I was just PM'ing a guildmate about this exact same thing so I might as well just use the wondrous powers of copy/paste
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Honestly, there's only 3 types of characters. Well actually 4 I guess, if you include healers. But anyways, there's either melee, caster, hybrid or healer. Fighters and barbs are melee, mages are casters and healers, guardians are healers and melee, and rogues are caster or melee. And any character class can be hybrids.
Melee: use EE weapons and upgrade every 5 or 10 levels. Weapon choice (just like charm choice) is all about preference as they all average the same. Just go for the cheapest with the most EE in my opinion, and try to stick with one type to build up proficiencies. As for armour, go for either leathers or scales with either enhanced effect or stats (str/dex) then get charms with stats (str/dex). Your stat points should go into either strength or dexterity - whichever one you don't get on your gear. You only need to upgrade your armour/charm every 10 or 15 levels (or more) because unlike enhanced effect, stats have no diminishing returns on higher tiers. Try to keep your strength about 20 points higher than your dex for optimum damage.
Caster: intelligence on your weapon and armour, and then EE on your charms. Same thing as with the weapons on melee, upgrade every 5 or 10 levels and try to get similar or higher EE each time. All stat points should go into intelligence (unless playing as a mage, then put the first 5 - 10 into vita and the rest into int) because (like dexterity) it adds to both your damage as well as defense.
Hybrid: EE weapons, melee stats and heal mastery/intelligence on both armour and main charm and then EE on a heal charm in the accessory slot. Hybrids are by far the most expensive because not only is stat/HM gear super expensive but they also have to upgrade their gear the most often as well as buy the most expensive part out of the melee or caster route (EE weapons and EE charms). But, there's a reason it's the most expensive, and that's because it is flat out awesome when you do it right. People can get full chains in the arena at level 70 - but that is like the most extreme cases of hybrid addiction. They are incredibly useful in catacombs as well, because they do mass damage as well and heal nice. As for stat points on hybrids, get your int up to 50 - 70 and then put the rest into str/dex to keep them balanced, as if you were playing melee.
Healer: heal mastery on everything (weapons, armours, charms) and then EE on acc charms. Probably the cheapest way to go because HM gear is really really cheap right now and everyone appreciates a healer in catacombs. There is a lot of strategy, though, to avoid running out of mana in between levels so it definitely takes some getting used to.
There's LS in a nutshell
As for cata vs. arena: cata is undeniably fastest but I think that it's lame to rely on catacombs for levels. Arena is easy at low levels with crap gear and it's fine at high levels with mediocre gear. I prefer arena just because it's slower paced and all the drops are yours, but cata is fun in ways as well. Playing with people is cool (most the time, sometimes it sucks though) and there's the element of surprise rather than the same thing over and over. I take a healthy dose of both, personally
This post was edited by NevV on Jun 29 2010 11:34pm