I would like to mention a couple things about this and about soloing Warrior in general.

Because Warriors get such boosts from their Equipment it is really easy to level them ounce you have the gear for them. I prioritize getting a high damage First Strike weapon, preferably the one with Hex on it. Also really good to have is some type of equipment with Resistance on it. With even 1 or 2 resistance in addition to the Astral Energy spell Imps become so easy to kill (yeah those annoying bastards that just annihilate your swordies :( ). Also very easy for them to kill are Goblins, 3 Centaur sites, Undead (especially if their counter atk is high enough to 1 hit them), Even Orc sites are ok.

For skills I prioritize (depending on equips), Weapon Mastery and Armor Mastery, these 2 I get to level 3 asap. After that usually the Parry/Piercing skill and the HP/Stamina skill and lastly initiative skill.

Interesting replies. +1 rep. I will try warrior "soloing" in a bit.

I've reconsidered my bad opinion about commanders.. In later shards, when you have executioners and 3rd level units, they're amazing, they can have an executioner at level 3, my archer sometimes needs level 15 or more to get one. Besides also mixed class commanders get 10 command, the priest gets lots of spells (mass attack alone surpasses the bonus a pure class commander would have), they get a bonus to resistance too. I still prefer the scout as first hero because is less expensive to maintain at first, but the commander has become my second hired hero, then wizard or warrior depending on the equipment/spells I find.

It's too bad that the bonus of the commander->wizard is much much weaker than the wiz->com's. +3 / +6 spell duration on the wiz->com is just insane. All the mass spells basically last the whole combat on level 20.

Wiz->commander is also good, but imho comm-wiz is better; +3 res at lev 20 is better than spell duration. +3 is long enough for most battles, with executioners battles tend to be rather short. Enchanter is better for blindness and this kind of spells though. There are also items that give +spell duration, there aren't for +resistance for the whole army.

2 flags provide +1 and +2 resistance (and +7hp - very good with elves).
There are not that many battles vs AI where 3 resistance would really means difference between win and loss. Other than forest spirits, I can't name any other from top of my head. Sure, you can attack mages without ranged units - but this is digging out own grave.

3 spell duration, on the other hand provide great boost to buff/debuff spells. Like with sleep and crossbowmen platoon you can clear labyrinth. Notice, earlier than T3 units.

Hm, accorging to Eadoropedia it's just +2 res and +4 morale on level 20. Sure, battles against weaker enemies might be over quickly, but a hero's power is most important in the difficult battles, I believe. In those, I think the enchanter will do a little better. 15 turns of mass disease or 12 turns of dragon form or whatever the heart desires... He can also cast 3 level 3 spells (lots of mass spells here) vs only 1 for the com->wiz. Com->wiz does have one more level 3 and 4 unit, though, plus he's probably easier to level up.

Yes, I thought it was cumulative with the bonus at lev 10, but it isn't. It may be better, then, if you can make him gain levels.

I've never had much luck with the straight commander, but the commander dual classes are great. I tried a commander/scout last time, and it was much better. With a missile weapon he could help attack without actually getting involved in melee, and the mobility bonuses from pathfinding were extremely useful.

Yup, the commander/scout (Tactician?) is so powerful it feels like cheating : excellent mobility on the strategic map, pathfinding, massive bonus to the missile troops, and with a good bow the commander himself can become the heavy hitter of your army, while the numerous archers/crosswomen/elves under him play lawnmower with the enemy troops.

I agree that Commander is a nice classe to multiclass with : You get to have a powerful wizard/scout/warrior with a numerous and resilient army. Best of two worlds :)
Straigh commander is less sexy without multiclass, though.

Scout is also a very good class to multiclass into, due to Pathfinding and mobility. In fact, on forest or swamp shards, I tend to multiclass all of my heroes with scout. x3 to strategic movement is simply too good to pass.

I've been liking the scout a lot as my starter hero. He's able to pull his weight quite well from the very beginning (which only improves after taking levels in the two archery skills), and with pathfinding he can drag around powerful but slow units (swordsman, crossbowmen, ballista, etc) without having his movement on the overworld map crippled. I then like to multiclass him to a ringleader, giving him plenty of unit slots just as stronger units tend to become available and also beefing up all his units. Pathfinding is an absolutely killer skill at this point on a lot of terrain, since highly mobile units (like horsemen) can move freely all over the map, while many enemy units are being bogged down in forests, hills, or swamps. Overall just a very solid hero from beginning to late game.

I also tend to like the wizard, but only as my second hero. Wizards can be good at the very beginning to take out a large chunk of the enemy forces before they even get close, and are absolute engines of destruction once they hit level 20 as a pure wizard, but there's a long period in the middle where they're thoroughly mediocre. Thus I prefer them as a second hero so they can spend most of the early and mid game just exploring, clearing easier ruins, and leveling up, then have reached a high enough level by the late game to take over the job of clearing any particularly troublesome ruins or provinces.

Commander can be pretty good mid to late game, particularly when multiclassed with scout, but at the beginning is pretty much just dead weight. Warrior can be amazing on his own once leveled up a bit and given good gear, but is way too gear dependent to start with (much better to bring a warrior into play once there's already a set of good gear waiting for him).

