First solo self found experience is horrible

So i have played the game in trade league for over 350 hours. Now i made new character on ssf. Decided to go with mercenary. I'm now at act2 and can't find new crossbow´or any other upgrade. My damage is just so bad that it takes ages to kill rare monsters.. also basic white trash packs are hard to kill. I've been running to vendors every time i leveled.. nothing. I fought with act2 last boss maybe 10min... eventually ran out of potions and died. Also tried respeccing everything to damage, not a solution. Now grinding to find better gear so i could start to feel like progressing. I have not seen any yellow crossbows after level 10.. not i single upgrade for my gear. Not a single alchemy or exalted orb.

The game relies too hard in rng. If i found a good x-bow, the experience would be totally different. Or if i would find crafting materials to craft a weapon, totally different experience. Now i'm running with blue crossbow trying to kill mobs and not having fun doing so. Lucky for GGG, this is not my first experience with the game..

Also have to mention that something needs to be done with mercenary weapon reloading. Really clunky. Grenades work way better than anything else because of cooldown, not have to wait and reload...but would be cool to go with something else.

Been enjoying the game so far but this ssf experience have been aw