Suggestions to help clean the windows:
Upgrade rune levels
Star and saint current powerful or prospective heroes
Try new formations till you are blue in the face. I have a 3.5m power alt account capable of beating 6-7m power accounts in arena to increase daily credit/coin and rep gains.
Lab daily even though it is boring for new spirits
Upgrade gear levels focusing on weapons, relics and spirits
Upgrade talents focusing on the above stats till it becomes too costly, based on your daily income and time allowance.
********USE THE NEW TANK HERO - AHMOSE NEKHEBET********* he is pure awesomeness, wish there was a gold version (this is a poke at the devs) *cough* (in case they didn't understand) Give us a gold tank hero please.
Sail as often as possible
Do assistant quests for gems and invest them to claim guild treasure as often as possible to keep up with stamina requirements and possibly if you're lucky do more labs.