Sometimes you get everything going well and looking at the wands you had, you were better off than I was. I could never find much of any but god dam do they lack even an average defense. Dodge might be the answer or increase the hp gains or make the demons in aura of despair reduce damage taken by everyone, not just servitors or make the demons in aura of despair get in the way when someone is trying to bash you, giving you some bash protection. Reduce and enlarge works in some cases but I would rather have the drawback of AOD and some bash protection against the storm sword spec cookie-cutter fortress ponce who just spams bash and out-melee-damages you.
Anyway, I am still learning APs myself but they seem to be the MOST wand dependant magic using class.

-----Abernyte