I should clarify what I mean by "atrocious."

As a new player, you get dumped unexpectedly into combat at the end of long dialogues and cut scenes with no chance to save. Atrocious. If that weren't bad enough, the screen does a slow fade-in during which time the AI enemies are moving and attacking you before you can see what's going on. In some cases this happens even when the preceding cut scene shows Geralt drawing his sword and surprising his opponents.

The combo attacks look kind of cool in some cases - like when you chop off a bandit's head and it goes rolling away on the ground - but from a play standpoint they're pretty boring. Click...click...click. If that's all there was to it, it would be really awful. The larger part of combat, including tactical movement, using specialty oils and potions for particular enemies, charging up melee attacks, and casting signs, can be pretty fun. Why bother with the boring combos when you can stun monsters with Aard and kill them with one blow?

So I have an odd love-hate relationship with combat in The Witcher.

Heh, Aard <3
My one gripe was pulling off all but one of the special attacks was nearly impossible, and the one you could pull off seemed severly overpowered.
I don't know if its a difference in stat allocation but I never found that signs were overly powered compared to combat, and there were enough stun resistant critters out there.
All this said, coming back to OP, I do remember the Beast being my toughest fight of the game.