Bows will be slow-firing unless you switch to Walk while shooting, but spells don't suffer from this. You can spam spells only as much as your Spell Points can support it, so get Meditation up early. Bombard enemy packs from far with Fireball. When they get close, Poison Spray is the Water version of Shrapmetal, albeit weaker but still very effective for its mana cost. Sparks is also very good up close.
Master Alchemy is also useful for Divine Power potions, though the Skill Point investment is very heavy just for this purpose.
I don't suggest skipping Earth as it has Telekinesis which will solve your Disarm Trap problem. Early on, you can only set them off and hope none of your characters die. If you do skip Earth you will have to deal with characters taking huge damage (probably fatal to Sorcerers) from chests for the whole game. You can skip it early on, but once you finish the Wizard promotion you should get it asap just for Telekinesis.
