After sinking once on a brigantine to the kraken because my crew and I all got trapped below deck by the tentacle wrap and couldn't bail, I decided to do some testing. In our next encounter we tried greatly increasing our damage output (blunderbuss/pistol) and wailing on it but that did not seem to be effective. The tentacle either had a lot more health than before or this wasn't what we were supposed to do anymore.
Eventually I noticed that when the tentacle wraps around your boat a tentacle head appears nearby. Shooting that with cannons is how we now achieve a speedy disengage. Others have also found this to be effective on the sea of thieves reddit, so I think this is probably the intended method.
While I like the theme of this modified mechanic, it may take a while to catch on because pirates who knew the old kraken mechanics will probably first try their luck a few times with the wrapped tentacle and think it has a huge HP pool (like I did originally).
Would it be a good idea to make a loading screen tip in the future that says something like:
"The kraken has returned with more ways to fight. New strategies may help in surviving this plight."
Thoughts?