Hi as a fellow p2w, the best advice I can give you is to do elemental summons at the beginning stages of the game. Having 3x maxed 4* heroes in each color will carry you a long way through the game, especially if you then throw some emblems on top.
When I first started I made the mistake of doing epic summons because everybody loves legendaries. Well got a whole lotta nothing but thankfully did pull a few really good S1 4*s like Rigard, Boldtusk, and Grimm, which really helped to enhance my early game. Then I looked for weak spots in my roster color-wise and hero-wise and did I think 2 elemental summons each in blue and green, which made my roster a bit more rounded.
The basic idea is if you’re spending, you want to build a team capable of finishing the rare quests and at least the epic tier of challenge events ASAP for those guaranteed mats and emblems, which in turn will allow you to grow your heroes/roster and finish even more quests/events.
Forget about the 5* heroes for now, no seriously, they’re a chore to grow even at my level (SH20, all farms at lv 18), and if you’re just starting out, they will drain you of every single ham and feeder you can get your hands on and barely give you anything in return. Grow a good roster of 4* heroes so you can start finishing everything in the game. They will also make the mid-game experience much more enjoyable for you than if you were to slowly putter along 5*s only to hit the mat wall at 2/60 and be severely frustrated.
P.S.: Following the great advice people gave on these forums, here’s how I progressed (with a lot of spending admittedly):
3 weeks in:
3 months in:
There’s no way I could’ve progressed this much had I kept pulling for 5* until they showed up and dumped everything into them. The general advice of building up rainbow teams of 3* and 4* first is extremely sound and I’m living proof of that. 