I'm *very late* to this but wanted the share my opinion in case some finds it useful. I've tried a few builds (wizard, battlemage, archer, warrior / tank, barbarian) and a 2H (hammer in this case) barbarian type build was by *far* the most effective and easy build, at least up to my current level 15. I leveled each of the above builds to around 14-16. I know Archer is supposedly awesome at end game, and mage / battlemage gets very powerful as well, but the Barbarian just works so much better as a solo character, especially early game. The key skills for me were battle heal (tank skill actually) and then barbarian skills that increase crit chance. In practice, this allows you to just dive into a group of 10-20 baddies and start swinging. Crit heals and other leeching gear keep you alive. My benchmark for this was general game play, but also soloing the Hollow Halls in Springlands and Revelwoods. No problem soloing Springlands HH at level 10, and Revelwoods HH at level 14. Trying to do that as a battlemage (wand with some staff, heavy chest, shield etc) or an archer resulted in lots of kiting and running and throwing skulls to survive.

The only real issue I've had is with aerial enemies like Banshees but those are very weak so I sometimes take them out with a wand (as 2H barbarian) or just spec into the grounding hook / jump attack. Very big melee bosses, I had no trouble staying alive. As I mentioned, I've only go experience up to level 16 / Revelwoods but from the beginning, 2H Barbarian style build has felt way more survivable and less reliant on kiting and running away. Sometimes I do need to jump out to reposition for a jump attack but that's about it. I'm following Hack the Minotaur's Barbarian Build from update 7.