I so love the witcher games, waited so long for Witcher 2 to come out. Took me forever to get past the dragon at the start. Was so happy to get past that part. Had alot of fun up tiil the Karyan fight. Was stuck on that fight for like 40 attempts. Wasn't fun at all. Now I'm up to the Letho fight. I've already treid it 20 times and not even close to winning that fight. I really hate to admit it but the boss fights are sucking the fun out of the game for me.

Anyone got any tips or advice before I hang up my swords?

turned off difficult QTEs?
you can also adjust difficulty on the fly to easy if a particular fight breaks your balls, like I did with the Draug sequence

Put 2 points in daggers or 2 points in bomb damage. Use yrden to pin Letho, then throw daggers/grapeshot bombs as needed. Throw things without aiming, it's faster.

All you need is about 5 grapeshot bombs+maxed out bomb skill (the first one from the alchemy tree). 10 if you have no points in it. I'm talking about hard difficulty :) Seriously, the game is ridiculously easy sometimes.
Grapeshot bombs consist of only 2 ingredients, it shouldn't be a problem at all to make some of them.
In the end of the game I had about 30 grapeshot bombs, just in case :)

Don't let him get close to you. I used bombs and darts and it really wasn't much of a deal. You also should rely on Yrden and get behind him for extra damage without much risk.

Hand-to-hand is also doable on hard if and only if you have Quen at least at level 2.

Stay out of his reach if your Quen is not up, if it is, go in. Let him hit you, Quen will reflect some damage on him and he will stagger. Hit him once or twice with strong style, repeat.
If your Quen runs low, get out of reach and let him hit you with Aard/bomb/whatever. Quen up again, rinse, repeat.

Of course, it does not quite work as easy as that, you will have to adapt sometimes. But I managed to beat him after three tries (and I only used the excellent boarding knife [literal translation] found in the bandit's camp.

Fight preparation:
1. For Letho fight, did you tell Iorveth that you have do something first? If you choose to follow him straight-away, you don't get the chance to drink potions.

2. You can apply Hanged Man's Venom on your sword to increase damage.

Melee method:
1. First of all, in general keep your distance from him so that it is easier to dodge from his Igni and Aard signs. Igni damage over time hurts you a lot. Incineration DoT will not occur if you have Quen up though.

2. I try not to attack in melee when his shield is up - you will just end up getting staggered. Casting Aard and Igni would probably damage him even when his shield is up (I know Aard does).

3. As soon as his shield is down, use Aard + LMB to whack him. You can probably land 3 hits or so before he recovers. Dodge-roll away. Rinse and repeat.

Learning to dodge well goes a long way in this game. Especially when you don't use Quen.

Some info: I didn't drink potion, no points in magic tree, +2 in dodge and +2 in backstabbed damage reduction. Other points in alchemy tree. Hard difficulty.

That is basically what works best for me.

I prefer to use Brown Oil, though. And, short then long strike. Just more reliable with my reflexes.

There are lots of good ideas here, OP. There is no one sure way. Everybody perceives and responds differently.

Don't be discouraged by the posts that feel compelled to add "and it was really easy."

I had a really tough time with all the bosses (almost) and minibosses the first run. I have the kind of brain that doesn't create new pathways for games 'till at leas one full run! I think those first couple bosses are pretty tricky for a lot of people early on. You'll get the hang of it.

I also didn't build Geralt very well the first time through. There is just a lot to absorb.

The first time I played it i dropped the difficulty from hard to easy. But there really is a way to beat him in under one minute. Just use bombs.

This is bad advice, because attacking him will make his shield drop sooner. And even if he staggers you, he does *not* follow up with the guaranteed hits as a player would do - at least on hard.

Therefore, do attack him and beat his shield off. Just watch your own Quen while you do...

You probably think that you are not even close to beat him when you look at his health bar but keep in mind when Lheto's health bar reaches middle the fight is over

If you read my reveiw Textman,
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/finished_1st_game_playthrough_my_complete_reveiw/page1
the 1st boss and combat in general early on was sucking the life outta me as well until I stopped overthinking it.

The trick with Lethos is to start thinking again and dont treat it as a reaction click fast fight!

My first fight with Lethos I died pretty fast as I treated him like all other combats and bosses. Lots of movement, lots of sword slashing and single sign use!

Thats doesnt work with Lethos, Lethos is more a throw back to old style RPGs (but still with this gameplay) and his skills and abilities actually matter more then your reflexes and hand eye coorodination.

I wont ruin fight for you but know I used 4 of my signs regularly, I varied my attack styles as he does protect himself and adjust to them if you just try to use one style like other combats, For sure prep before fight (I went with vigor, vitality, and + sign bonus). I only used one bomb but combined it with a sign for maximum damage (as the game suggested in many walk through vids), and watch for when to attack and when to back off.

Its by far the most complicated encounter in the game but also the most traditional for a RPG in that you actually use Geralts abilites and skills rather then your own hand/eye dexterity.

I loved the Lethos fight personally as I was forced to think as Geralt would and utilize/PLAY Geralts ROLE.

Hope the break down helps you out and I didnt spoil anything for you :)

Good luck :)

Thanks for the link, I read it. Lots of good info in there. I beat Lethos and continuing into Chapter 2. I just wanted to thank everyone for their input, it's much appreciated.