I think maybe you're looking at the game from a different perspective where you always need to chase the meta, but trust me you don't. Max out a strong arena team whether its JTR/Nightmare/Rebels/Bastilla or whatever and then farm what you want. As long as you're continually farming towards a goal you'll never fall behind.
Amen to that. Meta-chasing is silly in my opinion unless you're willing to spend the time, effort, and possibly a decent amount of money to keep up.
Personally, I went through the better part of my time in the game with much less direction than I "should" have had, and probably wasted a ton of time and resources on characters that wouldn't sustain me very well. Not to mention, I had a few months where I didn't play the game at all. Needless to say, I fell pretty far behind. But lately I've been trying to get back into the running. Just the simple act of deciding on a priority list and sticking to it diligently has catapulted me back into the flow of progression. I'm still behind, but I'm catching up quicker than I expected.
