If you want better loot (specifically ascension materials) fill as many chests as possible. Specifically raid chests now (at least at platinum, probably gold too). You can fill 4-6 total per day by skipping, giving about 150/month (combined monster, raid, rare monster).VIP + gems from chests/titans/wars almost entirely cover the cost to skip the max 3 every day. It’s slow, but the cheapest way to get good loot.
In ~8.5 months I’ve gotten 83 3star, 24 4star ascension materials. 43 epic troop tokens, 30 epic hero tokens. 35, 22, 11 word, raid, and alliance flasks, respectively from only chests. Link below. Assuming ~16 gem per skip all this stuff cost me ~12,200 gems over 8.5 months. Because you don’t need the gems all at once, you can get these very cheap through VIP and the event special where gems/$ is very good. This game should be renamed Empires and Patience IMO (or Empires and Paycheck if you lack the latter)
By doing this I actually have an abundance of materials. If I ever get a HOTM or good event hero, I already have the ascension materials in my inventory to max them.