The strafe keys, Q & E, while in third person view behave exactly the same as the turn keys, A & D. That is, they turn your character to the left or right and leave your character facing that way. This is unlike how they behave in first person view.

My suggestion is to make the strafe keys keep your character facing in the original direction, or at least in the same direction as the camera is pointed. So, for example, if your character is looking straight ahead in third person view and you press Q to strafe left, your character will move to the left but remain looking straight ahead.

I find this affects me most in combat because I try to use strafe to adjust my characters position after one monster has died and then I find I'm facing the wrong way to attack and I have to jiggle around to get him facing the next monster.