Got the game yesterday and simply love every aspect about it, except the combat...holy hell, i cant even begin to understand how they made such a great game and then gave it such truely terrible controls. 
 
Am i just missing something here? Arrogantly saying i have always been quite decent at fighter games, beat both DMC and Bayonetta on hardest setting etc, and generally im very into RPGs, but in Witcher i feel like the biggest newbie ever.  
 
Im really dying to play this game but everytime i go into combat i die a few times because you're just getting zerged and everytime my char is way to slow todo anything about it. 

Use a gamepad. Nuff said.

use quen
dodge

I've actually recently switched to PC gaming for solo games (RPGs mostly) because i wanted to use Keyboard&Mouse aswell as growing tired of outdated grapichs on my Xbox. Not cool :) 
 
Guess ill try it with the Onza for abit

The combat takes a little getting used to, but you'll get the hang of it soon.

Wow... i blasted trough the trollcave without much trouble at all with the controller when before i could barely kill half the first neeker zerg before dying in a storm of frustration.  
 
Thanks for the tip! 
 
 
Kinda weird how they optimized for controller play when the game isn't coming to consoles for a good 6 months.

I had no problems with keyboard and mouse vOv

strength of the pc if a game works better with a conrtoller u can use it now a days 
though i can play the witcher 2 just fine with keyboard

I found The Witcher 2 to play better with the mouse and keyboard. with the keyboard you get access to more stuff, easier. Plus quicksaves.

By making the direction you are facing alter your attacks, and making all of your combat animations uninterruptable, they made the system feel like slamming your forehead against a keyboard.  I like how they set that up, at least in theory, but they didn't give us a tutorial explaining anything about it, and some of the moves are just horrible compared to others of the moves.  Facing to the right and using fast attack -> Absolutely horrible death trap animation with no damage.  Facing to the left and using fast attack ->  One shotting anything in the game that doesn't have a shield.

When you get used to it, hard difficulty is even easy.

It plays perfectly on the keyboard+mouse, you are just too used to a gamepad, it will take some time to switch over. It's just a matter of personal preference and what you are used to, the game plays fine eitherway.

Controller works great once you: 
 
1) Switch LB and LT so that LT is lock on and LB is quick menu 
 
2) Change D-pad Left to "next sign" and D-pad right to "Next item in pocket" 
 
Those two changes make it play awesome with controller.  Lock is something you should use frequently.  You do then have to go into the quick menu to change swords, but you do this way less often than you change spells and items.  This set up makes it where you very rarely have to even go into your quick menu.  

I found The Witcher 2 to play better with the mouse and keyboard. with the keyboard you get access to more stuff, easier. Plus quicksaves.

Gamepad doesn't help me since I can't switch the Y axis on the right stick.  Makes it harder to play with.  I really want to play this game.

You'll quickly get use to the combat, and playing with the Keyboard if you stick with it.  
 
I prefer K&M, my combat looks much better that way.

Nope, not missing anything. Combat's clunky. I turned it down to easy so I didn't have to fight the controls and works fine now. I dodge a hell of a lot, almost never rely on blocking since it uses up vigor, and run around a lot to keep from getting hit. When dealing with groups, grenades are your friend. I like the star something something....can't remember the name but it's basically napalm.

use quen   

 dodge

I switched to using the Xbox 360 controller but the Mouse and Keyboard just feels WAY better. The combat works perfectly fine, you just have to get used to it.
As someone already mentioned use Quen, that thing will save your life. When you level it up it damages surrounding enemies as well so make sure to put some points in to that.

Clunky how?   Responsiveness? Targetting?  Mechanics?
 
I thought combat was fairly easy to figure out.   Targetting is also done by an invisible crosshair.  It will always attack the target closest to the middle of the screen unless you lock on.

Nope, not missing anything. Combat's clunky. I turned it down to easy so I didn't have to fight the controls and works fine now. I dodge a hell of a lot, almost never rely on blocking since it uses up vigor, and run around a lot to keep from getting hit. When dealing with groups, grenades are your friend. I like the star something something....can't remember the name but it's basically napalm.

Tried the controller cause people where positive about it, but i hated it. I like the combat better with a mouse and keyboard. I find it much easier to quickly change target, that way you can kind of fly around the screen Assassins Creed style. Land a few hits, find next target get some blows in there and so on. 
 
Also i find it way faster to select powers, traps and whatnot.

It gets better when you get more abilities.

(What's up with all this "console gamer" bullshit? Do you people know for what platforms practically all games with this type of action combat -- including the very best and hardest -- are released? Here's a hint: the PC isn't one of them.)

I hated the combat till my level was in the teens, at that point I l began to really enjoy it. I played with a controller the whole way through.

@Vodun: You can actually block in the middle of your own swing even. If you make an effort to learn how the combat flows, it's quite fluid.  If you go into the sword tree you can Riposte all attacks from humans, doing massive damage and loosing no Vigor. If you go into magic you can throw down a Quen and never block again ever.  Also there is no "general consensus" that the combat is unresponsive or clunky. Some people complain, many tell them they are wrong. About the only general consensus that there is is that the game is bad at teaching you all this combat related stuff.

@Tennmuerti said:

@Vodun: You can actually block in the middle of your own swing even. If you make an effort to learn how the combat flows, it's quite fluid.  If you go into the sword tree you can Riposte all attacks from humans, doing massive damage and loosing no Vigor. If you go into magic you can throw down a Quen and never block again ever.  Also there is no "general consensus" that the combat is unresponsive or clunky. Some people complain, many tell them they are wrong. About the only general consensus that there is is that the game is bad at teaching you all this combat related stuff.

Then there is something wrong with my game, because if I have any other action going my block doesn't work. Sometimes even standing still it won't come up. And if you read any reviews or forum posts about the game, the only complaint anyone has about this game relates to the combat.

If you've actually played the game and think the combat flows smoothly, I've got news for you-> You have a higher tolerance than the average gamer.  That's not a bad thing, but it's important to understand that you aren't the only person in the world playing video games, and not everyone is willing to put up with the same level of complexity, especially when that complexity is entirely unnecessary and has no in-game explanation.  Left attack is supposed to be a fast attack.  It's only a fast attack if you are facing your opponent and are moving towards your opponent when you use it.  If you are attempting to flank around your opponent, or roll around him, your 'fast attack' will be a lengthy animation that either hits the enemy 5 times or takes a full second to hit him once, depending on which way you are facing at the time.  This isn't intuitive.  When you face to the right and click left attack, and Geralt jumps in the air, spins around winding up his attack, then stabs the enemy for normal fast attack damage, that isn't practical.  It isn't useful.  If part of the 'learning curve' is learning to never, ever use that move, under any circumstances, the added move is unnecessary.  If facing to the left before you attack will one-shot every single enemy in the game that doesn't have a shield, the only 'learning curve' involved with this particular move is to figure out to always use it when you're facing any enemy that doesn't have a shield.  This system isn't some deep, rich fighting game system, it's a fairly garbagey action game control scheme with no tutorial.

Take the blocking for instance, that forces you into good tactical combat, where positioning is key and where utilising the environment whenever possible is absolutely vital. As opposed to combat which aims to provide instant gratification, a console-like experience, that's happy to allow freedoms to the player, which naturally result in them rushing in gung-ho hoping for the best.

This system isn't some deep, rich fighting game system, it's a fairly garbagey action game control scheme with no tutorial.