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I played this character in playtest scenario 2 Raiders of Shrieking Peak, and it was very efficient, to the point where I got complaints from the other players and the GM.
The scenario might be somewhat to blame for this, since I was a ranged character and the others weren't. We eventually compared it to a similar fighter build, and thanks to the fact that True Strike really does not get worse, it performed similarly to the fighter with relatively minor investments from me.
My aim was apparently to replicate the magus archer I never got to play in PFS, but frankly considering the options I was given this build made a lot of sense to me:
Elf wizard 5
Elf, Humanoid
Percep +5; Senses low-light vision
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Defense HP 56 Hero Points 1 Res 6
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TAC 21; AC 23
Fort +9 (+10 to recovery saves.); Ref +8; Will +7
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Wizard Arcane Spellcasting Prepared (CL 5th; ranged +4)
. . 3rd—fireball, magic missile
. . 2nd—glitterdust, resist energy, see invisibility
. . 1st—burning hands, true strike, true strike
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, electric arc, ray of frost, shield
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Statistics
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Str 12 (+1); Dex 18 (+4); Con 16 (+3); Int 18 (+4); Wis 10 (+0); Cha 12 (+1)
Skills Acrobatics +6, Arcana +10, Athletics +3, Crafting +9, Occultism +10, Religion +5, Warfare Lore +9
Feats Fighter Dedication, Magical Striker, Quick Identification, Reach Spell, Toughness, Trick Magic Item, Weapon Elegance (elf), Weapon Familiarity (elf)
Languages Celestial, Common, Elven
Other Abilities arcane focus
Other Gear scale mail, composite shortbow, elven curve blade, staff, arrows (10), arrows (10), arrows (10), arrows (10), arrows (10), [i]lesser healing potion[/i], [i]minor healing potion[/i], [i]moderate healing potion[/i], spellbook (blank)s (2), purse (80 sp)
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The build is pretty simple, I went with the fighter multiclass since I didn't want to deal with mage armor which is just worse than actual armor if you want the highest AC. In theory I could also have picked up armor proficiency as a general feat, but that would only have given me light armor, and since I am pretty much stuck with a +4 Dex bonus until level about level 15 where I can hit 20 (22 with a magic item) this seemed like the most effective option to keep my AC up and avoid getting to many crits.
Of course, I already like that kind of character.
The bow was also kinda forced by the current system, right now a lot of spells (and all of the cantrips I have chosen) take 2 actions to cast leaving me with another free action. Reach spell was actually useful, but the bow just made a lot of sense for that last option and synergized very well with my build.
Magical striker really made the whole build work, and I felt very effective.
If I were to follow that build I would pick up point-blank shot and switch to a longbow.
Right now "have a ranged weapon that does not take 2 hands" seems to be the smart choice, which is unfortunate since it makes it very unlikely that I will be able to regularly wield my staff.
If I could point out something that is too good, it's like the Fighter multiclass dedication feat is a bit too good (giving me 2 feats and a couple of other benefits I am not actively using thus far).
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Of course, this build also shows, that just focussing on casting is not currently very appealing I already had problems to find fitting items for some of my playtest characters, and most of the items available to spellcasters are not available yet.
Would it be possible to get a damag variant of the clerc feat "healing hands"? To allow pure casters a somewhat effective option to improve their casting?
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Another thing that came up while I was researching this character, is that duellist wands exist, and I would prefer to get some way to get that functionality added to my staff (but that might be a somewhat personal issue).
Upgrading my staff as a weapon (since magic staffs are starting as expert weapons) seems like a neat idea, and even if they just add an item bonus to attack and damage rolls with spells (not unlike the staff of healing) that could give those pure spellcasters an outlet for their gold and prevent them from feeling forced to use a bow or crossbow.
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I had fun playing the character, but though I have gotten the feedback that True Strike might be too good (in general, good enough the Iomedae cleric also used it in the same game, combined with weapon surge).
I'm actually planning basically the same build, except as a rogue multiclass wizard. Magical striker doesn't come online until level 8, and you have very few casts until around level 12 (and no rogue feats except for level 1 until level 14), but, not counting spellstrike ammunition, i think this has the highest potential single shot damage. Towards the end of the build you'll have something like 10 truestrikes per day which should be sufficient for targetting scary enemies.
Starting as a rogue means you'll have an extra +1 to +2 to hit over the wizard (unless you take fighter dedication for the weapon expertise). You have up to 4d6 sneak attack (doubled on a crit, which your crit chance vs flat footed with true strike i expect to be at least around 40%). Basically you trade the versatility of extra spell casts for extra skill training and higher potential single target damage. Level 20 with a +5 flaming, shocking, frost longbow is something like 130 damage on average (assuming crit + sneak attack) with an upper bound of double that, which should be plenty to one shot at least squishy characters.
On the other end of things, I am disappointed with cantrips. Even autoscaling, they do less damage than a bow for double the action cost and half the range. It's frustrating that casters, if they don't want to use spell slots, are better off as archers.