How can I improve my arena team?

It seems like you have solely focus on Phoenix for awhile. Time to get to next level - unless you want to G12 and zeta on all Phoneix toons - which I don't recommend.

You can choose Sith/ Empire route with Vader, GMT, DN as main.

Or you can go light side route with Biggs + Wiggs and Ackber.

Whichever you choose, I would suggest gear up and level up on Rex. He is pretty neutral toon and work well with different combo.

Hope this helps.

Empire, but finish Phoenix to 7*/g9.

@Bestusername spent a little bit getting boba fett up a little as I’m practically using him to carry me through credit heists atm, and I’m investing my crystals back into cantina.

@DoOrDoNot I’ve started to hit the point of where Phoenix is useful so my plan was to swap, depending on when thrawn is coming back what would you recommend for a light side team with Wiggs and ackbar

First off, I would farm scoundrels to do.the highest tier of credit heist. You obviously need the extra credits, since your arena team is trailing by a level or two. Lando is great and has his uses in other game modes as well. ST Han is needed for the CLS event as well. Clone wars Chewie is a great filler, since farming him doesn't interfere with other farms (just take him to the minimum rank). Finish Chopper at the same time ofc.

Then I would work on Vader, TFP and Tarkin for several reasons:
They pilot/command great ships.
They will help you get R2D2 (along with Thrawn and EP, whom your Phoenix will help you unlock).
EP lead empire/sith teams are currently the weapons of choice in squad arena.

Meanwhile, buy all Old Ben and Luke (farmboy) shards, you see in guild shop to prepare for CLS event. ST Han is the daily login toon this month which may be a hint that CLS' event will return soon.

You should work on your pilots as well. You will need those zeta materials to improve your arena team later on. The milestone is to have 5 non—capital DS ships at min. 4* and 8 non—capital ships of any alignment at 5* to get access to the zeta challenge. Keep in mind that rebel ships will also serve the purpose of unlocking Chimaera.

@Bestusername what mods would you recommend I work towards besides speed (need a resistance team don’t I?), I’m spending my energy farming a couple of shards atm, FOTP, was farming the hoth twins to help in TBs.

Also anyone to farm between St Han or Leia (guessing st Han is better) and Farm luke and old Ben

Also what would be best to run with Rex lead with what I’ve got because I’m doubting it’s phoeinx.

Mods:

Aim to complete the highest tier of both health and defense mod challenges. That will get you better mods in mod shipments. I would postpone farming resistance for the speed mod challenge a few months still, since you have more important things to farm currently. (However, farm the Millenium Falcon node every day.). Just do whatever mod challenges you can with your rebel, scoundrel, FO and Empire for now. Do each tier available once and work with what you get, unless you decide to postpone character farms in cantina. At the same time be aware of mods with speed primaries/secondaries in mod shipments.

Furthermore, you can gain an instant improvement by simply sorting your current mods better. The filtering option on swgoh.gg revealed a few obvious mistakes:

https://swgoh.gg/u/wardai750/mods/?stat1_5=1

https://swgoh.gg/u/wardai750/mods/?stat2_5=1

Arena team:
You don't really have the characters to build a Rex lead team just yet. Characters like Thrawn, EP, DN and MT work well under Rex lead — or even R2D2, Leia, CLS and Old Ben. However, you will have a few of them soon, on your current farming path towards various legendary/heroic characters. Just be patient. Alternatively you could work towards a team with EP lead, Vader, Sion, Thrawn and DN.

I’ve noticed Vader’s buffs so I’ve stuck fleet mainly on getting Vader/tarkin to help boost my current capital ship and for a future swap towards a Vader/ep team as that seems to be the meta as well as bobas ship and Vader’s ship. Based on the event page I’m looking at (swgohevents k think it’s called) guessing thrawn is coming back soon.

I’ll continue to be patient anyway, I’m guessing most people are miles ahead of me started only a couple of months ago and am sitting just out of top 500 (most have ep). I’m guessing mods are the problem but I’m also running into NS and some weird Tarkin/boba/kylo(m)/Vader/Rey teams, that destroys my Hera/chopper and maybe Ezra straight off the bat