posting my crew just for the heck of it
i'm not really strategising much at all with the captain ability dictating the rest of the crew, but i'm only at arlong park, anyway
yeah, i only got the merry recently so i'll level it up on the side till i get the attack benefit from it
box is sitting at 136/165. "noteable" characters i'm not using: arlong, pearl, tony tony chopper (guard point), sanji, higuma, cabin boy coby
story stuff has pretty much been a 'knife through butter' situation so far, so i haven't been switching it up except for those missions on the first two levels (do i have to unlock the rest of them or is that all that's in there, so far?)
Until your going merry gives you the attack boost you might as well use the baratie ship for the hp unless you are addicted to the small recovery boost the dingy gives hah.
Team-wise, going with just the units you've listed you have a few options. As many have said you can go with a slasher team ie arlong lead with zoro and kuro, ussop for his turn delay, and throw in your strongest fodder pirate slasher-im sure you have lots of fodder pirate units just look for a slasher type one-and team up with an arlong or mihawk friend.
The other possible teams are weaker but still an option are:
a strength team lead by luffy with arlong, pearl, ussop, and a fodder pirate that is red/strength with friend luffy/kuma/blamenco/fossa/mr 5/chaka/monster chopper (can work but i dont advise that due to the hp cut)
a dex team lead by zoro with chopper, ussop, and 2 fodder pirates that are green/dex with friend zoro/law/izo/onigumo/bellamy/apoo(can be risky due to needing max hp to get buff)
a quick team lead by sanji with higuma ussop and 3 fodder pirates that are blue/quick with friend ace/boa/sanji/lucci/jozu/capone/hina/thatch(can be risky due to needing max hp to get buff)
There are other options but far too weak to suggest.
If you're just finishing arlong park, you got over the hurdle of arlong-he can be hard for people before you make a team or level the going merry-but are entering an even bigger hurdle with logue town. There some stages stump teams, like alvida having too much armor for them to break, or smoker doing too much damage while you dont do enough.
I was looking at the GameWith page for the next fortnight isle we're getting on Global (Kimono Straw Hats). It seems like we'll be getting purple pigs. One of their suggested teams for the fortnight isle uses Absalom. lol
I also noticed that Bellamy is in some of the GameWith teams for Ivankov raid boss. My Ivankov team will involve a subset of Law, Ashura Zoro, Biker Smoker, Apoo, Izo, Paulie, Mihawk, Guard Point Chopper, Kalifa, Miss Wednesday, and GP Usopp. I just need to figure out which 5 to use. >_<
Bellamy is on teams as a dex orb booster as we lack doflamingo as a dex type unit that boosts orbs. For global my ivankov team will be double zoro, law, apoo, miss doublefinger(she boosts dex damage, good to farm her) and if i can get him to drop bellamy if not mihawk.
The big thing about ivankov is surviving him while being careful not to hit him below 20% before your burst is ready to finish him off which is why zoro may be a slower but safer team for it on global.