I'm not quite finished with chapter 1 yet, but I've invested points in dagger throwing and bombs. If you throw enough bombs and daggers in a fight, you will hardly get touched on normal difficulty.

On my first playthrough on hard I didn''t use quen until the end of the second chapter.Didn't improve my dodge at all and didn't reduce the damage I recieve when hit from behind also until the end of the second chapter.Used dodge,aard,yrden and counter-attacking.Improving dodge has the least sense imo,the distance it covers is good enough,timing it is what matters.No bombs,daggers(never really tried them,but reading this forum they seem cheap),1 trap used during whole playthrough(minus 7 harpy traps).Good thing I played like this,now I have the combat totally figured out.

I am on my second play through on hard mode, and I am not using Quen at all considering it is so obscenely overpowered it removed all challenge from the game. I am using standard timed wrap rolling tactics with dodge/yrden against 1-3 opponents, and bombs (zsun, puffball, dancing) with the bomb upgrade from alchemy against large groups. Unfortunately the bomb upgrade made them so powerful that once again I sorta feel like I'm cheating :) I suppose I will just not take it next time (or just upgrade it once ) along with the other skills skills I feel are just too op like quen, daggers, and heliotrope.

Perhaps it is the way I play. I found improved dodge to be useful against large creatures plus you can combine it with WASD to roll behind your enemy and backstab. It is also very helpful in getting away from mobs esp. the jumping attacks of some enemies.

hex the strongest dodge the rest

Yrden, Axil, Red Haze, Dragon Dreams, and Dancing Star. Lots of dodging, parrying if I get any one-on-one.

When I started playing, I was quite reliant on Quen. Towards the middle, I stopped using it almost completely unless there was damage that was extremely hard to avoid. The extra vigor gives you many more options.

I barely use signs in combat.

I mostly only use Aard and Yrden. I only use Quen if I'm in a tough battle and I could use the extra protection. I have started to use bombs a lot, which are very useful in wiping out groups.

Btw, there is a combat balance mod, of sorts, over at Witcher Nexus that tweaks Quen, making it less powerful. I may try it on my next run.

The thing with large creatures is that all(almost all?) of them charge.I just keep my distance until they charge so I have enough time to dodge.I'm usually standing near a wall or something like that,it stops their movement and I hit them in the back.

Sp far only just into chapter 1. I rarely use Quen unless things start to look pretty grim for me (but that usually means I'm gong to die anyway). I tend to try different things, depending on the situation, but I've taken to using Axii, Aard, and dodging more than any other tactics so far. However, I've also used bombs (Samum), Yrden a few times, and traps once (didn't realize you get no XP from them). I've not yet used Igni, and have yet to use throwing daggers. I've only potioned up a couple times. Likely as I move on in the game, I'll test more of those out as well as different bombs.

Roll around and AoE igni once I get it, before that I'll either bomb or just use quen and a sword depending on whether the battle is worth using bombs on.

If I have space/time I'll yrden one enemy, axii another and it effectively controls 3 NPCs if the axii'd NPC fights the non-yrdern'd one. For a limited time, but that time allows you to set up traps, put down another yrden in anticipation, etc.

It's a fair bit more exciting than tanking everything with quen with a typical quen upgrade+swordsmanship build, but can occasionally be very frustrating when you get killed rapidly due to small mistakes or the signs/blocking not responding issue as you have low health with a magic focused build.