Major avatar combat revisions are in development for Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Kevin Maginn, Lead Designer at Flying Lab Software, has written a dev blog on the subject.

Here is what he said: (Quote)

“Over the last few months, I’ve been working almost completely off the radar on just that: a major iteration of the avatar combat system. At the same time, most of the content team has been doing the same for the avatar missions; the animation team has been revising all the swordfighting animations; the UI team has been revising the UI and the particle effects; and the sound team has been iterating all the sounds of avatar combat.

In short, we’ve been stripping avatar combat down to its foundation and building up again. We’ve learned a lot from the first major iteration of the system; we know what worked and what didn’t, what was fun and what was dull. We’ve gathered a lot of feedback from you as well as feedback from our internal test team. We’ve applied that knowledge to create a new system that (in my naturally biased opinion) is much more fun and engaging, as well as easier to learn and easier to use.” (End Quote)

This is probably an extremely good idea as most people felt that the avatar combat system was just 'ok' and somehow, the ship combat, while effective, didn't seem to carry the title on its own.  Kevin did not give any details regarding when this content would release, but let's hope it is soon.