HOS DLC too hard for me

So I'm playing through on normal difficulty and getting my butt handed to me on Iris greatest fear. Nothing is working. Party doesnt work. Quen shield gets taken down as soon as I cast it. If you're going to make it this hard then how about you make your combat less clunky? Why is it so difficult compared to the base game? It's making me want to just quit on how impossible this guy is. And I'm hard stuck were it automatically loads me into the fight so I can't craft any oils or anything. Auto save should save before the fight not right as it begins...