There is a balancing issue on this quest. When the living stone statues come to life there are two mage combatants. As soon as they spawn you will be hit with there quick cast fire spell.(looks like a line that appears behind Geralt). Whats worse is that it's possible to die in three hits to this ability(with around 6000 Vitality @ lvl41). It is difficult to avoid this attack especially close range as the frequency of this attack increases for some reason. The damage, range and attack speed should be tweaked to make it less overpowered.

Side note:
I had a moment of luck and was able to skip having to kill them to advance the quest. I did this by running up the stairs. Quick saving whilst out of combat. i then died to the statues. when continuing from the death screen the game skipped to the dialogue where the statues were defeated. Although they were still in the background of the scene. Once the quest was completed all of the statues were still alive. when the scene was over they resumed attacking me with one of the mages killing me before i could move.

Other than this i am a few hours into the Blood and Wine and enjoying it thoroughly.

This fight is not easy, but it's hardly overpowered -- there are far harder fights in this expansion. I managed to get killed twice, mainly because I never expected mages in the first bout, and in the second I was figuring out a way to deal with them -- they're not very susceptible to Ignii, but Aard works just great. Key is ignoring the foot sloggers and take those mages out quickly.

No, OP is right, this quest is very ridiculous on Death March (IE "Geralt canonically died to a peasant with a pitchfork, so every enemy needs to be able to two-shot him" mode), I'm sure it's way more manageable on the lower difficulties. The intern who designed it needs to hang his head (or himself) in shame.

How I did it was spamming Northern Winds bombs, and don't attack each mage more than twice. In fact, just one heavy attack each or they'll trigger a stupid flame shield counter (sometimes two light attacks was okay, but not always) and you'll get stunlocked. Once the mages are gone, the spearmen go down pretty quick, or at least they did for me. Aard like Hickory said is helpful.

The fight isn't even fun, like the main bad guy or the larger monsters. Since you already glitched through it, don't even worry about doing it "for real", you beat it fair as far as Death March is concerned.

EDIT: I tried the fight again a couple more times, Northern Wind is definitely the way to go. The big problem is, if you die, you must reload from a save, and Geralt is incredibly vulnerable during the few seconds it takes before he can do anything (basically hold the stick in one direction and mash A, or whatever the KBM equivalent is). Then it's all about getting distance between you and them so they bunch up for a Northern Wind. The fight is only really trouble when both mages are there chain-spamming their stun lock spells, but if you keep freezing them, and chipping away at one mage at a time, the fight is definitely doable. Also consider switching out the crappy elf sword for a better one.

And even though they are way easier without the mages carrying them, don't underestimate the spear guys, my Geralt had over 10,000 or so vitality (alchemy build with some weird mutagens, unless I read it wrong which is possible) and a spear poke counter-attack still does about half his life bar of damage on Death March, with Grandmaster Manticore armor.

The intern should still be ashamed of himself though.

They are difficult regardless of game difficulty. The mages have 2 magical attacks, and when both are spamming you with lightning bolts, they can kill you quickly, especially if the other 4 swarm you. To make matters worse, if you die, it spawns you in the middle of them, closest to the mages that can hit you with lighting as soon as you appear, causing heavy damage before you can even access your sign menu.

The best method with them is to RUN to the opposite side and btry and take out the other 4 quickly. If mages start getting close, run pass them to opposite side while constantly dodging and eating food. You must keep the Elven Sword equipped. Also, the 4 statues take heavy fire damage. If you have the fire stream perk and burning, they'll take upwards of 500 points of damage a second.

You definitely do NOT want to fight them at a low level (below 40) and ideally want to be 45 or higher, and hopefully have upgraded B&W armor with some elemental protection.

I was frustrated initially with the fighting level (I'm at 44, and the six statues were all 40's) and the blindside blasts that took me down before I could even formulate a reasonable response.

So I ran away.

