Think I might be stuck...

Oh, the gear problem. The main problem is that you're stuck at a starter guild. For a lot of Gear lv8 gear, they can only be farmed in raids and TB. And for that you need a good guild. The officers in my guild's talking about recruiting players lately. If you want I can ask them if we can add you.

Joining a good guild makes a huge difference. I was in your shoes when I first started, found a really good guild and that changed the whole landscape for me.

I also found a great guild.

As for galactic war, a very important concept is the pre-loaded TM. After each battle, not only your HP, Protection and cooldowns are saved for the next battle, but also the turn meter. So if you load your Empire team with like 80-90%TM in the early easy nodes (do this by using Phoenix and swapping in 1-2 empire at a time, just make sure the two Imperials end the battle with high TM, swap them out until the last node, then swap in other Imperials and repeat the process). Then all your Imperials would have so much TM that they basically get a bonus turn and you can just start your turn meter train straight away.

For the general direction, you're doing great right now. Continue gearing up the Phoenix until you get Thrawn to seven stars. Then you can either work on CLS (you have the empire toons for R2); or you can start working on Padme, who will be more difficult, but she's one of the top-tier teams even in very old shards. You already have Anakin, Ahsoka, and Yoda. Together with C3 or General Kenobi (you need a good guild for that) they're very, very formidable. You need a G12 Separatist team to get her to 7 stars.
And finally, MODS!!! Almost all your mods are terrible. Come on, read some of the online guides, they're amazing. With good mods you can easily double the value of your squad.

"Desertfox1024;c-2104258" wrote:
For the general direction, you're doing great right now. Continue gearing up the Phoenix until you get Thrawn to seven stars. Then you can either work on CLS (you have the empire toons for R2); or you can start working on Padme, who will be more difficult, but she's one of the top-tier teams even in very old shards. You already have Anakin, Ahsoka, and Yoda. Together with C3 or General Kenobi (you need a good guild for that) they're very, very formidable. You need a G12 Separatist team to get her to 7 stars.
And finally, MODS!!! Almost all your mods are terrible. Come on, read some of the online guides, they're amazing. With good mods you can easily double the value of your squad.

The only thing I disagree with in this is the gear requirements for the padme lineup. You only need a gear 11 Nute gunray seperatist team to get padme.I actually used a gear 10 Nute as the leader and everyone else as a gear 11. I would say Nute Gunray, Dooku, Assaj, Magna Guard, and either Grevious, or Geonosian Spy. Nute is a beasttttt

"DeMoDragon69;c-2104296" wrote:

"Desertfox1024;c-2104258" wrote:
For the general direction, you're doing great right now. Continue gearing up the Phoenix until you get Thrawn to seven stars. Then you can either work on CLS (you have the empire toons for R2); or you can start working on Padme, who will be more difficult, but she's one of the top-tier teams even in very old shards. You already have Anakin, Ahsoka, and Yoda. Together with C3 or General Kenobi (you need a good guild for that) they're very, very formidable. You need a G12 Separatist team to get her to 7 stars.
And finally, MODS!!! Almost all your mods are terrible. Come on, read some of the online guides, they're amazing. With good mods you can easily double the value of your squad.

The only thing I disagree with in this is the gear requirements for the padme lineup. You only need a gear 11 Nute gunray seperatist team to get padme.I actually used a gear 10 Nute as the leader and everyone else as a gear 11. I would say Nute Gunray, Dooku, Assaj, Magna Guard, and either Grevious, or Geonosian Spy. Nute is a beasttttt

Oh my apologies you're right I just checked more videos. I used Geos. I guess that's the problem

Thanks for the replies. Been reading about mods today. Looks like some guys have been farming mods for months with no luck. I'll keep reading to see if I can figure it out. Seems overly complicated.

I don't mind spending a few dollars here and there but the $100 hyper drive bundle seems ridiculous to me.

I wouldn't mind trying a decent guild to see how much faster I could progress because at this point I don't see how to move forward no matter how much I play without paying.

Farm bastilla and max out yoda. Yoda is the main differences in the early game. Empire won't hold for the end game. You already got anakin, ahsoka and yoda. Max out those 3 and also anakin, ahsoka ships.
Use bastilla lead with ezra/yoda/anakin/ahsoka or swap one with kanan. I just started another account and finish galactic war daily. And arena top 500. ships in the top 50.

I use geos to get padme cos i can use their 3 ships as well.
This is my current account
https://swgoh.gg/p/848692196/
And i just started another one still in level 80

As DesertFox also mentioned, you really should join a real guild. An guild with high level of activity. One that runs heroic tier pit raids and preferably also heroic tier tank raids. That along with territory battles and wars will increase your gear income significantly.

Regarding your roster:

If you take Ezra and Chopper to 7* you will be able to also take EP and Thrawn to 7*. Those two along with Vader, Tarkin and a 5th empire character will help you unlock R2D2. Add Leia, Old Ben, ST Han and Farmboy Luke yo unlock CLS - your first major mile stone. You will need them all at 7*.

I see you're farming jedi for GM Yoda as well. Luminara is not really worth it. You will need Old Ben, Bastilla Shan and Jolee at some point any way, so farming those 3 (along with Ezra and Kanan) you have the 5 jedi required for GM Yoda. Ahsoka and JKA are great too. JC might be OK still, since he pilots a shop which does well midgame.

Biggs' ship is great. For your ships a milestone is to have 5 non-capital dark side shops at minimum 4* and 8 non-capital shops of any alignment at 5* to gain access to the zeta ability material challenge. Another milestone is farming rebel shops to unlock the Chimaera, and bountyhunters shops to unlock Han's Falcon.

You will need a team of scoundrels for the credit heists which will reward credits that help build your roster. ST Han and the BH pilots (especially Boba Fett) are great choices.