Arcane Ward - Abjuration experience (War vs Abjure)

I have been looking into building an abjuration wizard as I love the idea of the arcane Ward, especially the level 6 feature.

However, looking at the level 1-5 experience, it seems as though you may not get a ton of use from the ward.

I have seen the wizard tank builds, eldritch invocation cheese and such and keep thinking, if I'm going to be a spell caster, going into melee is not very advantageous.

Would one not be better off going with a gish or martial?

If you have any experience as an Abjuration wizard, I'd love to hear it.