As per title, how do you drink Swallow potion during battles? In witcher1 you could , now you cannot put those potions in quickslots? wth?

You drink all potions beforehand now. You must meditate, then use the "drink potions" option to the right of the menu cross.

must be a pain on first playthrough if you dont know when a battle is coming.

really? what a stupid decision, health potions are meant to be drunk anytime like any other game... bah

Does anyone read game manuals these days? Meh, I guess with most games you don't have to because they have hand-hold tutorials or just are easy as hell, but every once in a while there comes a game that can't be facerolled from start to end, and we get all those posts asking about absolute basics :> "I can't beat the kayran!"
EDIT
@up - the way it's done in W2 is more accurate to the lore, Geralt drank potions to prepare for battle there. It's not a classic RPG in that matter.

I never found it to be a problem because you get SO many alchemy ingredients you can just pop potions constantly. I always have Swallow and an offensive potion running. If you are really annoyed by having to rebuff that often, just get the mod that increases the duration of potions and you're set. Seriously though, by the time you are halfway through Act 1 you will have so many herbs you'll never run out of potions.

Remember, any time you could drink a potion you can also make them. Just pop into alchemy, mix up your potions of choice, and go right to Drink Potions.

yeah I've read it and it raise questions like this one ... some stuff that can be clear to some may not be that clear to others...

did it enter your head this could be a player new to rpg or even new to witcher games ?

played witcher 1 a shedload of times and theres still things i dont know abouit witcher 2,and alt tabbing out to read a manual can crash the game.

apart from that i cant wait until you hit a brick wall and dare to ask here for a hand or info,thats going to be fun ;)

I've had W1 from when it was new (CE edition too :D) and that's why it struck me so odd you cannot drink a potion anytime... anyways... gonna find somewhere to mediate...

If he was new to the game, then he should read the manual before launching the game more than anyone else. That's what they are for.
About asking you for help - not going to happen, because a) I always read manuals and b) I already finished the game 3 times on hard difficulty :P

just stop this already FFS... I asked a simple Q not a theory of what I should or should not do Khasim83 ...
I am sure you are uber-awesome in the game and use uber-sampling too, but your help here was... 0.
Why waste your time here with non-manual-readers? I am sure you have to write somewhere else more important things

You can't cos Geralt is a cripple and the game doesn't have enough furniture.
[url=]http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/why_i_hate_this_game[/url]

i think its more along the lines of potion power possibly being too easy to win scenario.

in witcher 1 petrie philly-something or other was so easy to use it made it too easy.

u know, every night, I get out the town/fort, plough a girl then drink some potions, then go hunting.

I am a very routined person. lol

Hmm. There is a manual that comes with the game...............