@stratcat51 we all have the same learning curve, training takes time and the best way to practice in pvp is pvp nothing more nothing less, i didnt get any safety pads from all the prerelease players that messed me up when i joined the game, i didnt get protection from all the fort hoppers that where excellent at pvp i didnt get any sort of protection.
Still i went from a total scrub in PVP to someone that can take down a galleon of 4 solo, i went to someone that got killed each and every time a pvp encounter took place to someone that got better and saw the oppositions moves, learned how the weapons worked in players hands, learned how the ships handled.
And guess what all of that with 0 guides ingame and still most people now certainly fair the next time they run into me and my crew since we went from scrubs running for an outpost if we got a captains chest on board to a crew that isnt afraid of holding up to four athenas voyages worth of loot (incl. Chests of legends) on board (4 is our current record).
The playing field is equal as can be and you can only get better at something by doing it and getting involved with it.
To all people that fear PvP for whatever reason i would just advise to do the following, get a couple of chests aboard (so you have something worth fighting for aboard, as that increases the feeling of not wanting to sink)
And just go for it, you see a ship on the horizon go for it... get into that fight and learn how to react to alot of different situations.
Also do not see losing your loot as a loss in progression, if you fought hard and was able to learn even a bit thats more experience then any rep earned from whatever chest and thus more progression than any item in the game can give you.
Thats what i did and when doing so i lost many a sloop to the seas, but slowly but surely i started taking over solo-sloopers next duo sloopers next 3 man galleons (there where no brigantines then) finishing by taking down 4 man galleons at forts and getting away with all the loot.
This experience was invaluable to my in game mentallity i went from a dog running with its tail between its legs to a wolf that took every challenge and saw every loss as a learning step towards the pirate i am today and to this day the learning is not done, every player plays differently and every time tactics get evaluated and changed to be able to best any ship that thinks they have what it takes to take our fortress down.