Okay, here’s WHY others were (most likely) saying to focus on Phoenix: The Phoenix Squad allows you to progress toward getting one of the major end-game characters, Commander Luke Skywalker while also giving you the ability to get Grand Admiral Thrawn and Emperor Palpatine, succeed in galactic wars, and typically do well in arena (at least for a while).
The general order suggested is:
1.) Phoenix squad can get Grand Admiral Thrawn and Emperor Palpatine
2.) Five 7* Empire characters (both Thrawn and the Emperor are Empire characters, so ideally you’d only need 3 more) can get R2D2
3.) R2D2 plus 7* Old Ben, Stormtrooper Han, Princess Leia, and Farmboy Luke can get Commander Luke Skywalker, one of the best characters in the game
The most important thing in this game is the event schedule, especially the big events that the developers keep hidden until right before they start. Your arena is going to change and be highly affected by which characters are accessible. Hopefully, comparatively few players in your arena will be able to get Emperor Palpatine at 7* this time. If that’s true, then by starring and gearing up your Phoenix team, you’ll be able to get both the Emperor and Thrawn the next time they both come around. From there, just follow the farming order I wrote out and you’ll be on the road to getting end-game characters.
For arena, Phoenix can be viable up to the point where people in your shard can get 7* Palpatine-led Empire teams, which with the recent rework will likely crush Phoenix teams. However, you probably won’t have to worry about that until after the next time Palpatine comes back, so estimated 2 months from now.
For ships, you will eventually need 5 dark side ships and 5 light side ships for capital ship upgrades. In order to get Thrawn’s capital ship Chimera, you will need 5 rebel ships (not just light side, but specifically rebel). I would advise you to start starring up every ship you have that you might even consider using and farm the rest you want. This will help advance you in fleet arena and get you toward your goals. Also, I’d initially focus on getting the Ghost and Phantom II, since they are Phoenix ships and Phoenix are currently your best characters. From here on out, you want to try to match your best characters with the ships they fly. I also would specifically encourage you to farm Biggs after Zeb in galactic wars, since his ship is used everywhere. And in answer to your question about Sabine, I would farm her as much as her hard node allows. Pilots have a big impact on their ships, and Sabine is no exception.
