A few pointers to add:
1) Intelligence increases damage for all magic schools, but does not increase healing ability or armor buff ability for any school. Points in specific schools will increase damage and healing and armor buffs for that school only. So it's wise to put points into Int for damage overall, but then pick a few schools to put points in for the heals and buffs. Hydro and Geo are both good for those. The rest of them only need a few points (3 max) to unlock skills.
2) I agree, dual wands will be fine for you if your open to it. Shield won't be necessesary in Explorer mode really....Lone wolf pumps your output so high you may actually find yourself bumping up to Classic on occasion simply because the fights get so easy. Good news is you can switch between the two at will.
3) Make sure when you build your toon that you pick Scholar and Mystic as your tags, they open up allot of conversations that would otherwise be locked for you.
4) this may sound counter-intuitive, but it's also worth putting 2 points into either warfare, Huntsman, or both, for their movement skills. you will be glad you have them when playing solo...it sucks to get yourself lined up, only to have a mob teleport you to some whacky location and you have to spend 2 turns running back. Teleport is also a good skill to pick up, but thats in the Aero school, which you wil probably get anyways. in addition to teleporting your summons (most of them can't climb ladders, and lots of mobs go up ladders), you can teleport a mob down to yourself, or drop it off a cliff and make it run back to you.
5) you will also want plenty of points in Memory - more spell slots. While were on the subect, if you go shield, you will want points in Constitution. a few extra to boot...mobs will often cast spells that reduce your Con, and if it isn't high enough, you'll un-equip your shield. Very nasty surprise when in the middle of combat.
6) Last but not least, don't cast your spells with CC right away, use general damage spells early in combat...you'll need to burn through the opponents magic armor before your CC can affect it, save the CC spells for once the armor is gone.
Oh, and I second summoning...even if you want to play solo, having an extra pair of hands to help out really helps. the mob groups can tend to spread out allot, and it helps to have your summons on a ranged mob or caster to keep them busy.
