In my experiance a wizard and a ranger are the easiest choices in the beta. There is a wizard companion in the beta but two are better.
There will be more companions available in the realse version. I sure hope there are more options early in cyseal, as I don't like the two in the beta (way too crazy for my taste).
Playing completely without a wizard makes the game considerably harder. You can't extinguish fires properly and can't do most combos. Arrows don't last forever and you'll have to spend a lot of money on them. I tried it, it's no fun.
