There is no cheesing in this game. Just creative thinking and using what is there to use.
I think it was a good decision to make Quana like this - it encourages alternative strategies instead of being just another fight which one would forget afterwards.
There are multiple fights like this in the game - Dallis @ Fort Joy, the ship battle for some (for me it was insanely hard the first time I did it), the claymen (which made me wipe 10 times or so on my first attempt at a playthrough, now I'm at a point where this one takes me a bit less than 2 full rounds), Aetera, the level 18 troll, Alice Alisceon, Quana...
They play an important role I think... being a true test of strategic thinking and the ability to solve problems with out of the box thinking.
Maybe the out of the box part is to say "goodbye" to the idea that a fight is always about attrition (armor down -> health down -> death, round by round). Sometimes it's just overpowering.
In the blackpits mines there is a combat with this arrogant, self righteous magister guy. Yesterday I wanted to get through this one even faster than last time.
What did I do? Used enrage + ballistic shot on my cloaked archer, one shot him. Not that it was a hard fight at all, ever... but I was in the mood for totally overpowering the enemy, for RP reasons as well (as in: "we were the underdogs, now we're ripping them magister pigs apart like nothing").
Was that cheesing? I don't think so, either.
