Those -15% crit modifiers near the starting point, are they worth it?

I am a Duelist and I am going towards the Mara starting point as a last ditch attempt to improve my survivability.

I am at Diamond Skin now and am conflicted about taking the upper or lower path to the right first. I like the idea of flasks more, though I have heard that the Crit Modifiers are underrated. They would also allow me to get the HP nodes first.

Crit mods are horrible either way, I die in 2 hits anyways from somethings, You would assume those would be crits but its not. The baseline is more HP, as even armor is useless.

I made my build wrong but still going at 69, I am great and i mean great in groups as full DPS i take out bosses and elites ect fast as hell, however, solo I can't do.