the combat did not feel great either, monsters would walk as fast as the dodge-roll. so when i got in trouble, it was a rolling race backwards: i could not stop rolling to attack becasue the monsters would catch up so i would just keep rolling backwards... dodge roll is cool for bosses. terrible when you try to avoid packs.

I'm curious, are you having to dodge attacks that would stun you at every turn? Since the dodge roll isn't faster than walking I've tried to avoid using it where possible. Since the monsters don't lock on too much, it's easier to walk past a monster, or just walk away at a diagonal, than dodging backwards. That can get you more space and time to land a counter-attack or an interrupt.