I like to play all classes, but prefer the Warrior. A strong warrior is a strong party, and keeps the game out of the chaos realm. (Good mages and rogues must still learn to thrive in chaos, because it can only be minimized, not avoided). I'm still learning, and have yet to overcome my greatest enemy (desync), but I humbly offer the following thoughts...

1) DEX. DEX. DEX. DEX. DEX.
This is your level up pattern through clvl 9. Sometime +5 to str, never more than +10 til it's maxed. Do not underestimate the importance of blocking. Your dmg bonus is (clvl*str)/100 and it negligible at early levels. If you find a hammer early, great, and later a broad sword, otherwise you are much better served with block and ToHit. What about Leo you ask? Even the more reason for dex! He steals your hp when he hits you, so a dex-less warrior is like a continuous Heal Other on Leo!
"I still don't see why not equal Dex and Str"
Ok, I expect that a warrior will be clvl 9 entering the cats. If you find something heavier before then, it's pure gravy. You can survive church as well with mace as hammer. STR 40 is nice, for hammer, broad and splint. But going for Dex first you will hit STR 40 at clvl 11. This will happen by end of dlvl 5. You will NOT have found splint or broad sword by then, and a hammer's average damage is same as the lighter flail. Sure a boss may drop a bastard sword early and you need four lvls to use it, but in that clvl range of 9-13, a bastard is gravy. Here's my tip instead, if a bastard drops at any point, *let the warrior hog EXP* until he can use it. A warrior that is thus strong in levels, and has a bastard is going to SAIL the party through the cats.

1B) What to push after dex is max? See point '4', stunning

2) The shift key RULES
As the warrior is it imperative you glue your finger to the shift key, to attack-in-place and not move.
- The rogue will hit you less, much less
- The mage can RELY on not getting pounded when you move back
- You will get hit less by giving them first attack
- A door won't get 'lost' because you backed off

When moving through open halls and I see monsters, I always do a shift-swing. This signifies to others I am 'planted' and will not move until enemies are dead or are too much to handle. In our games, the Warrior calls for a retreat, and has some form of hotkey for 'Back to the Door!' Why? He's likely point and can see best, and because he knows if what is beating on him or about to start, is more than he can handle. If you have another at point, or like a mage-is-the-boss rule, your mileage will vary.

3) Weapon swapping. This is not a luxury, this is crucial!
Blunts do +50% dmg vs undead (skel, zombies) and -50% vs animals. Swords do +50% dmg vs animals and -50% vs undead. Staff, shield bash, punch/kick, and the mighty axe do normal vs all. So what difference does this make? Let's take a low lvl warrior with +2 pt damage bonus, and see avg dmg with a mace, blade and small axe, vs undead, animal, and demonic goats.
Blunt: 9, 3, 6.
Sword: 3, 10, 7.
Axe: 8, 8, 8.
Look at that sword and blunt, 10 pts vs 3 for wrong weapon choice!

Others suggest never switching mid battle - this is incorrect if you face more than one monster. Why get 1/3 possible dmg?
- Preload 'graphics' on lvl entry to avoid CD spin lag later
- If facing a mix, be sure to get back to a door. Use the weapon that is correct for the toughest monster in the mix.
- Others luring can announce (u)ndead, (a)nimal or (m)ixed.

5) Know who your TOUGH opponents are
When you end up drinking, and/or when you don't stun, you will need some help. (ex: mage firewalls a room with them) Here is a list of monsters who are the very toughest for the warrior when they appear early:
Death Wings (10)
Night Clan (7)
Toad Demon (8)
Blood Claw (9)
Horror Capts (4)
Stone Clan (5)
Fire Clan (6)
and of course, Blood Knights on 13
Fortunately, most of these have some compensating weakness, like slow swinging (knights, toads), slow move (gargoyles), or highly susceptible to spells (skels and HB, fire clan litning). If you see night clan early, I hope you have fire wall. Some bosses are also particularly nasty. Foulwing comes immediately to mind. Spare no resource against them.

Hiddens/Weavers - these guys are really nasty for the mage, but can take the warrior down too if not careful. If possible, and not harmful to the mage, get to a corner so you face no more than three. They run away after a single hit, which is good and bad. If you don't stun, you're doomed, because they will run, regenerate and you'll never actually kill one. One thing I like to do is to give a single hit to each of the ones next to me, UNTIL it's one-on-one, then kill that one. If you're trying to kill with four-on-one, you'll be interrupted, and the chance of a multiple hit goes way up. It takes longer to purposefully send a few fleeing, but with seldom more than one attacking you at once, it's safer. A rogue who is not overwhelmed with them is very good at killing them, whether they flee or stay.

