A little stronger  :)

i have a sinking suspicion you weren't the target market for aleks 😀

True :)

Plarium is suckering in noobs to build legos and buy books.  

rector should pair fantastically with quargan the crowned, but i wouldn't pull shards outside of 2x events either.  quargan is already a good healer by himself, and with mausoleum mage you already have a lot of survivability.  i'd take quargan to 50, and mage to 60 personally.  hopefully you saved your shards.

as for the great wm/aleks debate, they'll both eventually fall off your roster.  wm is cheaper and booked her aoe dec def can be pretty powerful.  aleks might last longer into the game, but i wouldn't put any books into him.  basically with warmaiden you'll have an easier time now, with aleks you'll struggle a bit more now but might have an easier time in other areas later assuming you don't pull straight up replacements by then.  really a coin flip for me.

if half of aleks's skills weren't limited to only orcs/ogryn tribes i would change my answer.

3 votes for Warmaiden! Glad I'm not the only smart person left in the insane asylum  :)