Is it viable to tank with heavy armor without the Quen shield?

I'm working my way up to being able to wear the Ursine heavy witcher armor in the hopes of being able to stop spending most of my stamina on casting Quen and use some more interesting signs, however even when fighting weak enemies in medium armor Geralt gets stun-locked easily as soon as Quen breaks or runs out. Am I going to be able to effectively use heavy armor without having Quen on all the time, or will Geralt still require Quen to not be stun-locked by enemies?