Meditate is very handy in the new campaign, when you are suffering from mana drain. A big no (just my opinion) to ditching meditate. And not trying to be sarcastic, but I rarely die after using Cruel Blast...I usually follow it with Thorn Root and back up slightly, especially if a mage is hitting Lightning for Nature Strike...and potting like a fiend sometimes :P

Overall you have good ideas, but instead of ditching a skill, maybe creating a couple new ones for each class that can lead to different builds and not necessarily being able to use all of one's skills.