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This idea began with the concept that Thunderwave is one of the best at-will powers for a Defender. Naturally, I tried to apply Thunderwave to a Fighter by multiclassing, only to fail miserably. The build wasn't HORRIBLE, but it definitely sacrificed much without much synergy. Reverse the roles, and have the Wizard dabble into martial training, and it all gets much more interesting....

Dwarven (or Human or Githyanki) Staff Implement Wizard / Iron Vanguard / Archmage

Below stats are for a Dwarf:

Str: 14
Con: 16
Dex: 8
Int: 16
Wis: 14
Cha: 11

Feats

1: Improved Initiative
2: Armor Proficiency (Leather)
4: Armor Proficiency (Hide)
6: Durable (level 12 - Toughness)
8: Weapon Focus (Staff)
10: Student of the Sword
11: Solid Sound
12: Dwarven Durability
14: Armor Specialization (Hide)
16: Uncanny Dodge
18: Iron Will
20: Resounding Thunder
21: Spell Accuracy
22: Arcane Mastery
24: Great Fortitude
26: Epic Resurgence
28: Lightning Reflexes
30: Inescapable Force

Core Powers

Defensive:

Shield
Blur
Resistance
Stoneskin
-any Force or Thunder power

The Defender-Mage can easily shore up his defenses with a wide variety of tools. With Solid Shape, each of your Force and Thunder powers (which makes up the vast majority of your arsenal) grants a +2 (unamed bonus!) to any of your defensive abilities. This also allows Shield to reactively supercharge AC or Reflex, or provide an incredible boost to either, and a moderate one to another defense. Blur is a potent tool against anything that can't see past illusions, and Resistance is a spell capable of rendering attacks from a chosen element nearly worthless. Most importantly, Stoneskin is an encounter-duration DR 10 versus ALL damage, and at 30, is the strongest candidate for becoming an encounter power via Archspell.

Control:

Thunderwave
Mage Hand
Flaming Sphere
Color Spray
Bigby's Icy Grasp
Mordenkainen's Sword
Wall of Fire
Thunderlance
Bigby's Grasping Hands
Wall of Ice
Crushing Titan's Fist
Evard's Black Tentacles
Elemental Maw
Necrotic Web
Forcecage
Legion's Hold

Too numerous to individually mention, A Wizard has many ways of keeping foes harmless through limiting their actions. The first major category is Conjurations. Summoning a Sphere of flames, a sword, or grappling fists is a great way to control the field, as you are not only conjuring useful spells that already control enemies through their primary effects, but you are also placing semi-permanent (as long as you have a minor to sustain each of them, and they aren't dispelled, which is currently difficult, to say the least) squares of enemy-only blocking terrain on the battlefield. Mage Hand is an at will, minor action wall, making it an invaluable trick in setting up battlefield defense.

Walls, although relatively easier to move through, are useful in creating obstacles that you don't need to expend actions to maintain, and that can still make movement extremely difficult. Zones such as Necrotic Web and Evard's Black Tentacles are great ways to proactively stop threats. With the acquisition of Iron Vanguard, this Wizard gains your con mod in health for every kill on the battlefield, which becomes amazing when minions come into play, and is great otherwise. Ferocious Inspiration makes you even more unbelievably unkillable, allowing you to bolster the defense that was breached to nearly unhittable levels (considering the defense boost from using this power), heal yourself with a second wind, elminate the target that would drop you, or make him simply lose his action. Simply put, with this ability, if you have an action point and an immediate action open, there is no reason that you should die. Trample the Fallen adds additional bite to many of your powers. Frontline Surge and Inexorable Shift are typical defender abilities that compliment the build well, and Indomitable Strength allows you to heal yourself, and dazing is very useful for allowing this Wizard to cast in the thick of combat, where he's most at home.

Dwarf has two useful ability modifiers, gives you minor actions Second Wind, and Dwarven Durability is the single greatest survivability feat in this game. Githyanki are incredible for their +2 to Int AND Con, a great mobility power, a bonus to Wisdom (this builds weakest defense by the end) and a passive bonus to Initiative rolls. Human gain a small net bonus to their Defenses over the others, and have amazing feats that allow you to overcome debilitating defenses with ease while granting a critical attack boost when it matters most. Overall, I believe Human (+2 Int) to actually be the best Defender-Mage's, but all 3 are incredibly viable and bring their own unique strengths to the build.

Archmage compliments this build nicely, granting much more access to the daily powers that make up most of this builds combat style, while granting the amazing Arcane Spirit. Seriously, when you get this, if an enemy actually manages to get the best of you, you pick up Insubstantial AND Phasing, and fully restored health. In short, you're a defensive GOD. At 30th, you will have Stoneskin always on, if you weren't already unstoppable enough.

To-Do list:
Actual power progression isn't fully fleshed out yet. No gear has been finalized. Overall build is still in an early stage, and almost certainly could be further optimized in terms of feat placement.

Yeah, I've been meaning to update and do a little bumpage myself.

Chimaera2000: I do think it has some limitations, but that proper positioning will overcome any problems with targeting a good deal of the time, assuming you have a party that works well with this type of build. I see pushing as very useful for bouncing foes into disadvantageous terrain (zones your wizard has created, or more natural surroundings), or simply allowing your party to advance on a position, closing in an enemy. Also, you can use it to disengage, help someone else retreat or with the aid of terrain or an action point, allow you to use a ranged effect without drawing an OA.

Currently, I believe builds like this will diverge into two categories: the more threatening builds using Str and Int, or the more defensive ones using Con and Int. As all mighty as it may be, this isn't an orb Wizard, and will never use Wis on the level that they do. Simply put, the vast majority of this build's best attacks don't include "save ends" effects. This also makes Cha less important than usual, although still very tempting.

My next concern is full viability. I'm not too hot on a Defender that can't start defending until Paragon tier, and would like for this to be a viable replacement defender from level 1.

Taking in info surrounding the release of the game has changed my opinions on much of the execution for this build, but I still believe it has merit, and I'll be updating shortly with some ideas of where I think it needs to go from here.

Why do you have Student of the Sword at level 10? Doesn't look like you get much out of it, especially at that level. Plus, you don't have any of the power swap feats, so you can't go into Paragon Multiclassing...

Ahoy there!

Thanks for posting that! I 'm a huge fan of the Thunderwave as well, even it 's just for it visual effects.

On a sidenote: Ye suggest taking Hide Armor Proficiency. I can see that with boosting your Int up to 18 at level 8 and 20 at lvl 14, 22 at lvl 24 you can get a rather high basic AC. (AC 32 with Darkhide, Int bonus, staff, level bonus at lvl 16) Still, I 'd consider retraining to Chainmail around Lvl 16. so you can have access to the Armor Powers better suited for defenders.

Cheers!

Captn M.