What character plays the most similar to elf?

Since I started the game, I've pretty much exclusively played Kerillian with S&D and Trueflight (Hagbane for maps where the Ogre is an issue). This wasn't really an issue before because I was playing with friends, but they do not play the game much anymore and I'm forced to play on public servers.

The problem now: Kerillian seems to be a very popular pick, and it's difficult for me to join games where she isn't already taken. So I was thinking of trying to learn another character so I'm not completely useless when I'm forced to play something other than Elf.

So for that purpose, what character and weapons should I be looking at? I'm assuming that Saltzpyre would be the closest, but I'm unsure of what weapons I should be using. Could you guys help me out here?