The obvious drawback of Quen is that you don't regen vigor. So, all of the talents and potions that increase vigor regen in battle are basically useless to players who use Quen all the time. I know there are people who don't use it automatically - what is your favorite generic tactic?

I find quen useful even with more vigor. It means when quen runs out, I don't have to wait for it to recharge. Besides quen, I just roll all over the place. Yrden is helpful too.

Generic tactic - dodge. Once I learned how useful it is, I always put 2 talents into that skill.

Rolling. Or, you know... dying.

Rolling away is usually a better plan. Once you learn to dodge a bit earlier than you think is necessary, fights against 3-4 opponents are a breeze. For more than that, the skill that allows you to hit multiple opponents with your sword is a godsend. If you use several fast attacks and then a strong one, you'll spin around like a madman with your sword and inflict a good amount of damage on everything nearby.

Quen is horribly broken once its upgraded to reflect...

Outfit yourself with Sign damage increase gear..

Then when you get hit watch many kinds of monsters one hit themselves to death.

upgraded it so it effects mutiple monsters and its actually the most damaging sign.
For vigor used.

I avoid using quen most of the time (now playing on hard), I prefer to use vigor for blocking.
And for the tactics: block + riposte and of course let it roll, baby roll!
Bombs are really good, my favourites against humans are dancing star (because it sets them on fire) and the one that makes them attack each other (literal translation from pl would be "red mist").

Playing on hard here, using Samum, Red Haze and Yrden to split groups apart, then slicing them down with Mutant enabled.

If in high places near the edges, I just spend my vigor on Aarding people over the edge. It's highly satisfying.

I tend to open with queen (since i only have 3 vigor bars @ lvl9) them i use the push one a lot cause that really help on finishers sometime. when quen is done i let it recharge and rinse, the igny one is pretty nice too, wonder how powerfull it might be fully upgraded!

Pretty much my tactic. Don't know why but I always enjoy countering in games. Rely on that mainly although I avoid bombs and traps as you don't get XP for kills from these.

Yrden is great for taking a foe out of the fight and then throwing Axii on one of his friends also stops them dead in their tracks while you take control. A quick Aard on any approaching enemies before the Axii means any fights with 3 or less enemies are manageable even without upgrades to your signs.

Get a crowd control effect for Aard, 2 traps for Yrden and 2 people at once for Axii and groups are no problem.

Boss fights are still a problem without Quen though.

Haha didn't know you could do that, very nice..something to try

Fire Rune + Whirl against mobs susceptible to incineration. Which is most mobs.

Yrden against nasty individuals like golems.

Unfortunately blocking is unresponsive for me, so I still have to spam Quen against the tougher mobs and bosses. Still didn't stop the Operator from whipping me like a cheap whoreson though.

I found this out in the prologue, it is hilarious although the ragdoll physics is quite unrealistic.

swallow or gadwell + golden oreole (pluss buffs to armor asap

On my first two runs I relied on Quen quite a bit. I am a slow learner. (First one, didn't level it up all the way, so used it tons but didn't see its full effect. Second run, it was just fun to aoe kill with it.)

Now that I feel that I have the mechanics etc. of the game down, I am only using it when I absolutely have to. That means I tend to have much more Vigor, so I can use the other spells more frequently.

Basic tactics involve a lot of rolling and dodging, but surprisingly less running away than when I relied on Quen. I have gotten a lot better at spell/quick-strike combos. Which spell I use is pretty situational. I don't favor one above the others. What I am doing regularly, is following the spell with a short strike more often than a strong one. I still get caught off guard too easily not to immediately back up after a strike. But I usually have enough vigor to do this quite a few times, killing several enemies before I need to retreat to regain vigor. I hardly get touched.