Level up choices?
 

For each of the three classes, how do you prioritize your stats when you level up?

Is Leadership always the best choice?

For my warrior, leadership > rage > attack/defence > anything else.

Leadership is THE best choice. While 1 extra attack or defence won't make a big difference, having 2 more giants does that difference ;)

Rage is a pretty good choice every now and then because there aren't that many opportunities in the world that build up your max rage, however, there are plenty of opportunities for leadership with all the banners and + leadership artifacts.

The banners are nearly useless when you have a warrior. Usually you would need 15-20 banners to reach the equal increase of leadership than leveling up. On the contrary, when you got an increase of rage in the adventure map in nearly the same as when you go up a level.

And also, I think the maximum rage isn't so important as the leadership. The rage is there for use it, not for accumulate it. I'm not that type of player who loads big amounts of rage by not using it against weak creatures, and then drop all in a stronger group or enemy hero. Using rage allows the spirits to grow up and gain new habilities, making it stronger.

I use rage pots for big battles, quite helpful. I would go with some rage very early on when your leadership lvl is around 100 as compared to say an increase in 7-10 max rage. Just me again I guess.

You will get more leadership points per level up in the late game while the attack and defence points offered will still be the same. My suggestion is to take attack/defence in early game, and leadership in late game.

Good advice

Intelligence is much better than described in game. Every point of int seems to give about 10% more damage and healing power. In addition to that you get 10% more at ever 7 int. And 1 more turn to spell duration at 15 int. (Not to all spells tho, at least phantom duration did not increase at 15 int.)

Here is some quick numbers for level 3 magic poleaxe at diff amount of int:
Int Damage
2: 430
3: 470
4: 500
5: 540
6: 575
7: 670

So if you use lot of damage or healing spells int is very important.

I think attack is much better than defense. At least I usually hit lot more often than get hit so I use attack much more than defense.

correct, in the demo the descripton for intellect was that each point also gave you a 1% increase in damage, in the fullgame this is no longer indicated although it does count.

you can test this easily with +intellect items and a dmg spell in your book to confirm.

atm i have about 24 intellect and doing a steady 2k damage with my trusty fireball.

It doesn't calculate that easily. High defense help to preserve troops, it boost especially high HP units. Mine ~25 Def hero + dragons are nearly impossible to kill. With seems to be better cost-effective (time too = bigger score).

Also It helps you prolong fights and gives opportunity to gain more rage for less cost, while at the same time you have more time to unleash spirits. Imho Defense is really handy for Mage. More spells is all he needs. thought it seems meditate give less mana after some turns (at least it's mine impression) so the fun won't last forever.