Trackers Reach has a modifier if you level it up enough that gives you rage for each enemy you pull. Trackers reach cost no resource only a cooldown. Would that help you out?
There is also a stat on certain items and passive skill nodes called "rage gain when hit" Maybe investing in this stat can help aswell?

There is also a unique sheild that allows you to cast spells but I don't like the idea of pure melee builds being locked behind RNG (or grinding).

I tried a new build and ended up with all rage/rage generation skills.

This time I ran an unusual sorcerer/rogue equipment with two handed sword, just for the sake of testing, and it's very fun, but very hard to play. I'm trying a rogue approach on everything, with a hit and run habit. My thoughts so far:

The dodge mechanic is cool, but I'd raise a little bit how much you can dodge, because if you go full agility as I did you don't really dodge that much, and you end up dead or "running" very often while waiting for your health/shield recharge rate. I am also picking +dodge% nodes but it doesn't work very well so far.

I dodge a few attacks and I keep surviving with globe generation, but I'm always on the verge of death. Shield regeneration is very, very slow, same goes for health regen. So, agility melee build looks cool on the paper, but in truth is kinda lacking in my opinion.

So, I would love an increase in dodge chances, and maybe a quickier shield regeneration rate, to reduce the whole "run until I'm full" plays.

Little update on my little experiment. Right now playing a rogue-like character with two handed weapons and full rage approach is driving me nuts. While I have no problem in clearing trash mobs, blue and yellow elite often kill me, while orange guys ALWAYS kill me without being able to even bring them to half their HP gauge. I'm not doding very much, even if I have 33% ~ dodge score, and my health bar is very, very low, so I keep on being 2-shotted or 3-shotted. Boss fights are just unfair with this build.

I wonder how rogue-like melee characters relying on Agility can keep up! Can you share some info with me, please? Anyone played a rogue-like melee character with a working build?

I have interest in this as well. Currently working on a rage/bleed based build that relies on health and life steal, But my main is a rage based tank-ish build with shield, using skills that provide stuns and then anvil with the stuns for heavy hits and fast kills. So far I'm hitting mid vet levels and going good if a bit slow.

Rage is really the critical issue. even with most (or all) the rage generating passives, you often are rage starved on bosses, and spend more time then necessary kiting while waiting for rage or CD's so you can generate rage again. hitting bosses with auto attack can be deadly in certain circumstances. I was trying a similar build with a 2h but survivability wasn't good enough.

I would be interested to see a build that is more evasion based. so far most builds I see that can do anything past Quest mode rely on either a shield or ranged attacks. rage needs a bit more stat related help like willpower has...I've heard people say you can get your willpower regen high enough that it's almost not necessary to use auto attack to regen it...that would be nice to see that capability for a melee character and rage.

I also support the idea of better stamina regen. There's also some mob or affect that mobs have that can remove your stamina points. Still haven't locked it down yet, so Don't know if it's a bug or intended, but that's a pretty harsh affect for melee players who literally rely on their dodges to do damage and still not get one shot. outside of that, better base stamins regen, plus a few extra regen based nodes would help.

Adding some regen bonus to the current stamina nodes (or the nodes in their areas) would also help . like 15% extra regen on top of the extra stamina point for the two nodes that provide it. Using all the stamina regen nodes currently plus the extra stamina points plus Bulwark of dawn gives me the stamina that feels right for a melee character that needs to dart in and out allot. But that's allot of investment just to make a necessary mechanic for melee feel right.

I'll have to let you know how my bleed build goes, I plan on using health and life leech to test those mechanics to see the survivability. Optimally both this archetype and the rogue "archetype" should be able to hold their own in at least early vet level explorations. Not looking forward to an end game that only supports casters and tanks.

Quick note on dodge: you will probably want to see if you can take advantage of force shield, or how you can work that into your build with a rogue type...seems like the rogue gear has it so it may be a defensive option to try that out. I haven't yet, so can't say for sure.