This is something I've shared on other platforms, and many people have expressed that it was helpful for them, so I thought to share it here as well.
I found that many new players hit a slump at around the AR 30-35 mark because their characters' builds are falling behind and can no longer keep up with the enemies of their WL. With that in mind, the chart below is a suggested order of how a new player should build their first main "carry" character in order to progress through the game as seamlessly as possible. If you are able to keep up with the benchmarks in this chart for each WL for your primary damage dealer, you should have a fairly smooth ride all the way through your WL8 Ascension Quests.
If you are a more veteran player who has already reached WL7 or 8 and have already built several characters, this guide will probably not be very helpful for you unfortunately. But I hope this helps chart a clear course for any newer players seeing this. Welcome to Genshin Impact!
Some finer details I'd like to add, based on common questions I've received since making this guide a long time ago:
1. When picking Artifacts before AR45, just use the best you can find from the loot you collect along the way, preferably those with ATK %, DMG %, or Crit on their main stats. In general, it's not recommended to use Resin for Artifacts until AR45.
2. The Resin costs for Talents in this chart assumes that you are leveling 2 of the 3 Talents for the character. If you opt to level all 3 Talents, the Resin cost will be ~1.5x more.
3. In the "general rule of thumb", it's a bit more accurate to say: Weapon > Artifact Main Stats > Talents > Character Level > Artifact Substats. That is to say, don't waste too much Resin on trying to find the "perfect" Artifacts before leveling your Weapons and Talents first. But definitely don't neglect your Artifact's main stat and level, as those contribute a huge amount to your overall stat budget.
