Deal barely any damage, take a lot of damage?

Acts 1-3 for me were pretty easy, Act 4 got a bit hard and now Act 5 was just insane, I felt like I dealt almost no damage and there are sooo many mobs to kill and they melt me, I have to kite like crazy and spam flasks 24/7 to keep myself going. Someone had to boost me through the Act 5 Kitava fight because I spent 30 mins fighting Kitava to no avail I just couldn't progress through (I think the 2nd time the heart popped out) I would die so fast evem with kiting and I wouldn't do any damage. Hitting Kitava seemed like the health bar wasn't even moving no matter what skill I used..

Can someone analyze my character because I won't be able to go on and play if I'm struggling like this..

First time player btw.. Watched a lot of PoE beginner videos but I think I'm still clueless if Im struggling.

I haven't even been able to complete the Abyss challenges so I completely ignore them when I see them because I'll get overrun by the mob spawn and die. Is this supposed to be normal or am I messing up somewhere?

So I'm sure others could give much better advice than me, but some quick points:

For Survivability:
1. Try to stack as much flat life as you can on your items, and pick up any and all life nodes on the passive tree in your area. At your level you should be looking at trying to get up to 2k or so life. You'll want probably 3.5k life when you get to level 65 and higher. You'll want around 5k+ life when you get 80 or higher. My numbers could be a bit off, but I think they're a reasonable benchmark to shoot for.
2. You'll want to focus on resistances as well. I don't feel like you need to make them capped out (75%) until you get to maps though, but try to make sure they're not too low either. Maybe try to keep them all above 50%?
3. Try to use only 1-2 Healing Flasks and 0-1 Mana flasks, and change out those excess flasks for utility flasks. Basalt flasks are great for physical damage reduction and granite flasks give enough armour to stop a lot of damage coming in while going through the base game. :)

For Damage:
1. Try to focus on one major skill that you like the most so far, and try to get a 4-link setup for it. You could also do 2 different 4-link setups; one for single target damage, and another for pack clearing.
2. I'd highly recommend picking up Herald of Ash + Herald of Ice/Lightning and have both active at the sametime. They give a great amount of additional damage!
3. On the same note, you could run Herald of Ash + Hatred if you're okay with reserving even more mana than 2x Heralds.
4. Keep an eye out for rares/uniques that add flat damage bonuses and attack speed. Stygian Vise belts are amazing if you can get your hands on a rare one with life and resists. Then use the socket for an abyss jewel that gives you more flat damage.

Don't worry about feeling underpowered or clueless on your first playthrough - it happens with a lot of people in PoE. There is a lot more going on mechanically, and the game starts demanding a lot more from the player when you reach acts 4 and 5. Coming to the forums and asking for advice is a great way to learn though, and if you need any more help/advice never hesitate to ask! ^_^

I feel like I have the best gear available to me yet Im not doing much? Could you check my character by any chance >.>

your bow needs an upgrade badly
you can trade for 1c unique or rare that for level 49 will have a lot more deeps

or if you want to go ssf route, there are some recipes. a white ivory bow without quality does 21-64 damage with 1.35 attack speed. a white highborn bow (level 50) will do 17-66 damage with 1.45 attack speed. you need to upgrade bows a lot when leveling as bows.

leveling with bows without leveling gear can be somewhat painful compared to other builds, especially if youre a new player.

also you wanna get a 4link for your main skill


so,'playing the game as intended version': go to vendor, grab
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Highborn_Bow
or
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ivory_Bow

do the rustic sash recipe (1 white weapon + rare (preferably, but magic is ok) rustic sash + blackmsith's whetstone)= craft

can do several bows like that and get with most dps and not awful attack speed.

'trading' version:
go to poe.trade, enter 50 as max level, get a 190+ dps bow with a 4l for 1 chaos. wreck shit.

Ok so I got a 160 dps bow for 1 chaos but I still don't feel so strong and I also die pretty fast still.

Idk..

You keep dying because you have literally zero elemental resistances.
Please press C ingame and check your defense tab.

The ele res (means chaos res can be ignored) should be sitting at 50%+ each for comfortable leveling.
If you can cap your res (75%), thats even better.


Just as an example so you understand why this is so important:
If a mob was dealing 1k fire dmg and you had 50% res, you´d mitigate 500 dmg.
Now you char is sitting at -12% fire res. So if you were taking the same hit as in the example above, you´d be taking 1000 base fire dmg multiplied by 12% (negative res) - so 1120 fire dmg total.

Thats more than twice the damage you are supposed to deal with and thats why you keep dying all the time.
You could grab the Purity of Elements aura to get some all res that way and improve your gear.
While leveling, you dont need dmg on your gear (except for your weapon obviously) and you should focus on flat life rolls + ele res


Besides that your tree doesnt make a whole lot sense right now.
Your bow has a lot ele dmg and you add flat ele dmg support gems, but you do scale physical bow dmg on your passive tree. Doesnt add up.
Go for ele OR phys dmg and you´ll enjoy much better results.


Cheers

This game is very complicated. And Ranger bow chars are notoriously difficult for new players during story mode.

Some more random things I noticed - in addition to previous comments:
You still dont seem to use a 4link. (Not sure if Shrapnel Shot + Volley even works for more DPS.)
Tornado Shot (if you use it) should be linked with GMP.
Get a Golem and a totem.
Get 'Blink Arrow' and link with (at least) 'Faster Attacks' and learn to use it.
Use some cwdt-Enfeeble (or whatever) setup.
Either use Enduring Cry or cwdt-Immortal Call.
Get your Ascendancy.
If you still have troubles surviving after maxing your resists you can try using 'Grace' aura. It will need some levels before it works properly though.

As others said, you really need your main skill on that 4 Link.
Since you are buffing physical you should get Physical Projectile Damage on shrapnel or tornado or both. You need to find some rings that boost resists and get new gloves.
And get and an abyss belt as well so you can socket something useful. You can quality that bow with sharpening stones. Your tree does look similar to a critical tree it just takes time to balance out. Your chest armor is also getting close to needing upgrade and you should be able to get some resists there.

Examples of cheap upgrades:

Like other have said, you should add a fourth gem to your bow setup. My advice is to use a chromatic orb on the bow to get four green sockets and move the phys projectile support in your head over to that.

Get a defensive aura like arctic armour or grace.

Switch some flasks to defense: basalt, stibnite or jade.

Find gear with some resists. Read the wiki or poeaffix.net to see what mods your gear can have.

Get a decoy totem. They can pull monsters off of you.

You have three attack skills slotted (tornado, shrapnel, lightning arrow), but no utility. You should get:
- blink arrow for movement
- a cwdt setup for oh shit situations
- an ice golem
- herald of ice + curse on hit setup
- arctic armour or some other defensive aura
- decoy totem for distraction or siege ballista for more damage (ballista needs more links, though)

All gems are available after Malachai act 4, and you can buy them either from Siosa/Library/Act 3 or in act 6 from Lilly.

And resists. If you're already in act 6, your resists will be dark red in the negatives, and every candle flame will kill you.

Also: get your hideout and level your masters. As a 1st-time-player you won't have much currency, and being able to craft that missing resistance or that bit of life on an item is definitely useful.