If you are new and playing an ap, I'd probably recommend arial.

Defensive spin will help you defend better, especially once you get spine of the akragaka (which I think arials can -- drow certainly can).

Sleep + spell people up + vault will kill most people if help doesn't arrive. Worth mastering sleep to minimise the chance of people hitting you with counterstrikes because you lost concentation. Also know who the rager berserkers are and be VERY wary about casting sleep on them. Otherwise you might be dead before the round is over.

I've intentionally played ap's in a number of ways, and they all kind of work.

They were:
a) focus on sleep + vault (you can pick risk-free targets)
b) focus on pouring out damage with iceball and fireball (not many people can outdamage you, and you'll probably kill more than kill you)
c) focus on maladictions. Generally requires more finesse. For example, you might want to deafen a shifter while he's still in form, as they often don't appreciate the significance of that until they revert to word... and find they can't. Whereas if you deafen any other kind of mage, they will almost certainly appreciate the danger and flee immediately.