I see a lot of posts talking about the weapons/epuiment that are being used on champions and it kind of confuses me

I have played about 6-8 games so far and truthfully I have never seen the need to equip any heroes with equipment. In fact i don't usually have any need for them at all except for the bonuses they supply. Right now, the only time i recruit heros is early in the game for their gildar/tech/arch know production. or 10% boost and then i just park them in a city. I have almost no need for any other major group of units with a champion and havent seen where iit is worth the gildar to equip them when you can build a better group of units for cheaper. I usually imbue Javok (i think thats his name) right away so i have 2 spellcasters in my group and send him around the rest of the game with my sov. But i have yet to see a use for spending guildar to create a melee champion. They never seem to be very powerful even after spending a ton of cash on them.

I havent played on anything above normal difficulty level so maybe that is there the need comes in but I wanted to here from the rest of the community on their strategy

Do you actually spend the money and create melee champions?  What do you do with other champions? etc....your take and strategy please...