other than a pet build (dont want to be bored to tears)
thinking deathknight, commando, or battlemage strictly from a survivability standpoint
Have a look here.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61983&highlight=powerful+builds
Plenty to choose from.
Spellbinder is very safe and doesn’t require many items compared to most builds.
I would advise against picking soldier as first HC char for main campaign. It take forever to get gear, the gameplay is boring and its hard to get wrong with soldier.
Necromancer + something is your best bet.
Necro+Arcanist - spellbinder. Extremely durable class with awesome spells. Versatile and powerful and fun.
Necro+Shaman - ritualist. Good durability, good dps. Can be a caster, but I prefer melee route.
Necro+Nightblade. The Reaper 
Tons of flat dmg from masteries and mobility skill make him on of the best for leveling and farming. Active gameplay, lots of fun.
I’d argue that your priority for the first character should be not safest but easy to level and not gear dependant. Personally I’d choose something like DW tactician/purifier or Primal Strike ranged conjurer/vindicator/druid or maybe forcewave DK with Krieg aspirations.
^^^^^
It is almost as brain-dead as a full retaliation warder, minus the chance to fumble your patience, and kill yourself out of boredom.
… Krieg BM is a thing now, too, thankfully.
It’s hard to argue against invunerability being an option, while leveling.
To Weyu or Ptirodaktill, what builds do you like or recommend for spellbinder?
Actually, pet builds can be far more engaging and fun than DK or retal Warder. I play HC and find my cabalist to be the most fun build/class to play, while my fully geared DK is now a museum exhibit collecting virtual dust. Not only pet builds are great fun to pilot (you go nuts with the number of options available), but they aren’t immortal by any means. A DK or Warder can facetank anything, while a cabalist would have to navigate around the battlefield, not too far from the enemies to be able to apply buffs/debuffs, not too close to avoid getting overwhelmed. On top, you have to manage the pets properly, find balance between their damage and defense, not forgetting your own stats.
So, I wouldn’t dismiss this option if I were you. Just my 2 cents.
I implied 2H Tremor Forcewave, not a shield-based one.
I would recommend my build http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69748
It’s very safe, it’s versatile, it’s fast in campaign farming and it’s fun. And 6 pieces of gear are craftable on this one (no mi item needed).