Now, it's no shock that Sea Battles, since their release, are an important part of the high-end play for DE. Access to Corsairs, highest tier Jewelry in the game, Black Marks, Bounty Scrolls; It's no understatement that this single fight holds a lot importance to a large portion of the community. However; due to it's importance, and the wide open level restrictions (22-50), it leaves a wide variety of people capable to join that may or may not be properly equipped to compete on that high of a tier of combat. With the recent conflict between Clans that will not be named for mutual respect, there is clearly an issue presented about either the importance of the Sea Battle itself, or the possible rewards/reputation.

I have an idea or possible solution to instill the type of importance of the Sea Battle amongst the community, with the possible rewards present and the possible force they will be opposing to be considered "Competitive" in a Sea Battle: Mock Sea Battle

The principle of a Mock Sea Battle would essentially be a series of Quests: one run, 2 of the 4 stages of a Sea Battle, all done via PvE, rather than PvP, each stage being a separate quest

(Quest 1-Pirate Fortress)
-Pirate stage would be relatively left unchanged, held in a separate instance of the Pirate Fortress stage of the Sea Battle

->Would be completely Single Player (Similar to the "Halls of Peace" area in the Vigilant Guard questline)

->Would be Scaled to the Individual Player's Level (Similar to the "Holiday" themed enemies, such as the Undead mobs of Night of Great Dragons) but scaled slightly higher, requiring players to bring their "A game": high tier Pots, Mounts, Skeles, Draggy, Sets of Armor, etc.

->Reward would be a quest item(s), similar to the "spoils" of a Successful Pirate raid.

(Quest 2-Boarding Phase)
-The Boarding Phase would be Similar to an Actual Boarding Phase, with a few changes to help make it Automated and still give as close to an accurate show of what's required to be present in a Sea Battle and be Victorious

->Situation would be present as a Plaver vs AI fight: either a 1v1 to simulate a Captain Battle, or a 1v4 or 4v4 fight to simulate Stern/Fore battle.

->All AI present and the Player will be given stat increase to Simulate level 50, Both sides given a "Shrapnel" debuff to simulate damage taken from the Cannon Fight stage.

->AI will have stats Similar to certain teirs of armor if equipped to a character (1-30 Green tier/1-30 Blue tier/30-50 Green tier/30-50 Blue tier)

-> AI on the player side (if present, in a 4v4 situation) would be offset that, on average, would result in the player requiring to deal X damage to claim Victory : i.e. w/o the player's involvement, the AI 3 vs the AI 4 would result in a collective HP of an X amount left in the AI 4, that the player's involvement would be required to claim victory. Basic idea similar to the Gladiator Battle for completed gladiator collections, but on a more balanced tier.

-> This X offset can be set based off the average damage dealt in a Sea Battle by the Winning Teams of a Sea Battle, minus a set amount to make it easier to accomplish: This is designed to be a simulation of a Sea Battle to let people know what it would take to win

-> Quest Completion can result in Corsair Reputation, "Test" Black Marks/Bounty Scrolls/Corsair Phials, and most importantly: Understanding of what a Sea Battle constitutes, What is asked of the player to be able to COMPETE fairly in a Sea Battle, and deter players who are not ready to competitively take part in a Sea Battle a chance to find out without costing a Victory to the other side, due to lack of preparation/strength.

I know this is a LOT to ask for, and a practical Nightmare to implement, but this mini-tutorial ideal could help brace players for the higher tier expectancies placed on them to participate in the combat present in Sea Battles.

Just my 2 Copper