The folks at Pirates of the Burning Sea have published the release notes for the recently deployed 1.4 patch for Pirates of the Burning Sea.

This is a milestone upgrade and, as such, is a large download and contains several changes with broad impact.

Main Changes:

• Buccaneer class: All characters are receiving a forced respec and a free respec token. In order to balance Pirates, we needed to create another class for them. They now have Cutthroat (what we're calling the class we've had all along) and Buccaneer. Then we revamped skills on all classes. The logic and general overview is covered in several Devlogs by Taelorn (Cutthroat, Buccaneer, Privateer, Freetrader, Naval Officer). More details can also be seen below. 
• Unrest Supply: The intended effect of this system is to pace the rate at which unrest is generated by turn-ins, and to ensure that everyone has time to respond to economic moves by their enemies. There's always a fixed, known amount of unrest at stake in each period, and you can tell at a glance how much of that your nation is going to get. You can also tell how much your enemies are going to get, and plan accordingly. When you visit the Rebel Agent or Garrison Commander, you'll see a brand new UI. Through this UI, you'll be able to turn in specific items, including unrest bundles, to contribute to your nation's efforts in the port. Every six hours, at fixed times, a set quantity of each item is consumed, and the port generates a fixed quantity of unrest. You can't always make turn-ins, though. Economic-driven unrest only works up to a point, after which the battle has to move out onto the waves. Neither the attackers nor the defenders can continue making turn-ins past the Pirate PvP stage. Isildur will be posting a Devlog on this soon where he'll go into more detail.
• New ships: Our creative and talented players have provided us with new ships. We've added four to the game in this build. Details below.

Read more here.