I've been getting into the game and, as someone who's gone in both light and heavy melee builds, I don't think melee is that difficult to deal with.
I find melee to be a type where you have to be in constant movement weaving around your enemy's attacks. If that fails, then blocking attacks is always an option. You can also perform a Parry by blocking soon before the enemy's attack reaches you, which can force a stop onto the enemy, allowing you to get a few hits in. Especially useful against the Mekboars.
In case of groups, weave around them, dash inside, use a skill and hold that Block button to keep yourself safe from retaliation. If before the class change, weave around them and try to hit them while staying on the edge of the group or use jump attacks often to keep yourself in movement.
Also keep in mind that Blocking is practically also a cancel, you can use at any time when doing something else. If you think you've got a bad timing on an attack and you're about to get slapped hard for it, use Block to save yourself the damage at the cost of some stamina.
If blocking seems like a bad idea altogether, dashing right before an attack reaches you will force a miss. The timing to do that is much tighter than Parry though, I usually try to avoid that.
Long story short, I don't think that melee is much harder than magic, but it definitely does need practice and some knowledge about the various defense mechanics. And in the case of heavy weapons, I recommend using jump attacks to initiate fights, especially after class change because knockback, then using that distance to prepare another one. Parrying is also a good idea as it will give you time to respond with a heavy weapon.
I hope that helps.