Welcome to Norrath, Azgaron! We're glad to have you!
To answer your question about pet experience, you can read more about how all of that works here ->
https://wiki.project1999.com/Pet_Guide
"In order to receive full experience for a kill solo, you need to do more than 50% of the damage to the mob. If your pet out-damages you, it will take 50% of the experience away from the kill. This is a major change from the previous system, in which you only needed to do a single point of damage to the mob in order to get full experience. If you are grouped, you and your group will get full experience from the kill, regardless of how much damage the pet does."
When looking for a group, I've found that sending messages to players that are within your grouping level to see if they're in a group or would like to group. You can also use the /ooc chat channel to broadcast throughout the zone that you're looking for a group. Sending messages seems to work a lot better and can help you build rapport.