Ya, I hate this stupid fucking Act 1 just as much as every other league. Dodge rolling for literally 10 mins while my level 11 char does zero DPS is amazing gameplay.
Yup.
I've complained about this several times in this thread already, but I genuinely think the early game is a horrible experience regardless of what class, weapon, or skill setup you choose. Some options are certainly better than others and can make the process a bit faster or smoother, but overall the first part of the campaign just doesn't feel good to play.
Things start to improve toward the end of Act 1, around the Geonor/Manor section, and by the middle to late stages of Act 2 the game finally begins to feel more like a normal ARPG progression experience. Assuming of course you aren't playing some super retarded hipster build.
In my view, GGG needs to move away from the whole "Dark Souls, but ARPG!" philosophy they originally marketed. To be clear, I was actually excited by the idea of a slower, more deliberate ARPG. The problem is that the game no longer seems fully committed to that direction. Over time, it feels like development has shifted toward a hybrid bastardization between PoE1 and PoE2, partly in response to players who wanted the faster-paced gameplay that PoE1 is known for.
That's also not necessarily a bad thing, but if they're going to continue moving in that direction, then the early-game design still feels stuck in a different philosophy. The slower, more punishing "Soulslike" elements don't really mesh with the faster, more explosive gameplay the game eventually evolves into.
GGG has already acknowledged that substantial balancing work still needs to be done, so I'm hopeful that by 1.0 much of this will be ironed out. As it stands, though, Act 1 and a good portion of Act 2 still feel unnecessarily frustrating compared to the rest of the game.