I really liked this game. I managed to beat it in 3 attempts.
I didn't follow bakkart's strategy at all, plus I never had to refresh once. Until 5-1, I only had 1x green totem, and 3x red and brown totem. Then, all I did was stack up on special scrolls, freeze scrolls, and partial healing scrolls. Most people start to ignore certain loot at some point (as someone mentioned), but my advice is -- don't ignore them. Stack up on certain loot so you can trade it with the witch, thus you can max your stats quicker.
On some levels, there is a room with a hidden treasure - the aforementioned golden orbs - which, if I remember correctly, yields special loot. Those rooms are not marked on the map and are only found on some levels, so if you want to find them and don't mind risking a few more fights, explore all the rooms on a level before going down to the next.
Wow, it's very hard for people who have bad timing; I manage to use the Bat'leth really easy.
i know its strange but somehow, I can hit it in long streaks.