Wizard vs Cleric?

Well, you pretty much got the idea there in terms of the character differences.

Still, to comment on the perceived "squishy-ness" of the Wizard Class. I'm playing a Light Armour Wizard and although the higher damage of the pure build is tempting I will stick with it.

I don't die much - full stop. That said It takes a lot of kite-ing especially when you're on your own. I wouldn't say my damage is small atm either (currently lvl 26). I think four hits for my level is pretty good. Even if I do get one or two hits I survive and I now have my heal spell which brings me up to full again once I can cast it (long casting time).

My (even lower) Cleric is Pure INT (+enough STR to wear Robes) and she doesn't do much damage atm and is SO dependent on parties b:sad.

Wizard does take more control and skill to be successful, especially at the lower levels. But make no mistake, both are "cookie cutter" when it comes to builds.

Arcane or Light? If Arcane, you can play with vit.

Both have their "must-have" skills and both have ones better off left alone.

The big difference is in squads you will be mostly needed to heal if you go cleric. So, do you like to heal?

You have a pretty good grasp of the differences already. Which you play depends a lot on your personality and playstyle. I brought both a Wizard and a Cleric to level 20, after doing the same with a Venomancer, and decided to make Wizard my main.

For me, I like the strategy and extra touch of effort that goes into playing a wiz for the PvE portion. I'm still adjusting to the PvP portion, but it turns out I'm not as squishy as I thought I would be.

PvE: I rarely die to mobs - 5 times total so far. The elite ones have killed me a few times when I tried to take them on at too low a level, with only myself and another low level in the squad. That doesn't work so well sometimes XD But I do just fine on my own, kiting when I don't have Life Powder, and going full-tilt when I do have Life Powder and Focus Powder to keep my HP/MP bars full. Since I'm LA, it's pretty hard for most mobs near my level to chew down my HP bar when I have Earth Barrier and Life Powder on. It only becomes dangerous when Poison gets stacked on me by multiple mobs. In that case, I can cast my heal and meditate between mobs for a second, then I'm back in the grind. Grinding/Questing actually goes pretty quickly, even more so when I squad with my husband (Blademaster) because we make a tough team against the mobs. Most of the time all we need is the two of us to take out a quest boss - he tanks, I heal and DD. It works out very well as long as I'm careful to let him keep Aggro

PvP: I haven't had much practice with this - I've been PK'd twice in three levels so by no means do I have a clue what I'm doing yet. But I have noticed that with Earth Barrier and Life Powder on, I was a 3-shot to a 6x+ (maybe 8x?) barbarian. 4-shot to an Archer, no clue of his level though. So our one-shotness might be a little overstressed. But then again, I haven't run into The Uber Most Excellent PKer yet. And it still ends with me dead because I'm 3x with a small HP pool. I suspect an HP charm would be a good investment for me at this point if I ever want to finish my Safe Passage quests - it would give me a bit longer to get out of there. It will be a few more levels yet before fighting back is a viable option.

Gameplay: I can tailor my spells to take advantage of elemental weaknesses. I hated the fact I couldn't do that as a Cleric ;_; Also, I can heal others and myself if I wish, but I'm not being stalked by people going "healplox" like I was when I was on my Cleric. I'm nice and will do it (I heal perfect strangers if I see their bar is down really low and I won't be stealing aggro from them), but it's kind of trying to be... followed... constantly... And as a Wizard, I have a more appealing role ingame. I can basically do as I please aside from tanking a melee boss. I will be able to tank Magic bosses later ^x^ Instead of being relegated to Party Healer.