phd ? More like common sense and understanding what you just read from that documentation page. Some recipes and hints are not clear, but i hope to find more about them from old forum topics and from Dmitryj (he helped a lot last time with his knowledge).
As for walktrough and dying. You start at lvl 10 with 5 skill points - just read about skills and synergies and those passive synergies from stats/skills. Also check vitality table to see what is optimal vitality number is for having max hp multiplied by specific multiplier. Other than that main stat is dex for melee and dex/energy for casters. At least is what i understood so far and it worked.
In this mod your hp is under "eagle stance" efect - healing full hp in 18s - 24s. Heal time depends on your str. With this healing factor you can run around while fighting to wait for hp to heal up. If you are poisoned or taking constant dmg - this tactic not work. Items with atacker takes X of Y dmg is very nice and work great. You kill melee targets while ranged mobs kill themselves
You start with -50 res and max res is very low too. This is main problem and reason of my deaths. I died about 10 times or less. Boss is fire enhanced > boss dies > big fire nova triggered > you have no source to leach from > negative fire res > dead meat. Other than that only two mobs very troublesome: underground passage has grizly bears - super fast, come in packs, surounds, stun locks, gg. Countess mob - uses caster druid fire skills - rapes fast.
Everything else was easy for melee paladin - fast atacks with hp on atack, hp after kill, replenish - just some nice synergies from skills and items.
Skills, xp, stats. You get some xp from mobs, but kinda not worth to farm it in most cases. Rather than xp you farm gold. 1gold:1xp from mercs. You buy 5k, 10k, 50k and so on xp tomes > you consume them > go out kill 1 mob > gain a level. 1 level gives you only 5 stats. No skill points. For skills you farm more gold and buy skill books. For example, act 1 mercs sell lvl 1 and lvl 2 skill tomes. So your skills are limited to lvl 2 until act 2. In act 2 i saw lvl 4 skills. Some book shelves drop random skill books in jail areas. And i think there should be recipes to craft own skill books. I tried 3x same tome - nothing happened.
When i played this last time it was major block when moving from hatred to terror. Because resists negative again and death penalty was brutal. 1 death was 1/4 of max xp gone ? In this patch it should be easier, just go back, farm loads of gold, buy xp tomes. Get more stats > increase synergies > rush to next act > buy better skill tomes > come back and finish what needs to be done.