A little lost - level 12

[VeraelHasta]

So I'm not really sure what I should be doing now. At this point I cleared Krakengard a few times - except the final boss with the two guards. And everywhere I go everything is super hard to kill.
I'm a paladin and I have 1 of the other classes each in party. They are all lvl 12.
- I tried to go to the ogres to do one of the quests. But the cave ogres are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tanky it takes aged to kill them
- each from my party members has around 30 dps in combat. I have 10 lol
- I looked in the group finder, but there are no characters with lvl higher than mine to help
- I bought some gear from the auction house etc, but it didn't really change anything
- I tried different weapons, like 2h weapon, didn't really change anything
- the enemies in the cave next to the Port are even worse than the ogres

Am I supposed to just sit in Krakengard and grind until I'm 14 or 15? It seem level differences have gigantic impact on the damage you can do.

EDIT:
For anyone struggling with ogres - don't bother.
Lvl up to 13 or 14 in Krakengard.
If you can, kill the fairy elite each time you pass by the green area near the Port

With lvl 13-14:
- kill some Highwayman in the same area as the ogres, they have a few useful items
- try to get to the right side of the mine near the Port (the bugs area) to kill the Royal and the Queen, they drop some great stuff (especialy for mages) and are easier than the horribly overtuned ogres

[Talon Rose]

Meanwhile my lost ass spent a few hours leaving tutorial island, looked around for 20 mins, didn't see a way to progress (There was a cave I could enter near some skeletons) and just kind of stopped for the day.
Charming game but everything is like pulling teeth it feels like.
Arcanist, yet my spells don't do much damage and don't matter. My DPS is atrocious compared to a party member with 6 times the DPS LOL.

[Rhoklaw]

Originally posted by Talon Rose:

Meanwhile my lost ass spent a few hours leaving tutorial island, looked around for 20 mins, didn't see a way to progress (There was a cave I could enter near some skeletons) and just kind of stopped for the day.
Charming game but everything is like pulling teeth it feels like.
Arcanist, yet my spells don't do much damage and don't matter. My DPS is atrocious compared to a party member with 6 times the DPS LOL.

If you've never played games like Runescape, EverQuest or Ultima Online, than no, this game won't make any sense to you. It's a single player MMO simulator, except the MMO it's simulating is from old school era where you needed to grind for gear.

[Jackelmyer]

Having recently the Ogre area, I dipped in a few times at levels 12 and 13 since the balancing patch came out. I think the challenge with that area and maybe, to a degree, the game, is that I'm struggling finding gear that feels like it ready's me for an area. Either that or I'm looking to see what gear might be available in an area and finding nothing of value. So for the Ogre area, as a Paladin, I kinda want nothing to do with it... Based on what I'm seeing on the Wiki and what I'm finding just dipping my toe in there. Not sure the solution but that's the feel I'm getting.