New Beastmaster looking for advice

[Maxpedition]

Hello all, I am a new player with a few days gameplay under my belt. I chose my first character to be a Beastmaster and down the road plan on its secondary to be vampire. Currently I am stuck at the 3rd boss named fanged newt I believe. Is it normal for a Beastmaster to have difficulty at this early stage of the game? I have my Beastmaster skill at 10 so I can equip a rat ?if? I can ever get to the 3rd town in order to buy one.
Here is what I?m focusing on:
-all beast master skills
-suiting
-learning skills via passive
-crit
-sorcery and green magic for some healing and dots.

Anyhow any tips on this class/class combo? Thanks.