I just rolled up a biped alt on Order and was surprised that all of the spirit isle grulets available for the first quest are now level 3...
For me at least, a level three grulet seems to just about two-shot a level 1 zero-skill character. I tried with a new cleric, warrior, and scout with the same results - a trip to the nearest shrine.
Last week when I ran through spirit island the grulets were level 1 - is their recent leveling frenzy a fluke?