Are you starting fresh with a new pirate, or picking up somewhere else?

If the update notes were too much information, then I'd say do what you are doing now, read the forums and ask questions. You can use search to see if some one already asked and answered what you wondered about. You said you "attempted" to play the game, so I'm guessing you didn't get very far before. There are also friendly long time pirates in the game who are willing to answer questions, help out and show you stuff. Some of them have even given their pirate names on the boards here.
I know it feels very strange to go from being a powerful Wizard to a new pirate, but you will get the hang of things quickly. I suggest you might want to start a fresh pirate and listen to the tutorial tips as you go. Sometimes they are obvious, but that way you don't miss what you need to know. You can also check them later, if you need to hear them again. When selecting abilities for your crew, you can see what talents enemies use that go together well. Selecting more of one or two abilities, rather than a little of everything, can be more powerful as you go, because the higher levels of a single power include a nice bonus that usually kicks in at level 3 of a power. It's kind of like in Wizard, do you want to use your points on every school's level 1 spell, or do you want to take it further in only 2 or 3 schools? Pay attention to the crew tasks that your crew can do when you are not using them. They can work on leveling themselves (saving on expense of training them), getting you gear, gold, things to level your pets, and extra xp for your nautical level. The lower a level crew is from your level, the more one training tome will raise them. It might be better to train entire crew to a level or 2 below you, than to have one guy at your level. Buy tomes to have a full 10 before you level up, the price increases when you level up. Train your pet when you get one, it's really easy, and you can hatch a better one when it gets to adult.

ElijahWaterVault on Apr 19, 2018 wrote:

The last time I played was when I finished up Valencia Part 2, two summers ago, right before the release of Rank 5 Epic Talents.

Sounds like you did more than attempt to play the game.