Even on normal, skill selection and positioning are important; on hard they are critical, with much less room for error. For example, in the Twitch stream during the end of the D:OS 2 Kickstarter, a couple people very familiar with the combat still managed to get killed repeatedly (even in the first tutorial fight of the game). The stream cut out a few times near the start, so it is in multiple pieces:

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/v/18449870

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/v/18450055

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/v/18450304

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/v/18450441

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/v/18451386

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios/v/18451626