First Life Wizard

[jdlawhorn]

I'm just jumping around the forums now, aren't I?

I'm really trying to see what class I like and that I can stick with for a first life. Water Savant Sorc didn't do it for me...Sorc didn't do much for me at all. I'm liking Shintao PrE helf monk pretty well. Artificer is meh. I've done a cleric in the past, and it was okay. Not a fan of having to deal with MAD on a spellcaster, so FvS is out. And I've tried rogue, which was okay. Now, I'm looking for some help with a wizard.

TL;DR: I've tried lots of classes, and I'm looking for one that I like best.

I've read up on both Archmages and Pale Masters, and I'm not sure which I should choose. I'm pretty sure that either elf or Warforged are going to be the choices for race (elf for spell pen, WF for self-heals).

I'm also needing some help with my AP spending. My current wizard (Lv. 7 elf PM from about a year ago...haven't gotten around to deleting him...) is spread pretty evenly among the elemental manipulations (Manipulation II on all except Repair and maybe Force), but I don't feel I'm dealing as much damage as I could if I stuck with one or two elements and used more CC.

I have all races, 32-point build, and Vet I and II status. I'm also getting Turbine points when my paycheck hits my bank tomorrow, to I'll have some tomes I can eat.

So, my questions are as follows:

1.) Should I go Elf or Warforged? I have the Illusionist's Robe if that makes much difference (+3 to Int makes me thing I should go Elf or something non-WF)

2.) Should I go with Archmage or Pale Master? (I assume that will depend on race choice based on what I've read...)

3.) What should I do AP-wise? Should I focus my elemental manipulations a bit more, or keep them even? Also, if you said Archmage for the previous question, which specializations and SLAs do you recommend?

4.) What are some good spells to always keep memorized? (I'm sure that, too, will depend on the PrE and the specializations.)

Thanks to anyone that looks at this and gives me some advice.

*cough*Kinerd*cough* lol