Having won and completed a handful of games, I think I like the Commander the most, but that was late game. Also I don't like 'dual-classing' - I always stay on the hero's respective class.

I usually start with the fighter or the ranger. Fighters are really good early on (and in the late game) and especially if you start with that skill that gives you +income (can't remember what it's called now), but after two levels I was gaining +20 (I think) which is INSANELY helpful after 2 turns. After that I usually go Wizard or Ranger, but most likely Ranger, because of the exploration stuff.

The Wizard is really good in mid game and can still be very useful late game, depending on the type of monsters and opponents you face. With my Wizard I focus on spell power and negating resistance, getting him good gear is key! Remember to get his stamina up! With my Wizard I was casting two Mass Suicide spells in the first round and that usually kills off most of the enemy's army... that spell is just too good (and maybe a bit OP)! But obviously against dragons and other creatures with high / total immunity Wizards can't do anything. Which is why I usually spend most of the late game with my Commander.

I'm doing this, because I*m trying to find all the best items and to do that I have to kill high level monsters such as dragons or X cults. Usually my Fighter hero can take many dragons down, but the Commander and his very nice bonuses and high army is really good. He can cast some spells too, but you can still make his attacks very damaging. If I get some Hydra Egs, my Commanders can have two crazy buffed Hydras in his army. Obviously I focus on defense for them, as I would do with Elephants. They level up so fast it's not even funny. I wouldn't recommend getting a Commander before your fourth hero, though, since he, like the Wizard, takes a bit of time to get rolling.

I think all in all it depends on your playstyle, since all of the heroes have a different style, but breaking it down to early, mid and late game, it'd be:

Early game
Fighter
Ranger
Wizard
Commander

Mid game
Wizard
Ranger
Fighter
Commander

Late game
Commander
Fighter
Wizard
Ranger

Late game is just a matter of preference, since all classes can be really good.

The Warrior +gold skill is called Blacksmithing.

I agree with you partly about the Dual classing, with the exception of Commander. I have started to come around to it a bit more now for a couple reasons though but really only for Warrior or the Commander.

Wizards don't need "Gear" to do well that's every other class. Not going to say that a few more stamina, HP and Ranged defense wouldn't help though but it's not that vital. It was really funny my level 2 or 3 Wizard was able to take on 3 Trolls although he didn't actually fight them. 2 Fears on each of them and let them run for the loot was what I did on like turn 7 or so, no exp kind of sucked though. Oh btw that got me a Cloud of Terror scroll ftw!!! As soon as I had an open level 4 slot the computer was toast.

Also the Order of Wizard skills for me usually is, Wisdom, Spell Power, Thaumaturgy, Concentration and Wand Mastery last.

I have recently just tried out the Dark Knight multiclass for the Warrior/Wiz. The reason I decided to try it was that one of the really annoying things about the warrior to me previously was the stupid number of command points he had as I went solo 99% of the time and it was just annoying to waste it all. The pure warrior had only five T1 spells slots and two T2's. However the Dark Knight can have upto 5/3/2/1 slots for spells. With Wisdom 3 that becomes 7/4/2/1. If you combine those with Concentration you can buff your DK like nuts and spells like Vamp will last 7 turns instead of just 4 which can be insanely helpful. Not to mention your Magic Armor and Stone Skin spells will quite make up for not being able to get Armor mastery lvl 5.

Sadly my DK is just around level 13 without any great gears yet. Has the Elven Blades for first strike and a 4/4 armor but that's about it.

Current skills are:

Weapon Mastery 3
Armor Mastery 3
Blacksmithing 3
Atheltics 3

Wisdom 0
Thaumaturgy 1* - (This is much better than the Warrior Resist/Morale skill)
Concentration 1*
Spell Power 0

Imagine that level 4 spell slot can be used for a Reincarnation Spell haha lets the Death Knight have a Paladin ability hehe.

I really hate how if you choose to go dual class though that you get a random 1 in 6 of the available skills. I mean for the DK there is NO reason you would ever want Wand Mastery, or even Necromancy. I wouldn't think Summoning would be worth it either although a Golem would be great for helping keep guys away from you when close to dying.

Yeah, that can be a bummer. You can level up a warrior with the idea of making him a Dark Knight/Death Knight, and then get Necromancy...yuck. I never cast my plans in stone anymore because of that. To be fair, Wand Mastery does at least give an initiative bonus.

It's been said before, but you're missing out if you never dual class your heroes. Some of the duals are really, really good -- better than the raw skills would lead you to believe. One of my favorites, for example, is Scout/Adventurer/Mercenary. He can use heavy armor and weapons, gets better loot from quests and sites (which is what I use him for), and -- best of all -- he has a speed bonus. My last game I found some Boots of Speed for my Mercenary, and got him up to speed 7. Not only does that make him effectively invulnerable against many, many monsters (he can snipe away while they simply can't catch him), but combined with pathfinding it means he can zip from one side of the map to the other in no time flat. On a big shard that's an amazing ability.

Spellpower gear can make a huge difference for a Wizard.

They really need to disable some skills for dual classing. Prime example of Necro and Wand Mastery for Warrior/Wiz Dark Knight.

Also there are not that many Spell Power gears for the Wiz. The ones that there are mostly only give that bonus with 3 or 5 pieces of the set. But yes they can make a diff.