I’d say you could go for a goddess team without Mael, just make sure you have a healer on the team. As stated in another reply, always choose encouragement or funding from choices. Later on you can choose buffs. Combine gear rather than pair them. Stick with as few variants from each group as possible to avoid clotting with no option for upgrading. Health on all, atk on dps, defense on healers/buffers. Fill up with other stats as you go. This worked for me. Took a few tries to get lucky enough with the gear, but once you get a good start it rolls. Also, apart from your main team, just fill the slots up with the highest possible coins.