6) Play with a party that let's you stay strong.
A weak warrior is a useless warrior. If your partners realize this, and the benefits of a strong warrior in the cats, they should make SURE you are the highest level character through the cats. In fact, I prefer a warr two levels higher than the others from late church and early cats. The rogue, by tagging everything, can easily catch-up, as can a mage with firewall. The warrior, if he ever falls behind, can only catch up by putting himself on the front line (or in church, with a bow in a zoo). When your party sees Night Clan's on dlvl 7 they will be.

7) Handling archer clusters
Sometimes it is best for the mage or rogue to clear them out solo, especially if the rogue can 'work the angles' on them. Other times, the warrior may need to bite the bullet and rush them. For skel arcs, a blunt is a no-brainer, with shield. Use a serpentine (indirect) approach, you'll get hammered if you just run in a straight line. A team rush usually works best - the archers will target the closest player (you!) so as a party make sure that the mage and/or rogue are not lined up directly behind the warrior.

- The Bone Crush - Take part in the banzai fest, beating on them. Alas, you too will get beaten upon.

- The Archer Dance- Stay a full half screen or more away, and run back and forth perpendicular to the direction to the archers. A huge number of arrows will miss you. The rogue can then fire totally ignored, from about a screen length away. This works especially well on witches, when the blood stars are visible and slower moving.

8) Shrines and goat shrines
- Hit those goat shrines! What have you got to lose? At low clvl, before mana is high the mage will likely want to take since +2 slvl Firebolt (or holy bolt, if none) is rather useful for the 10 or so mana points. After that, the warr should gather up good unid items and potions and hit the goat shrines when the level is done, with the others off level. (Yes, I've been hit by tainted when we neglect to do this). You benefit if the goat shrine is any +stat, glimmering, religious, Eldritch, hidden.
- Who takes stat shrines? Up to the party, but here's how I do:
- Eerie (magic) to rogue if it gets her to 17 (for heal, h/o), otherwise the mage.
- Mysterious, quiet (Vit), creepy (str) and abandoned (dex) to the warrior. Given one lvl up any stat shrine can be 'converted' to another if you were at some point going to raise that stat. What do I mean? At medium lvls and up, a Warr with max dex will have IDENTICAL stats whether that shrine he hit earlier was a dex or str. (Note- I’m not dogmatic on this one, other choices will work too)
- Early on, Warr takes Magical Shrine too - why waste that blue? The mage wants mana for offense at this stage, and a good rogue isn't getting hit (exception: archer lvl, could give to rogue)

9) Two warriors? One is shield, one is crusher.
With mage/warr/warr or four person games, the hosting warrior is the 'shield'. He pumps dex and gets any +dex items, and the very best armor. His primary job is to stay alive! The second warr (ideally, joining AFTER rogue in a foursome) is the crusher. He goes strictly for damage, not blocking. He will use an axe, maul, or whatever gives the most damage. Any to-hit or damage items go to him. With a warrior or rogue with good blocking at one side of a door, and mister bruiser on the other, it's a slaughter fest.

10) Party of two? Don't neglect healing.
Now, when the party is only two (likely warr/mage) or when you end up the sole survivor, give strong consideration to getting magic to 17, or even 20, when:
- heal stick(s) are found, and red pots scarce
- an extra Heal book found
- a found +mana items falls off the mage when he dies
- the party finds the Protector
The extra healing power when you are looking for a Res can make the difference. The main problem with a heal for an ironman warrior normally is that with slvl 1 heal, you may not even have enough mana to cast it once!

