I'm honestly drawing up a blank trying to think of a single other RPG where bugs have been a huge factor in ruining my enjoyment of the game. Poor game design, terrible graphics, shitty storylines, yup, but not one where I've been "man I really want to play this but these bugs are making it impossible." The closest thing that comes to mind is how completely and utterly fucked Diablo 1's multiplayer was.
Strategy games, on the other hand...
Either you didn't play it... or have a terrible memory.
My first char was definitely broken. I started a summoner. Having to summon, and resummon minons every single map, as wolves jumped on top of me over and over...
Then, about 1/3rd of the way through he game or so. in the major city, I started to notice something was wrong. I was getting weaker and weaker.
oh, when a summon kills an npc, you the player gets no experience. I was 4 levels below where I was supposed to be. Started leveling death magic. and suddenly level 1 death magic was killing the crap out of everything.
PS. I swapped to hard, and still find wand+blast to be super effective. Now, this is not a solo build. its a ranged aoe dps build. so needs a tank for you. And honestly, letting others debuff for you too is ideal.
But early game, as noted. you have arcane assault x4 with Aloth, which wrecks the shadows. its short range can be dangerous, so make sure they are tanked/distracted well.
Chillwind is supergood then, and now still. that x2 is strong. or that on YOU with your might, with Aloth doing slicken. again his low might lets him do CC wiz spells while you nuke/wand. the interrupt.
level 2 wiz spells. meh. A combusting wounds perhaps. aoe is small though. it would add to the wands nukes though. necrotic lance good. aoe confuse good.
level 3 wiz spells. the cake. Expose Vul. (admittedly, not 100% sure on how -Dr stacks works from sources. but almost certainly worth it.) again, have aloth cast it. Kalakoths minor blights. THIS is your spell. fireball is of course good too for nuking.
Creates a ball of energy in the casters hand that can bethrownat the enemy, causing Burn, Freeze, Corrode. or Shock damage to anyone caught in the area of effect. -blights are continually replenished until the spell ends.
"effects: caster-until the weapon is changed for 60s.
So, this applies to wand/etc. The aoe damage you throw out with blast and this is crazy. Especially one a good fast wand. and with ila chant.
Heck, you might even consider improved implments, for +25% wand/sceptor damage. or other marksman +accuracy, etc.
Now granted, this is for AOE. single target, you'll want a standard nuke. or possible weapon swap to something with one hit damage. adventurer is +6 acc to wands and warbows.