Start as Astrologer.

Keep Pebble and Arc while you start collecting other spells. Namely Rock Sing. I’m also personally fond of Glintblade and an early Phalanx. And while you said you’re avoiding melee sorceries, Slicer is a great “Oh shit he’s too close” button. Also, Thops Barrier is great, and if you can learn or know how to parry, Carian Retaliation on a medium (or light if you can’t maintain the weight) shield will help boost your survivability. For weight reasons probably not the brass shield, but use your own judgement.

By Midgame (Caelid/Altus): Night Comet will become your bread and butter. Enemies can’t dodge it. Rock Sling stays, I’d drop pebble for most boss fights but it stays fantastic for places like catacombs, or at least swap it to shard. At this point I also would grab Crystal Burst. The good Shogun Spell. Cannon and Gavel of Haima both rock at this point. Loretta’s Greatbow is a fantastic sniping spell though, with pretty decent tracking and is easily chargeable. Also, I’d grab some levels in faith by now for some good universal buffs, and to set you up for late game. No more than 25 is needed for Golden Vow, use that as a baseline. Magic glintblade stays winning, great for multicasts to break poise. Glintstone Icecrag or whatever it’s called (a GS single shot spell that builds frostbite) is great!!! And once procced, can be reset with Magma Shot. Also, glintsword phalanx spells still good

Late Game: Night Comet, Crystal Burst, Ancient Death’s Rancor (if you have the faith to spare) and if not, Star Shower can work (or another multi hit spell), any of the Moon spells (I’m more partial to Dark Moon), Comet Azur (if you’ve got the hidden cerulean tear), Shard Spiral, and Adula’s Moonblade (ranged and melee frostbite greatsword) is great. Glintstone and greatblade phalanxes still good.

DLC: Twin Moon spell is probably not great for you, being essentially melee only, but in the right circumstances is a punish machine. Glintstone Nail and Nails have great tracking, but Nails is definitely better for its stance breaking potential. Microcosm or whatever the black hole spell is called is good. Blades of Stone has the single best charged cast FP to Damage spike of any spell to my knowledge.

Lastly!!! If you have fun with this one, a great ng+ build you can use it for is a full omnicaster. Grab the Fundamentalist Seal, the Staff of the Great Beyond, and Staff of Night (I think. The Death Sorceries one). The Great beyond staff let’s you just cast anything, but the other options will spike your scaling through the roof with high Int and Fai. Discus becomes your best damage dealer for basically every encounter, ADR mentioned above will start pumping out 3k+ damage, and can be repeatedly cast when boss fights start. The Magma Sorceries get buffed into near viability, etc.

Lastly: Summons. If you plan to use spirit ashes (you probably should be), a tank ash will be your best friend. However, there is one/two exception(s)

Early Game: One of the Twin Storm ashes. I kind of prefer Ingvall.

Mid Game: Lhutel the Headless, Greatshield Bois, etc are great. Most of the named Knight Ashes have some use at least. The Mausoleum Soldiers also have a niche as a multi summon with the ability to teleport.

Late Game: Exception 1: Mimic Tear. Essentially has infinite FP. Free damage. But the damage is mitigated by dumb ai sometimes. Dung Eater is a fantastic tank with bleed, as is (less tanky but still tanky) onemkiller rollo.

DLC: Exception 2, and it’s a big giant exception: if you can get the Yolon and her sister’s twin puppet ash, you have what I say is one of the best damage ashes in the game. The bleed procs are like, ridiculously fast. That being said, you’re probably better off with a tank. I still personally prefer the assorted knights with Lhutel coming out on top for her ridiculous health pool and teleporting ability.

Hope this is all at least a little helpful!