What can I say? Even on Torment I tended to take things using a straightforward approach. After all, you're not going to have much trouble when you focus on high magic or high shaping anyway.
By the end of the game, my first character had 28 intelligence. With that, I was able to make a pretty powerful set of creatures and still have a nice chunk of essence left over for casting. The crafting recipes were a little hard to find out, but once you know the technique you can just experiment until you see something you like. (Like Lifecraft Gauntlets)