So as an update:
1/19 marked the first day I did not finish in the top 10 for arena payout. I have since failed to make top 10 twice since then (though one of those days I didn't play). Almost a straight month of getting into the top 10, whereas before I was getting into the top about 1/week.
Today I finally unlocked the zeta tier of ability mat challenges (and 3*'d it). I feel this was actually rather later than I could have, as I spent literally over a week waiting to get the last 8 shards of Slave I since I had all of the other ships ready to go. Rather frustrating to watch 3 rounds of the challenge go by...
At this point, my fleet is:
5*: Slave I, Wedge, Biggs, GS, TFP, Sun Fac, Ashoka, FOTP
4*: Poe
3*: RP
I admittedly delayed my results by switching to Poe from RP, but I could not get over how buggy and poor of a ship RP has. RP's ship regularly fails to proc TL (or doesn't display the resist message), is resisted often even when it does proc, has mediocre damage, and I have *never* got her daze to chain (let alone that it's not really worth the action anyways).
I lucked out with Sun Fac showing up in guild shipments, but I think this was more than counter-balanced by the poor luck with Slave I and switching to Poe.
For fleet arena, 1/19 was also the first day I placed in the top 20. It was also the first day my fleet arena rank was better than my arena rank. I regularly place in top 20 in fleet arena now.
The biggest difference wasn't the quality of my ships, but the * of my flagship. Getting Home One to 5* was what made the difference. I would regularly run out of steam against opponents with their extra reinforcement.
I'm still struggling to figure out an appropriate second zeta. I'm looking at Finn (G10, with all Resistance already at G8-10), Vader (have EP/TFP/Boba already, but would need to gear Vader), and Yoda (hesitant, because most of the time the added Foresight would be wasted).
My current arena team (all G11 with appropriate mods) is:
ZQGJ / JKA / Yoda / EP / TFP
Empire teams are generally a joke. Droid matches are a toss up. Really I need a sub for Yoda vs Wiggs teams. Wiggs teams tend to run very few debuffs, and Yoda's greatest utility is keeping Tenacity Up on my team most of the match. I may try Shoretrooper. I am also slowly unlocking GK.
