One thing, for me at least, in games like GoW that is essential is setting myself small goals. Something that I can work towards that is in reach so I never feel like I’m floundering.
At the start a good goal is to unlock all Kingdoms. Then do each Kingdom’s quest line (this also unlocks all the hero classes). And get them all leveled up (this takes a good bit of gold, so you’ll need to do PVP). Then work through all the “challenges” which opens up explore. Head to the underworld and unlock all the Factions and do their quests. Use your shards at a faction until you get at least one of each troop.
Level and trait troops you want to use. If you like your team and not sure where to use your souls/traitstones, you can look at getting the Kingdom power levels up (requirements: Kingdom Power Requirements (Now Up to 20 Stars))
Incremental progression is everything. Even at level 1172 I’m still setting goals for myself. Next for me is getting all hero classes to Champion Level 40 to unlock 5 of 7 traits while also converting all my ingots to Ultra-Rare to level up blue weapons.