Its not out of date, you can pass by the firs 2 groups of deadbots, not the third one that guards the exit. As an abom myself, I can get past them using smoke and moving fast, even naked, but its a real pain to get past them as a mere freak. I really don't mind the low xp you'll get from ghosts and zombies, enjoy the necropolis, it even has a place you can buy from, just stay away from hellboy and the necropolis heart for now. I'm a spearbom myself, and the chainsaw lance can be easily bought for 10k in the mall, which you can use yourself.
Don't expect to even touch hawthorn till the endgame though. Hawthorn is seriously strong and only the most powerful aboms wielding something other then claws can kill him reliably. Hawthorn is to aboms what vampire hunters are to the vampires, on steroids. Hawthorn is a badass tracker, if you excape him, he'll actively track you for quite a while, going pretty far from FC if he has to, I've seen him actively hunting in the mountain pass, glowstiller, even the glass mesa, and if he goes as far as the necropolis, somehow, stay sharp, cause he can easily plow through an army of deadbots.
Comparing Hawthorn to the strongest vampire hunter (tyrone), I'd say Hawthorn is at least 3 times stronger, much better tracker, and much much tougher to beat in a fight since not only the chainsaw lance give him a parry class of 2, its also a pretty strong spear (I recommend you to get one later, its badass) that does considerable bleeding damage along with slashing, I think only the zap spear is better.