The Tavern

Executioner Axe = Worth using? Just in general or in the case of randarts.

Any advice for Melee fighters? I was thinking about Minotaur Berserker, then just getting some heavy armor. Any advice really for tackling specific hard areas and end game?

Well yea, executioner axe is the best axe. Of course it is worth using!

Tab will get you through pretty much anything on a 3 rune game, but... I'll let someone else answer that. I only have one MiFi win under my belt.

For Minotaur Berserker:
Elf - come here late, with conservation and a good antimagic axe. rF and rC are nice.
Vaults - nothing special until V:8. this should probably be the last thing you do before d:27 and Zot. Stairdance the final floor, potions of might and agility can help with the opening ambush.
Crypt - Crush it. Antimagic the liches/curse skulls (or ignore them). If you're planning to convert to the Shining One, don't come here until you do.
Slime - Make sure your weapon and armour are uncorrodable, for other slots either use replaceable stuff, artefacts, or have rCorr from something.
Zot - don't get over your head against the packs of enemies, use Trog's Hand liberally. Have rF, more resistances will help but are not essential.
Zot:5 - same as zot, but for the Orb vault "packs" means "any two enemies" - try to engage only one at a time, retreating as needed. antimagic is still great for Orbs of Fire and ancient liches.

I used an antimagic axe for almost all of the late game, though it's theoretically better to have a good normal axe as well. Not really needed.

If you develop a ranged option such as crossbow/longbow, that can pair very nicely with your big axes.

I'd add that rF+++ in Zot:5, while not mandatory by any means, is EXTREMELY good at keeping Orbs of Fire off you. The difference between engaging them with rF++ and rF+++ is extreme.

If you happen to get a vault that has a lot of them, I'd say its worth sacrificing other resists for. They are extremely dangerous to someone who must close gaps to deal damage.

Definitely, just don't swap to an exec axe until 20 axes or so (with less than that, it will swing too slowly)

Any advice for Melee fighters? I was thinking about Minotaur Berserker, then just getting some heavy armor. Any advice really for tackling specific hard areas and end game?[/quote]
Orc/Elf: Put off for as long as possible, there are safer places to get loot. (I recall things like ettins and stone giants spawning in orc:4, and orc warlords are no slouches either)
Lair: Don't get surrounded by blink frogs and don't melee hydras unless you have a flaming axe (just run or use wands or bros)
Vaults: Yaktaurs are like centaurs that are the same speed as you - you wanna duck around corners and let them come to you, then engage in melee where they'll be comparatively weak. For Vaults:8, be aware that you'll be surrounded by the game's strongest monsters at all times, and you'll want to use every trick you can to fight things one at a time (including quite a lot of retreating up the stairs)
Hall of Blades: Don't do blade
Zot: Come with rF++ for orbs of fire. Have rC+ and rElec as swaps (or in rElec's case, in potions of resistance) for scary monsters that use them. Have lots of haste, and use it to run from things. Moths of wrath are very dangerous since berserk monsters become 3 times as powerful and faster than you - kill them with wands or run/teleport away if you can't. And don't fight things/more things than you have to.

endgame a stack of enchanted steel / silver javelins is nice.

throwing is very good to slowly train up.

1) Ẃeapon enchantment removed
2) Assuming that "slowly train up" means "focus your main skill and leave throwing on", if it doesn't, then I apologise - you most probably want one skill most at any given time (if you don't, it's flawed strategic thinking or a case of multi-school spells), don't dilute your skills if you don't have to. If your character's biggest weakness is a lack of defence, train defensive skills. If your character's weakness is a lack of ranged power, train for that. At any rate, both half-trained isn't going to benefit you nearly as much as one fully trained ("fully" means "enough to compensate the flaw", not "27").

All of this strategic advice is less important than good tactics. Berserkers are reasonably simple and straightforward strategically; being ok at melee is not terribly hard but being good at it is pretty difficult. Of course since tactics are much harder to teach than just describing skill progression...

That sucks that you can no longer enchant javelins.

my personal preference is to train throwing to 8 after i train up my axe skill for god gifts. early game rank 2 or 3 is sufficient to kill ogres / scorpions with javelins or blowguns.

I was killing Hydra with heroism and +4 frost darts yesterday, it worked better than my (non flaming) axe

but yes train up your primary weapon skill first.

You're becoming more prolix, which is good.

"prolix" was a derogatory term last time I checked

Which was sixteen minutes ago wasn't it.