I find balmond very useless with a fighter build.
in the first 4mins of the game i bought 4 armor tht cost 220, then upgrade to 1 for armor boots, then i rush bloodthirsty king, after that i upgrade the remaining 3 armor to blademail like armor that has return damage. then thats it Window Replacement. You can either go for magic def if there is eudora or kagura, like oracle is the best option, and then immortality