Look for Weapons with Enhanced Effect to deal more damage (I recommend Sword and Club as both are Strength type weapons)
Look for Armor with Enhanced Effect to help tank or +Strength to add damage to your Weapon (if you chose sword/club)
Look for Charm with +Strength to add more damage to your Weapon
Upgrade Weapons as often as you can. Every 10-20 levels would be nice, sooner is always better. Weapons should be a priority, then Armor, then finally Charm.
As for stats, if you chose Sword/Club, add to Strength to get the most damage. A few to Vitality never hurts either, maybe 5-10 points at the beginning.
As for Abilities, Powerstrike/Bottomsup work well, you can also use Knockdown, it's one of my favorite beginning skills as it can hit any row instead of just the bottom like Bottomstrike does.
Good luck and if you need any more advice feel free to ask.