First off, welcome to PoE, it's a very fun game with a lot of stuff going for it... Two points I feel I should make, based on what you said:
One: Tanky melee characters are super fun, playing one now and having a blast! Sword and Board Marauder who can facetank pretty much everything.
Two: There's a new league starting in like a week, I suggest making a "Learner" character now, to just get to grips with the basics of the game, but then wait a week till the new league starts before you really get involved with leveling.