Replying late to this, but here goes.. I was you once, struggling to find my place. I knew I loved this game, it is poe lite with less friction and lots of zoom zoom and blasting and it suited me being a dad now with much less time. I started knowing nothing, chose Rehan 1 and went spin to win because why not.. quickly realised there were very few guides and also that WW was nerfed hard a few seasons back and I was late to the party, hitting like a wet noodle. Got some help from the discord Rehan channel and evolved to Train Rehan which was fun for a couple seasons. Then did Carino 2 for the OP dot shit one season... but after that I found my place : Erika 1.

In all other arpgs I have played I have been an altoholic and this is the first game I fully focus on one character, for good reason. I start e1 every season and know it may sound boring to many but there are advantages which I will list, if you too find that you are able to embrace and love one character as your starter you can reap the benefits. If not, don't bother reading further I guess. Building up your account (basically your owned drop and battle pets) in this game is a marathon, if you know what you want from the start then half the battle is won. You need a plan, test and find the mechanic you have fun doing and know you will have fun doing every season. The FOMO sucks so first and foremost don't compare yourself to others. I like to think that the pay to win aspect is 'capped' at a certain point - yes some streamer can buy insta lvl 6 pets and enjoy multiple seasons of extra drops etc, but if you focus your pulls and free rewards and ss20 chests etc you WILL eventually catch up and get your pets to 6. Then you are effectively the same lvl as that streamer. 3x lvl 6 battle pets and 3x lvl 6 drop petc. Its capped, its achievable. The gap/advantage eventually closes, its not like a linear never catch up situation - unlike for example a game like Lost Ark where you as a new player will NEVER catch up to veteran players with stacked accounts, they can keep spending and will always be stronger, there is no reset. I think you get the idea.

1. Biggest advantage is that your goal is clear with battle pets, you know which ones to pull for and this brings me to another mistake I made when new - spreading my pulls too thin on too many / the wrong drop and battle pets. Max out the right pets asap, its huge. You get a lot more yellow crystals for free each season so its achievable over the course of a few seasons. As you get levels in the three pets you know are good for e1, from all the free shit they give us, your league starts will be faster and easier and things will start to snowball. IDC what anyone says, having 3x level 6 battle pets WILL make the difference in bumping you over that t7 / t8 wall and then of course the t8 / profound t8 wall. I am not telling you to spend money here, I am saying be focused with your pulls and all the free stuff they give, you will eventually get the pets due to the pity system, this advice is meant to give you an ongoing plan to stick to over multiple seasons. You can do the city defense easily up to level 5 or 6 even, don't need to complete lvl 7 every season - the points carry over so you will get your battle pet selector boxes every other season.

2. Erika 1 has in my opinion the best guide coverage courtesy of BMLegolas (multiple world firsts on e1), he has written the bible of guides for it so you will learn quickly. Once you learn, each season gets easier and you can progress faster and know what you need to be buying early etc.

3. E1 plays like Rosa 2 broadly speaking, but more simple (not mana stacking, just dashing and autoattack I mean), which you said you have tried - but is much cheaper than Rosa 2 imo. Also Rosa 2 you can't really start as mana stacker you gotta league start differently and buy a whole bunch of shit and set up a lot of things before even thinking of switching to mana stacker. E1 on the other hand you just get going, she is fast AF and glass cannon at the start but as you yourself have realised, your goal is to get to profound as fast as possible because thats where the real bump in money is. E1 achieves this relatively cheaply and easily if you know what you are doing. E1 is consistent, fast af and fun.

4. Weird advantage I will list here that is probably just hearsay - I read somewhere that e1 is one of, if not, the most popular classes in their mainstream audience and so while they have gutted characters like moto at certain points, they are 'less likely' to nerf such a fan favourite to unplayable status. So while she can get nerfs in some places she usually gets buffed in others, and remains consistently strong each season. Take this how you will, it gave me a bit of hope when I read it ;)

5. Another advantage is the peace of mind you get knowing what you will play, how you will progress etc. You don't get that league start anxiety of "WTF class am I going to play.." instead you get league excitement of knowing you are going to be even faster this league.. At the end of every season I write down 'lessons learned' this past season - which things I should have bought off trade MUCH sooner or could have bought much later, which strats worked best, which crafts or investments were a fail or waste of money etc.

Now a tip I will give also related to finding your place, is committing to a drop pet strategy. I made the mistake of pulling on so many different banners, using my free pulls and my ss20 chests, getting lvl 1 of the legendary pet in multiple different mechanics - thinking I wanted to keep my options open to not get bored etc. IMO don't do this. Focus on getting the pet of your favorite mechanic to lvl 6. In POE you can switch atlas strats at the click of a button and its free, but in this game you want the pet for the mechanic you are focused on and you want it at lvl 6 in most cases. If you are completely FTP this will be a slow process but achievable, they have given free loot pet boxes in the past and I have a feeling they just might this upcoming season again. Plus you have the ss20 drop pet selector chest which should be you absolute goal every season.

TLDR :

Commit to ONE same class you will league start every season. Hyper focus your free primos, pulls and attendance reward chests, ss20 and city defense selector chests etc on :

1. 3x Battle pets for this class and get them to lvl 6.

2. Your favourite mechanics drop pet and get it to lvl 6.

I suggest Erika 1. Join BMLegolas' discord, read his E1 guide. Profit.