I started the game basic access, mostly because Disney needed to retake geography, and was able to get to level 15 on Notoriety with all weapons skills being locked out at level 7.
The way to progress beyond the 12 - 13 notoriety is by sinking big ships with your smallest ship (light sloop was all we had on November of last year) or by sitting off of PDF and blasting away with canons.
The issue that I see now is that with the remaining weapons skills to master (sailing and cannon are mastered, the others are all at 23 vice grenades which is at 10) and no other quests to complete there is a very good possibility that this character (level 38) not be able to reach pirate master; not withstanding any additional weapons quests or proposed black pearl redo's.
To all the basic access out there that are waffling on what to do - remember that you lose a good portion of your notoriety and that can come back to haunt you like me.
