Hmm, did they change that fight in a patch or something?

I played on Hard - and it was very easy. Maybe it's because I used the Igni sign? I can't really remember.

One of the great things about the game, in my opinion, was how the boss fights didn't "break the rules" - and your build was relevant to them.

That wasn't the case in TW2 with the Kayran fight which was, indeed, stupid.

AFAIK, they've promised not to have such stuff in TW3 - but I might be remembering wrong.

I really don't know if it was changed later. I remember trying all kinds of tactics to no avail. The tip I eventually got was to use spectre oil - which my build didn't have and which I couldn't aquire from my current save. So I reloaded an earlier save, redid a number of things, did the quest to get the spectre oil (which I had never needed before), and when I went back thus equipped I beat the fight on the second try. As a completionist you probably had that potion - but the game never gave you indication that you would need it (and to be fair, I am sure there were probably other ways to beat that fight that didn't involve this potion. But for my build the difficulty spike was just beyond fun).

Guess you never tried, but you can 1-shot that thing.

If I remember right the bestiary also says they (dog things) are vulnerable to knockdown (Aard). Knockown > Execute lol.

Combat was very unbalanced in favor of signs .

I found the two old hags way more demotivating than the swamps .