Farming for gear lvls or farming for charcter shards

Split your energy. You will always need gear. Gear is the single biggest choke point in the game. That said there is tons of much needed toons and ships only available on hard nodes. Your best choice is to split and alternate based on current goals and needs. This goes for both regular and fleet energy.

P.S. I would farm sabine as well. But that is up to you.