The sentiment I see all over the internet is "try out your first character, don't give a shit about builds or such and just have fun, and then when you hit that point where you've fucked over everything, start a new one".
One of the innovations I'm really liking after playing some more is the potion system. Rather than having to constantly buy and stock up on potions, you have five bottles that refills as you kill stuff. They come in healing, mana refill and buff variants, and the selection of those are pretty important. They also add a great flavor to boss fights - at one point you will start running out of health, and have to run around and kill mobs getting spawned to refill.
I just died for the first time against the boss on the top of the pyramid. Dammit he hit hard. Going blind, and not looking at any builds or really anything, I'm way, way into glass canon land. All extra one-handled and mace damage, and the strength requirements to get there. Only extra defense I have is the stuff you get included with the damage buffs, plus a full resistance node I grabbed at one point. Still 0% chaos resistance, which hurts quite a lot.
