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Getting poisoned by the Queen Endrega is pretty much a death sentence. It comes out quickly in a spray and hits you even if you're trying to roll out of the way.
Even if I'm able to kill the other Endregas around her (which re-spawn if you save after killing them...at least I can farm experience this way), fighting the Queen one-on-one is futile and suicidal.
Which signs and strategies are especially effective?
Is it just another matter of having to have a perfect run to win the battle?
I just killed my first Endrega Queen (I find out we have to kill two of the things. TWO!), and if you're getting hit by the poison, you're probably fighting much too close to the queen.
Hit and run tactics are your best friend here -- the greater distance you are to begin with, the easier it is to dodge the poison stream, the charge attack, everything.
The other useful thing was the Aard sign. The damage / daze effect it creates can stop most of the Queen's attacks mid-animation, giving you time to get in a swing or two. Dart in, blast her with the sign, strike a few times with your sword, dodge away, wait for vigor to recharge, and repeat.
I found that when fighting the queen, the quick attack style oftentimes did "minimal damage", so stick to heavy attacks when you can.
The last helpful advice I can give is that the Queen shakes her head just before spraying the poison, and rears back before her charge attack.
I found that the most effective tactic by far was to always stay behind the Queen Endrega. It takes far, far more damage that way as most attacks from the front are blocked. The difference is really big, attacking from the front I only made a very small dent into its health bar, attacking from the rear I halved it in a few swings.
I was able to get behind it by rolling around (I had the first upgrade that increases the distance you roll).
There are also potions that increase your poison resistance you could take before the fight. Golden Oriole gives you +30% resistance against poison, incineration and bleeding.
If you've been collecting the snares from the forest around Flotsam, they're the easiest way to kill the Endrega queens. You can stack the snares on top of each other.
Destroy 2 of the three cocoons. Then lay 20 snares on top of each other. Then destroy the last cocoon to trigger the queen. Lure her onto the snare stack and she'll die instantly.
It's anti-climactic but VERY effective. Just make sure you don't walk onto the stack or it will instantly kill you too.
Use the sign that stuns opponents in place and run to the back. Hit it with strong attacks.
Rince, repeat.
My first queen I encountered was the one near the attacked convoy with 3 or so dead soldiers. My tactic for said queen was the use of Grapeshots, when she spawns run away from her in the direction of the attacked convoy and even a little further then that this puts you out of her care zone and when she reaches that she will turn back. Then is the time to nail her with a grapeshot on her back or flank, do this as often as needed until she is dead. It worked for me, it did take around 10-15 grapeshots but she never was able to attack me.
Use trap, it works magic. Set all your traps around the place before the queen spawn. When she pops, just run around the traps, she will be down to 1/5 health bar before you know it. I killed both queens using traps inside 2 mintues without a scratch. Best trap is conflagration, it blows up real hard.
The most straightforward way is to simply use igni to burn it to death. By rolling away when it attack/spray poison, I managed to kill both queens on my second attempt (normal mode).
First, I used igni to attack it. It will be slightly 'blinded' and that's when I strong slashed it two times. It will most likely recover by then, so just roll out of the way when it attacks. Then, just repeat these steps until it died.
Note: If you need time to regenerate your health, I found out the queen is limited to a specific area, so once you stepped out of that area, you can wait until your health is high enough before attacking it again. But I am quite sure the queen's health will also regenerate so don't wait too long.
Basically use the shield sign Axii and run in and do a light attack followed by a heavy attack until your shield breaks. At that point, dodge out and put your shield back up and throw grape drink at it. You don't need to waste your grape drink, but it makes it faster.
Also, when you reload a save, there might be a roach there, so check for that. You don't want to fight a queen + roach.
I used the Stun (AXII), strike from the back, and stun again. Stunning is fast so you just need to be cautious.
Stun, strike, run away. Repeat for 5 minutes.
