@VkmSpouge, actually I find openning up with my mid to high range spells first works best. I think of it as suppression fire, particularly as whenever I've played wizards (my favourite was an evoker/fire elemental savant) the thugs of the party have often just charged into the fray. My spellcaster is left with her familiar to defend her. By bringing down the bulk of the baddies in the early rounds of combat, I buy myself and my comrades some breathing space.
One of my current PCs, a druid/sorceress geomancer, fulfills the artillery position by pinning down the enemy rogues and spellcasters. Of course, with mobile opponents, hanging back in combat is not always an option. My geomancer was guarded by the party wizard when we were fighting demons as they kept teleporting behind our batteline. The only reason why we weren't pate was the wizard had mirror image up and demons don't have sonic resistance.
A class I am currently having fun with is the urban ranger. Skulking across rooftops, tracking evil-doers through the marketplace, fighting vampires in sewers when armed with a quarterstaff. Well, that last bit was fun only in the ow-bitey-pain way but the class is amusing.
Nihil est ab omni partum beatum.
(Nothing is an unmixed blessing)