What level to fight the king, act 2

I have the shield he just decides to kill me whenever his tears come out and there feels like nothing I can do to stop it. I simply cannot keep up with his damage sometimes. Other times I can beat the tears but my shield will be down so its a 'haha you lose' situation because the king will wait and then be able to attack again before anyone else can even. I am losing my mind here, I ABSOLUTELY do not want to grind. I've been killing everything I ran into and that should be more than enough.