In addition, they can grab
spells with all those Expanded Knowledge feats, thanks to their friend the Erudite turning them into powers.
Even without going there, though, they can be quite impressive as a melee build. Schism, Metamorphosis, Lion's Charge, Vampiric Blade (my favorite). They have so many options for what powers they can take. Slap on four levels of Slayer at the end of any career and you're above the tier 3s in combat capabilities (and they have the Warblade and Psychic Warrior. What does the Psychic Warrior have the Wilder doesn't? 'Cause it sure as Hell isn't a full casting progression).
If I had to guess at it, I'd say the Wilder is somewhere between tier 2 and tier 3 now that I look at it. Sure, they have the slower "I don't get anything until level four" problem, but so does the Sorc, and he's tier 2. The Wilder certainly has more potential than anything on tier 3 (not counting adding spells to their lists). dark_samurai's Wilder build he just posted can do *almost* anything a psion can, and some things it can't. They can grab Heal (or damn close) off the Ardent list. They are extremely versatile.
What's with all the hate for the Wilder? Sure, it gets annoying when they tug on their braid
yet again, but if you can look past that, you'll find something that can do a little more than you'd expect at first glance.
Would you agree that the Educated Wilder belongs in a different tier than the standard one?
(That was posted while I was typing this)
I don't think so. Sure, the four extra powers helps, but you can take EK
anyway. Full manifesting, while being able to choose from such a diverse list as the psion list, is
still uber powerful. Sure, maybe it's not OVER 9000!!!, but I think we just need to take a step back and realize how much of the Sorcerer mojo the little Wilder has going, i.e. how many times over do you need to be able to destroy the world?