Rolling limited to stamina/vigor in some way. Keep the rolling, but make it tire Geralt, so you can't spam it all around a battle. Also, varied rolling animations. The pirouette is probably the thing I like most about the FCR, to the point that if I could just transfer it to the original system, I probably wouldn't even use FCR. Even in TW1 I enjoyed how Geralt moved differently depending on the direction of your dodge.
Different animations goes for "blocking" as well, rather than seeing the sword always held in the same way when you block, like in most (all?) games. I imagine it could be really cool if say you're being pushed back by three opponents, and you prefer to block instead of roll, then Geralt's sword would flash all around the place to parry the attacks, rather than just remain static in that overhead angle.
Also, TW1 allowed you to escape being surrounded by "rolling/jumping" above someone. I like that. It can still be flashy, without making you jump two meters in the air. Say, bending an opponent forward to step onto his back and off it.
[This message is brought to you by a frustrated player who was just murdered by a swarm of harpies who pushed him back against a wall.]
