Story stuck complaint central

Lvl 50 Berzerker. Having a good time steadily advancing through the story until… Whack. The difficulty update. For 5 seconds I was excited about all this free purple gear, until I realized they were my character’s funeral clothes. In chapter 14 I now stand before a wall of blue enemies. I have great red spells, but they must cycle 3 times(!) to kill one enemy. If I can’t get my color, I’m dead. If I fail to stun from a locked board, I’m dead. If I use any of my old gear, super dead. If I attempt to use green spells instead of red, dead. (Low mastery). Any of you other lowly non-citadel-having folks experiencing this?