Starting guides..

Darthsm

I didnt pick this game up until july of this year. I found these boards and reddit and youtube for advice...

Most starting guides turn players towards phoenix-thrawn-ds-r2 etc. I did this on one account. I am now lvl 85 with a strong rebel/phoenix/ds squad. But arena and fleet are a struggle.

Want to stay in top 50 arena and easily be #1 in fleet? Farm boba and his ship asap kru (his ship on the same node), both tie pilots (fo on both ls/ds hard nodes, ship shards in gw and ge stores). Maul and his ship asap. Tarkin from arena store.

I farmed FOO after boba but was also buying ship credits. FO arena squad has me in top 50 easily (peaked at 12 in my shard). Fleet i've held 1 for days but nothing below 4 since the first week.

I like my second account better. FO/resistance path much more fun than phoenix.

Aeglis

Phoenix will get the event train running (Thrawn/Palpatine). while u gear up ur pilots this will lead u soon to an empire team (Palp/Trawn/TFP/Tarkin/Vader) which is a pretty solid arena team.

Phoenix is great for the start, good for GW, decent in early arena but not for a long term. If u start with FO u will drop in arena as soon as ur shardmates will progress to the empire stage mentioned above.

If u struggle right now make sure u use decent mods since that will be the main part of the arena game once ur reaching the top end of arena.

Anyway this is a game and supposed to be fun, so if u like FO more for now. Just run them ^^

Silentfalcon99

It depends so much how your shard is. Making conclusions based on different paths taken says little without taking this in consideration. It will be hard to stay high in arena with a first order team in the longer run.

Both approaches could easily be combined. You can farm biggs and boba while working on phoenix. Working on Tarkin, vader, kru all become options as soon as you have a solid base for phoenix

Darthsm

Phoenix is better saved for a later farm when you have a solid income of crystals coming in via arenas. I tried staying in top 100 with phoenix up to 85 but it doesnt work. Phoenix ships suck early-mid game as well, ds ships are way better.