I never have to worry about timers because the melee (dragonlords, monks, or barbarians) all move (much) faster than I do. I only have 4 "wings" from the Eladrin tree. If you're a DG you have none at all. Even with my leaps, two of which I always save for self-preservation, I have no chance of keeping pace with the melee characters so cooldowns aren't an issue.
It's interesting, I noticed Forum DDO somewhere along the line decided you could only play DG on a wizard. That certainly isn't the case. And even to achieve the ideal DG status you are talking about (for the 20 free racial APs) over a hundred million XP investment. I think that should be highlighted more often (which we are doing here). And STILL, I don't think PK is any good. But I don't know for sure. And I shouldn't give up on it so soon in the journey. I'm willing to look at any videos someone has of using PK in R10 zergs along with end quest Kill Counts.
Spell points are never an issue with the lost souls which none of the melee ever need. So don't be afraid to slap enlarge, empower, embolden, heighten, quicken on everything.
Of course, this only applies to a typical R10 melee-heavy Zerg group. Play will vary outside of that, and I hope to get more game examples.
Yeah, you definitely aren't obliged to go Deep Gnome in any way. Okay, when you have all the racial AP, they are the strongest Wizard race. But I don't, so for now I'm Drow, and when I get a few more I'll go Sun Elf.
PK is excellent. However, the problem with it is that, especially without tons of PLs and racial APs, plus all the other bells and whistles, it's harder to pump your Illusion DC. This is compounded by its dual will and fort saves; most enemies will be strong against at least one of these.
Once you get the DC high enough, it's invaluable. But I always focus on Necro and Enchant first, with Illusion as a third. You could even argue Conjuration should be your third focus.
I don't have zerg videos, but I do have videos of me soloing r10s. Here is one:
I use PK extensively in all these quests, as well as in party zergs. But I have the advantage of a max-DC filigree set; I take Spell Specialty twice, once for Illusion; I have the Deep Gnome PLs; and so on. So it is a (very) good spell, but it takes a bit more pumping to get it to work.
Also note, I use DC boosts extensively in high reaper. Most encounters I'm going in with either Arcane Insight or the reaper DC boost active. They really do help. I think self-buffed, unboosted, my PK DC is 127. So, with boosts this can be 130 or 133 (or even 136!). And I don't have completionist, reaper equipment, any MD equipment, and a lot of other things - the point being, it is possible to get usable DCs without having every past life, crunching a bunch of frags, and all that.
One last thing. Once we get to epics, I regard Exalted Angel as the essential tertiary destiny, just for wings. For my playstyle, it is indispensable. And more to the point, wings mean you can easily keep up with zerging dps toons, and even outstrip them, should you wish. The rest of the destiny is also pretty good, giving us +3 DCs to a school, some heals for helping others in emergencies (especially the real healer), a bit of spell power, and 5% fire absorb. Not bad in my opinion for the third destiny. But maybe you can't fit it in - just a thought if you want more manoeuvrability and speed.