I'm playing a worse version of Settlers

I feel like I'm stuck in Settlers 4.0 -- a league I played for 10-11 months but with a worse recombinator and requiring more expensive boat shipments. My SSF gear is, frankly, dogshit, but I do have 81% fire res and 78% spell block. I feel like that should have been sufficient against a merc that's primarily using fire spells for damage. Yet it kept chunking me for 75% of my life until I died. I'm barely engaging in the league mechanic as it is. If I'm going to get smushed by a merc I'm particularly suited to fight (and still die to), what incentive do I have to engage with all of the others I'm not?


And while I'm here... I don't know what's going on but I'm desynching; I'm getting texture and enemy pop in; I'm getting shotgunned with 78% block; I have Resolute Technique yet my attacks visibly keep missing; and my loading screens are taking 5x-10x longer than they were two weeks ago. The whole game feels terrible to play right now.