I love how all this discussion about survivability is taking place and talking about the dodge roll iframes being your best defense.
Guys, the dodge roll has no iframes. 0. It never has. It's just a slight burst of faster movement, nothing else. All the people talking about it making attacks 'miss' are saying that like it's got iframes and it just doesn't, the only thing it does is help you move out of the way a bit faster.
Stop treating it like the dark souls roll and you'll have a better time of things.