11) What to buy?
This is not as clear-cut as you might think. Amongst some truly excellent teams, at least four strats are proposed:

I) buy a res scroll, then any high AC-to-cost items The 250 spent on a Res scroll is well worth it, and you can get a skull cap, or cloak AC 6 with the rest. If nothing available, get a blue potion for the mage.

ii) buy armor you won't see for a while Small Shield AC 8 is a super value. Skull Cap 4 is good, and some AC 6-7 cloak, robe... are quite nice.

iii) buy potions, especially blues. You can never have enough potions. If you can easily survive church this is superior to ii) since you will find those armor items and have saved your pots as well.

iv) buy Leather AC 13, and let the mage use in church Good teams like this to let the mage go off alone and melee in the church and reduce his chance of dying. To those who like this approach, great. But you'll never see me choose this voluntarily for these reasons:
- a careful mage should survive church with no pots, even if he has to stick by the warr after taking a few hits. This is with or without armor
- whatever armor you initially buy will be replaced, guaranteed. So those 300 gold are of use only if they saved a life or reduced your potion intake by 6 pots.
OTOH, if you like a fast game with church done in 1.5 hrs instead of 3, you'll get in more games with a more freewheeling church, so it's a personal preference.

12) What to ID?
- ID's are really very nice to find, but they are limited. Do not waste them on low level junk in the church. Do you really want a Blue ring or a short sword of quality? If you ID and get a 'of light' or 'of radiance' you get what you deserve!
- ID items not because you can, but because you should. ID them *when the party is hurting*, or can't handle things comfortably. Give preference to items dropped by bosses, as their 'bonus' amounts to 2-dungeon-level deeper item
- ID should be strictly by party consensus
- ID items that will last for a while. A hammer, a ring, good AC body armor. NOT a blade, low dur cap, short bow, etc.
- know what a unique item will give you before ID'ing, and even then, wait until you would actually wield it

13) "Liquid" monsters.
Several monsters are not all that bad alone, but can flow or squeeze through cracks in what looks like a plugged door (hence the term liquid, which can flow through cracks). Goats may do this, blinks, and some demon types. When this happens, SEAL a door when possible, by having the warr and mage on each side, and rogue directly in front of door. If you lose a seal on a door with liquid monster, e.g. a night clan 'runs' through door, the mage should drop him like a hot potato. The deadly thing about this situation is that it's totally unexpected to have monsters flood through when the door is 'plugged' (two players, not sealed with three). Stunning the monster as it tries to come through is very helpful, but misses do occur.

14) Leading, luring
Who leads the party and who does luring when they are set at a choke point, depends a lot on the situation, the monsters, the players' strengths and weaknesses, as well as personal preference. Taking turns to keep all awake and interested is often good. Just be sure it is clear WHO is luring. One of the most common, and often fatal mistakes, is for one to lure back a small mob, then have a second impatient party member come through just at the wrong time and block the door. Almost is good if the warrior going through the door the same instant the rogue decides to shoot a few 'sonar' arrows. One situation where the warrior leads for sure is entering a new level. This is a critical period, due to the possibility of hidden monsters and ambushes. Near that entrance too, there is NO where to run or hide, so be sure to go extra slow until a choke point is solidly held.
KingOfPain writes (in agreement with others comments:)
"When in cats, use the catwalk formation while in transit. Warr hugs the outside wall to activate fewer monsters when approaching corners. If you use the inner wall, one step around the corner activates the entire hall, where hugging the outside wall will activate some monsters that are close to the corner before you step pass the corner."

How to support the Warrior as a
Sorcerer
- Hotkey heal other. If you can get that above slvl 1, it's a very effective spell, and continues to get cheaper as you find more books.
- If the Warrior is overwhelmed don't stand next to him whacking until he dies. Back off to let him escape, or blast some.
- Learn how to kill Leo solo. Leoric steals hp, so for every point of damage on the warrior's skull, the boss gains one back. The party uses one extra red and one extra blue if a warrior without either high dex or hammer stands and fights.
- Be smart! Call for retreats, heal other if a partner is being too stubborn to drink. And stay alert, when all heck breaks loose, the party will look to you to restore order.

Rogue
- Host the game!! Compared to other tips this is radical, but we tend to like it for these advantages:
- The Rogue's normal mode is shooting, with no attackers, so hosting doesn't hurt in 'normal' situations
- If the Warrior is hurting and would like a safe way to level-up the rogue can take up S/S and be the shield
- Later in game when dex hits around 100, autoblock! The rogue becomes immune in one on one melee.
- Should a CC drop, a rogue can do quite well wielding it in hell Note this is not some kind of drop/rejoin. The rogue hosts and stays in slot 0. She just stays off the front line/door when she is not in a 'shield' mode.
- Maneuver to get a good angle, don't put arrows in W's back
- Learn Heal Other with the second book found. Put that mana to use. Also, her bonus makes her a better healer than mage early on