Specifically I ran to the stairs (where they didn't follow). In fact, they went back into formation lining the walkway. So, from the safety of the upper deck, I proceeded to toss bombs (Devils Puffball worked well), followed by exploding bolts to set them afire. I took down the four spear wielders that way, and weakened the mages severely before feeling guilty and finally descending the stairs to chop down the mages the conventional way.

Or the rookie player who can't handle hard fights.

Excuse me, Mr. Ego.

Not my ego. Just turning the tables on your dissing the designer/developers. Pot, kettle, black.

That was meant as a joke but whatever.

I had difficulty with this aswell, and while testing different methods i came across a bug. If you walk up the stairs and disengage comabat you can save. After saving I went back down and died, when the save loaded the quest was completed but after the cutscene the statues attack you anyway. IMO When you have to resort to cheap tactics and exploits to not male a battle tedious there is a balancing issue. I was playing on NG+ Death march.

Also, if you run out the spearmen will follow you around wherever it seems and you cant engage them, but they will poke at you...

for me this was the hardest part of B&W, died like twenty times being twenty levels over suggested - two/three hits from the mage and i died - in the end i had to cheat

Piercing cold mutation + manticore steel sword = death for statues

This was easily one of the most exciting fights in the expansion. Definitely difficult but doable. The only real secret to beating it legitimately is to not let the frenzy overwhelm your nerves. Whether your fighting a troll or a pack of wolves or statues that hate elven antiques, all of the same mistakes will get you killed and mastering the basics will keep you alive.

It took me four tries on deathmarch. The first death made me laugh in amazement. The second came down to one final mage with only a drop of blood left to her name before i discovered her quen like spell that quite effectively revealed to her henchmen just how susceptible geralt is to liver shots. The third fail had help from a severe lag in the controls and the start of the fight. Again i laughed. The forth attempt however was a success. My setup was as follows:

Pockets:
•Superior maribor forest
•Superior Petris philter
•Superior white Rafford potion
•Food

Attire:
•Master griffin
•Offeiri gauntlets
•Master griffin trousers
•Offeiri boots

Signs
•Fully powered active sheild (IMO one of the most overlooked signs in the game coupled with yrden trap fully upgraded, your defense is pretty f'ing solid against anything and then used while armored in grandmaster griffin attire and you become a terror on the battlefield and if ascending to unstoppable bloodgod mode is your thing link the chain to piercing cold mutation. This is the point where i decided to play most of the game using nothing but a pickaxe, tracker trousrrs, the harlequin mask and a pony tail. I look deliciously f'ing psychotic!)

•Aard

Weapon of choice:
•Manticore steel sword
•deep even breathing, patience and enjoying something difficult

Thanks for reading y'all, i know i can be pretty long-winded

One last thing:

HAS ANYONE SPENT TIME SWINGING AGGRESSIVELY AT THE POTTED PLANTS AROUND THE BEAUCLAIRE PALACE GROUNDS? WELL I HAVE AND LET ME *****S P O I L ****** SOMETHING FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NOT... EVERY SO OFTEN, IF YOU TRULY SPEND SOME TIME WITH THIS, GERALT WILL MAKE CONTACT WITH THE POTTED PLANT OR FLOWER. THE PLANT WILL MAKE A DISTURBING SORT OF FLESH-MEETS-BLADE SOUND AND THEN GUSH A SHOCKING AMOUNT OF BLOOD!

Ok... bye.

I gave up trying to survive, loaded a save prior to the re-enactment then left.
Later I returned but could not gain access to the property. At the door as soon as
I re-read the notice on the door I got "quest failed" message.

I tried many, many times (playing on Death March of course), but in the end resorted to the cheese strategy already mentioned in this thread. I went up the stairs, tossed all my Devil's Puffballs, Dancing Stars and Grapeshots, after which I slooowly killed the mages with my crossbow: peek over the railing, shoot two bolts, back off, save. Rinse and repeat.

The melee statues I killed "properly", although they'd taken damage from my bombs and so were easier to defeat than initially.

Not looking forward to this quest on my current playthrough. I am going to do it without cheesing though, even if it takes hours. :P