Rolling for every enemy type

I'm struggling with the fact that even though I'll bring my shield up, even though I don't have lock on to the level 2 crossbow grunt because I'm too far the arrow will still hit me, a friend of mine suggested to roll out the way which is fine but doesn't it get boring, rolling for range and close range attacks, roll for this role for that is there no way I could get more variety? Shield for arrows and roll for axes. But you can't use the shield against a crossbow shot because you don't have lock on and you can see through your character to line up the shield block.

Is there a way to confidently block arrows with a shield from a range with no character lock?