The Difficulty is Overtuned

I am currently level 20 and in Act 1 taking on Ogham Manor.

My problem with the game so far is that the progression seems to focus around exploring a zone and getting to the level's end boss. Getting wiped by them, spending hours grinding that level to get a small skill upgrade and then try to defeat the boss - if that fails - rinse and repeat, with the leveling up taking even longer.

None of the other nodes on the map matter as the lower level enemies yield nothing of value.

I know some have compared this to Dark Souls, but frankly, Dark Souls leveling is faster than this.

I feel that this game doesn't respect the gamer's time and that's not just a skill issue, it's a design one.

Fully agree and also drop rate is crazy low, im stuck with level 5 items at lvl 35. Wait until you get to the ascendance and trying out the honour system which is even worse than early game

Once I tuned my skillgems with good supports and got some better gear the game got WAY easier.. The bosses are still really tough for me, but I'm not sure if that's a bad thing it's forcing people to team up.