You did exactly what i did and ignored ships. discovered zeta and trying to do mad dash on ship. I did that and then realised ooopppss i aint got any dark side ships or decent characters doh.
Still working, finally unlocked the capital ship challenge to unlock zeta challenge. Just need some work on the ships/characters available.
What is said is true. I have been playing game since about a month after it was release (although a lot more casual then, cant seem to put done for more than an hour without logging into the bloody thing, still FTP though).
I was struggling to get anywhere in arena. Made changes to arena team with less power (understand game more) and know punching into top 200 in my well established shard.
With ships i was like you. Do one a day for dailies. not getting about 800-900.
Not doing 5 a day everyday but doing at least 3 attempts. now just about established into top 500.
Still much room for improvement but considering i gave most a 2-3 month head start i aint doing too bad.
My team is 125k, i am still trying to work ships out but gradually getting better.
I can now beat teams with 135k. Its all about tactics and understanding as is other parts of the game.
Its not about throwing your most powerful toons/ships together and hoping for the best (i did this in arena for about a year).