's why the game appears to be too difficult for some.

there are no too strong enemies though, bosses excluded of course. once you know how to fight and how the controls work, i breeze through the game till the boss of act 3. the dragon killed me for over 30 mins before I figure out how to beat him on hard. it was very satisfying when I finally killed him.

the problem you mentioned is exactly why I think maybe they should implement innate combat regen for geralt in easy mode. it will help people who are struggling with the game to finish the game..

Perhaps if you know in which order to do the quests. Beginning players likely don't know a reasonable order of the Flotsam quests, for instance, and probably haven't picked up some of the obscure but useful perks like Pyromaniac, Assassin or Experienced. They also probably won't be prepared for particular ambushes -- for instance, there are certain quest items whose pick-up results in immediately being surrounded by monsters.

that was my first play through experience by the way, I started on hard and never went back, died 2 times in the hoardings and once in the monastery courtyard. afterwards, I was ready to take on the entire witcher world saved kayran :P died to it for 1 hour before I figure it out. but if you exclude the boss fights, the game is super easy once you learn it.

I didn't think this was a bug thread and I didn't talk about any bugs. I was just mentioning some things other than combat which I thought could be included as being easy or hard. Sorry.

"Beginners" should not be starting on hard.
I started on hard because hard mode = you should L2P as early as possible.

The fact that the prologue was brutal was awesome. With a bit of experimentation, I figured out the mechanics of the game.
You know, such as figuring out how to take down Aryan LaValette with all his friends without getting hurt.

After I L2P, the rest of the game was bleedin' easy.

I think it would be nice if the difficulty settings would introduce more differences. Currently, the just seem to adjust some general values, like monster damage in contrast to Geralt's damage and monster health in contrast to Geralt's health.
Some examples of what could be done:

easy / very easy
Give Geralt some health regeneration during combat by default. Turn difficult QTEs off by default. Remove some enemies in battles against larger groups (e.g. fewer guards at the ballista, fewer Nekkar in the Nekkar cave). Make tough enemies easier (e.g. remove Letho's abilitie to cast Quen on himself).

hard
Add additonal enemies and spawn points. Make items (weapons/armor) in shop more expensive, so it's harder to get powerful equipment, and you have to rely on crafting more.

Destroy ten distinct training dummies. As far as I know, you *have* to 'kill' at least a few in the Prologue (they're in the training area). Off-hand, I think there are ~8 in Flotsam (two each at two of the into-the-woods gates, and four in the courtyard of Loredo's place; you can return, armed, after you've finished the 'Indecent Proposal' quest). I don't recall seeing any in Chapter II or III, either side.

There are 2 training dummies on Roche's path.

Not quite, you can click while pressing movement keys and execute combos or power up and execute more powerful blows, you can walk backwards and sidestep (not run and roll all over), you chose precisely the target not the auto aim. You do one blow per click, same as in the TW2 but you block with left click. You can also deliver short blows from blocking stance by shortly pressing left click. You can use swords, axes, hammers, staffs, bows, cross bows and magic.

I wouldn't call Risen combat retarded at all. The combat in TW2 is just different, not superior. The key, in both games is to learn how to use the system effectively.

I get your point But there is no way in hell that they will change the difficulty again!! After 1.2 the prologue is quite easy(They needed to implement a combat tutorial, they didn't so all the complaints!! They responded by dumbing down the game changing the stats so watch out what you wish for!! What they need is a FCR/Flash mod or a Directores cut Again!!