What am I missing in the game?

I first want to preface this by saying I absolutely love the game, it's always gonna be a pirates life for me.

I've missed a lot of this game and I just don't know where to start. I feel like all my play sessions are incredibly repetitive. I started playing with my mate, and he took me on gold hoarders so I learnt a lot about them and that playstyle, but he was never one for pvp so that's basically all we need. And now whenever I feel like hopping on all I'll do is a gold hoarders medley, I don't even know how to start much else other than the basic emissaries. Recently I've picked up the eternal guards as well for the purple vaults, but that just ends up making me spend 2 hours farming ashen keys and not getting too much out the game.

I know there's world events or hourglass but I barely know what they are or how to interact or make the most out of them.

Really I'm looking for guidance as to what else I can do in the game outside of gold hoarders, hunters call, order of souls type voyages. Ideally best things to run solo or duo would be great thanks!