First, I choose a character type. I'm (theoretically) a roleplayer, so that's pretty important to me.
Then I choose the more important skills to the template. For example, when I created a mage, I choose magery, meditation, evaluate intelligence and wrestling. Resisting spells and spellweaving came later. When I made my warrior, I chose swordsmanship, tactics, healing, anatomy. Chivalry, bushido and parry came later.
When I have the type down, then I optimize the character's template based on survivability first, then the ability to kill. Killing quickly is a bonus.
It was only after I got the characters close to where I wanted them that I started optimizing the items, which is very similar to training a skill in today's games.