I loved the original Torchlight. It was simple, fun (with a few mods) and easy to pick up and kill some monsters.
Torchlight II was easy to start with so I installed Synergies and went in on Elite mode. I got to the Act with the desert and now I'm struggling. The burrowing monsters that spawn babies are a bore and take ages to kill. Then I'm attacked by other monsters from behind that need completely different tactics and I'm dead before I've had time to drink a heal potion.
I read guides before starting. I'm a Level 24 Berserker with a lot of Focus and some Strength, with most points in the Ice spells. At this stage I'm ready to give up and move on to another game :(

Tochlight 2 is pretty though, and Elite is elite for a reason. It also feels way more oldschool then the rapid game systems nowdays, so try working on sustainability next time, instead of pure offense.

Just because you mastered Torchlight doesn't mean you're ready to start Torchlight II in Elite mode. There are many differences between the two, including how weapons, stats and skills affect the game. I'd suggest playing one or two games in Normal mode to get a better feel for how things work.

Also, why so much Focus? For a Barbarian, that mostly increases your Elemental damage, and much of that will come from weapons, socketable items and enchantments. More Strength and Dexterity would probably serve you better, as well as more Vitality to give you better health. I can say that without seeing your character simply because you're having too much trouble killing those Burrowers and getting killed by a different monster before you've had a chance to drink a healing potion. And, as a more general suggestion, get all of your equipment as many enchantments as you can afford because you never know when they'll come in handy.

Last, if you look down the front page of the Index, you'll find a post from me about a site that gives you valuable info about everything in Torchlight II. I'd suggest that you go there, bookmark it and use it the same way you'd have used a dead tree manual back when games came with one.

Elite difficulty is fairly unbalanced, keep that in mind. A lot of times you can die to a simple critical hit out of random and especially if the enemy has multi-hitting attack or just generally that much faster than you. It will be a struggle till the last part but it is way better on NG+. Starting from NG+ even if the enemies overlevel you a bit the fights will be fair. Shield and damage reduction gems helps the most if you simply just want to survive and of course have as many extra HP from equipment as you can.

Honestly most RPGs have this kind of problem. I had to do the same in Grim Dawn too and similarily I had much better experience on NG+. The challenge scales well rather than being artificially high due to the unnatural stats at that point.