After looking at various forums, sites and guides, i have found quite a couple of excellent guides such as "Bolty's High-Level Warrior Guide" and "Shuri's Multiplayer Rogue Guide". In addition, i have written a few decent ones of my own and publish them on this little website. A short summary and analysis of the various classes in Diablo and Hellfire comes immediately after the Strategy Guide Index . Within the section on class guides are also some equipment guides which are rather specific to the individual character classes.
Class Guide Index
Links to Guides at Excellent Sites
Lochnar's Freshman Diablo
Flux's Expert
Mage Guide
Claudio's/Cathrin's Diablo Page
Shuri's Multiplayer Guide to Rogues
Bolty's High Level Warrior
Strategy Guide
Gore.'s Warrior
Strategies
Links to Guides at the Caverns of Ice
Rogues - Analysis of Rogues
Rogues - The Versatile Ones
Rogues - Frequently Asked Questions
Sorcerors - The Master of Magic
Bolty's High Level Warrior Strategy Guide
Finnan Haddie's Guide to Berserkers
Outrageous Barbarians
MMAgCh's Guide to Barbarians
Bards - Mistress of Devastation
Diablo Classic
The three classes in Diablo all have their strengths and weaknesses. The Sorceror is extremely devastating to non-triple immunes and is no doubt the strongest class at high levels. Somewhat harder to start than other classes due to difficulty in adapting to the firebolt spell, the game gets easy as the game goes by. No equipment is really needed for 3@30 runs and even beyond naked mages are a joke in the author's opinion as magic is WAY too dominant a force in Diablo.
Among the other two, my obvious tendency would be towards rogue since it is one of my favourite classes. The versatilty of a rogue makes her a wonderful class to play as you can do so many things with her and the game would not be made any much harder whether you choose melee, bows or magic as your primary weapon. Her decent magic lends ample spell support to her already strong ranged attacks and good mana level allows a large pool of virtual hitpoints. High dexterity providing high inherent to-hit and easily perfect blocking only serves to strengthen her forte at melee fighting.
My dislike from warriors probably stems from the fact that i started playing Hellfire first (more later under Hellfire). It's not that i do not understand the way of the warrior but somehow, i do not like this class all that much. However, i do have much respect for many of the veteran warriors that i have seen. A highly skilled warrior can defeat any enemies with ease; even ranged attackers are no problem with the Telekill tactic, whereas a melee level is a stroll in the park for warriors.
Hellfire Classic
It was me starting to play Hellfire first which changed my perspectives of things. In my humblest opinion, i would say that in a non-mod hellfire game, the Bard is the strongest character, beating even the high-profiled Sorceror. Consider what a bard can do. Using a Civerb's Cudgel and a Jester's Sword of Leech, a high-level bard can do something like 650+ damage on average per blow, with a maximum of around 2200+ damage. This kind of damage rivals even that of the sorceror's fireball and is not restricted in the sense that no monsters is immune to cold hard steel. Under such conditions, no monster in regular hellfire can withstand more than a few blows, so who needs blocking? [Note: in mods, this is a different case as the bard can still get hit often somehow.] Add to this incredible melee capabilty is the second best magical scores and attacks in the game, and you have a 'monster' that cannot be stopped by anything, not even triple immunes.
The next three places are much harder to determine. It would be a three-way tie, IMO, by the sorceror, the rogue and the barbarian. The availability of this new toy called 'Gnat Sting' allows the rogue to at times deal triple damage or stun three enemies with one click. The Barbarian on the other hand is extremely powerful in melee and can easily deal 600+ damage per blow on average and 1500++ damage maximum with appropriate weapons. The axe gives the barbarian fast hit recovery, extra damage, rapid swing speed and the ability to hit three adjacent enemies, making the barbarian extremely formidable. The only problem for barbarians are perhaps archers and witches which can get very tedious (mages are no problem as they die too quickly and do not RUN away).
It is due to these two melee powerhouses available in Hellfire that i condemned the Warrior and the Monk. Both are strong melee classes themselves but will never be able to reach the levels of the other too. Low magic stats does nothing to help. I have been impressed by the advantages presented by warriors about their class but till now, i have yet to be convinced that the monk is of ANY use at all, except for normal difficulty.