Wisdom only increases your mana pool, it doesn't affect mana regen at all. I've always said that mana pool is overrated, and while it matters more for a cleric than for, say, a shaman, it's still not that big of a deal. Certainly not something you'd have to worry about at level 8.
You'll want a big enough mana pool that you don't go OOM immediately, but that's all but guaranteed just by putting all your starting points into wisdom. A little extra on gear helps, but you'll quickly reach a point where it almost never makes a difference. In groups, the overwhelming majority of your time is spent either hovering around half mana or thereabouts and never being full, or sitting at full mana because the camp is easy. Very rarely will your mana fluctuate wildly between low and full in a way where the size of your mana pool matters. You're usually better off getting HP in the slots where you can (mainly rings, cloak, neck, head) and then just getting wisdom wherever you can't. Even AC has its merits, though your goal should be to not get hit and your high HP will hopefully suffice to let you survive when you do anyway.
Meleeing will work until level 15 or so, then you're really better off nuking and medding if you want to solo. Cleric undead nukes are quite decent and you can solo alright with them the wizard way, but grouping will always be better. Just don't expect to be able to melee usefully past level 20 at the very most.
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