I recall that you said you were a privateer in a previous post. Why don't you use valor's fortresses on your companions? Why don't you use espirit and battle zeal to increase your survivability? Why don't you use old scratch to buff your Big Guns so they do 800-900 damage? Have you tried using more defensive companions such as Contessa and Emmett for their gallant and slow/reduce? Have you tried getting Captain Blood's robe? I found that having it was an auto-win vs most fights from the Valencia update. Have you used sluggish and galewimd doubloons to reduce the enemies' offensive abilities? You gotta change your playstyle with these harder fights. I'll leave you with this "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -Einstein