Need direction in character progression

I'd get your Phoenix team up to par so you can get Thrawn, then maybe run a Sith team under Emperor with him as the fifth.

"Dwinkelm;c-1974596" wrote:
Something you will likely hear from everybody in the peanut gallery -

Start over from scratch. You’ll almost certainly never climb back to a respectable arena standing, and your crystal income will suffer.

Judging by OP's current roster, he doesn't appear to be all that competitive. If he keeps his current account he has access to more/most content right away.

Something you will likely hear from everybody in the peanut gallery -

Start over from scratch. You’ll almost certainly never climb back to a respectable arena standing, and your crystal income will suffer. Use the knowledge you have now to make better choices with the resources you earn/farm on a new account. Focus on fewer, higher-powered full teams.

Keep in mind, however, lots of new Arena Servers are filled with second/alternate accounts, or those in your same shoes. Competition to be top-100 in arena will be stiffer than when you quit.

In order to unlock CLS, you will need a team of 5 empire characters at 7* to unlock a 7* R2D2, and also to have Old Ben and Farmboy Luke at 7*. You already have Vader, EP and soon also Thrawn at 7*. I'd suggest to farm Tarkin along with one of the troopers (Snow, Starck or Veers) as your final 2 Empire characters, while you farm Old Ben from Cantina and Farmboy from his hard node (and later also cantina). That would be the fastest way to acquire CLS. After you unlock CLS, you will have several routes to choose from (BH and their ships for Chewie and HMF seems like the best choice, but it's really all up to you).

Focus on your zeta Bastilla team for arena. By doing that you can at least be top 500 and you will be there for a while until you get Revan. I was in your exact shoes. Took me 1 year to get at 100 rank.