How do you play this game?

[Pwnology]

As a free player:

My experience so far has been dying on a boss and running back. Most of the time, the boss is dead before I return and I receive no loot or experience.

My pet keeps getting unhappy and I must pay gold to make him happy, this will only last so long.

The loot I get is for the other classes and I can only make one character.

Potions are about to run out and I must then use gold to buy them. Gold is non-existent... I get stacks of 1-5 gold from loot and potions cost 700+ gold............

The boss in goblin mines stuns you then kills you instantly... The other bosses are hard but this one takes the cake.

Monsters scale up with your level, but I haven't really got any loot to battle that.

In the near future, I will be stuck, broke, and my only solution is the cash shop.

So is this game based on spending money or am I doing something terribly wrong?