Every Warrior begins his quest with the following statistics: strength, 30; magic, 10; dexterity, 20; and vitality, 25. With regular trips to the gym, Beefy can one day boast of achieving his full potential at strength, 250; magic, 50; dexterity, 60; and vitality, 100.

The Warrior is physically the toughest and strongest of the three classes. He is also tactically the easiest to play, since his strength allows him to charge and engage opponents in hand-to-hand combat.

While a powerful character, a successful Warrior employs more than an all-brawn approach. Appropriate weapon selection is key; certain weapon types do more damage to some creatures and less damage to others. Pick up a blunt weapon, preferably a mace or better, for shattering undead skeletal Warriors. To slice through the flesh of creatures like Scavengers or Devil Kin, an edged weapon gets to the heart of the matter--and the creature--much more efficiently.

While the Warrior has the ability to repair items, it is not always advisable to take advantage of this skill. When your Warrior repairs items, they are not restored to their maximum durability. Perhaps all those bulging muscles make Warriors a little clumsy. Who knows? Griswold the blacksmith can repair items, but at a cost. The finer the item, the more costly the repair. The repair skill is useful early in the game, when you want to save your gold pieces to buy upgraded weapons, but later on, maintaining the maximum durability of an exceptionally useful magic sword is well worth the price of repair. Besides, on the higher levels, the gold flows like demon blood. Use some of it to fully repair your best items.

Since the Warrior is constantly on the front line and taking damage, you should place numerous healing potions in your belt and hot-key them as you suffer blows. You should also build up your armor class as much as possible to protect yourself from the hits you suffer in close combat. For those brand-new to the game, the higher your armor class, the less likely it is that your Warrior will be injured when struck.

Intelligent positioning in a battle can also spare you damage. Instead of storming a room infested with demons, use the doorway to protect yourself and to slow the creatures' advancement. Also, when creatures attack from a distance with projectiles, attack at an angle, zigzagging as much as possible to avoid taking direct hits. One of the warrior's favourite tactics is engaging any creature using a projectile weapon as quickly as possible. They are usually separated from the main group of enemies, so you don't challenge the entire room all at once. In addition, particularly in single-player mode when you are playing the Warrior, unless you engage them immediately, these monsters are able to inflict damage without the threat of taking damage themselves.

In multiplayer mode, early attack on the missile-weapon users is actually a powerful defence. Early in the game, Sorcerers are weaker, and you need only a few arrows to take them out. When possible, engage projectile users as fast and hard as you can, leaving the Sorcerer free to cast away without the threat of damage from unseen foes. While the Sorcerer casts spells, the Rogue can use her own skill with the bow.

Finally, do not be afraid to run! No matter how many full-healing potions you have on your belt, being surrounded is the fastest way to die in Diablo. Six or seven enemy blows landing at the same time can take out half of your health and leave you dead on the floor before you can even say "hot key"--let alone press it. If a doorway is unavailable, get into a corner. Do whatever it takes to face your enemy one-on-one, or at least in small groups.