Spell-Sword Shadow build! Tips and Advise!

Hi, So I am fairly new to the game, but I love it, and the fact that you have so much customization available. So I am thinking of making a Spell Sword Shadow. Kind of like the Spell sword from Skyrim build, if anyone played it. The basic concept of this build, is to take full advantage of the hit-n-run technique this character was supposedly designed for.
Now As I have said, I am new to the game completely, so all and any advise is very much welcome!


Here is the build



Now, I would love some advise, basically the build is built around slowing enemies down with ice, using that extra DMG from spells, and finishing them off with melee attacks.

I would like some advise, I think of the sword just mainly due to the higher base DMG, how-ever I would like some feedback if anyone thinks another weapon would be better for a build such as this! Thank you all!

Any advise or tips? If its a stupid idea, just say so, and tell me why. As I said I am new to the game.

I'm trying a similar build. I suppose it won't be as efficient as claws or daggers builds, but I'm having fun with it. My most used spells are Ice nova and Ice Spear, combined with double strike and dual strike spamming. I'm lvl 23 and my items are not very good, but at the moment the build works fine, I'll try to update how I'm doing as I lvl up.

Thank you for your feedback, good to know that there are other people trying out that build :D

! Nice to see that somebody is trying the same thing as me :) I went for claws and dual wield, since shadow has a lots of claw and dual wield dmg around it. Im not sure if sword is a good idea - there is alot more claw dmg passives around shadow. But on the other hand, swords give accuracy rating and liberates you from having to put so many passives on accuracy. There are some passives just right from shadows starting point that give 4% life leech each and there is 3 of them, so i tought i dont need to put so many passives in hp but i might be very wrong.. Im lvl 50 and playing in cruel act 3 now and almost never die (unless badly desynced) because i use whirling blades to run away from mobs and freeze them with ice spear if things get dirty. High life leech cause me to have full life even with half hp from hitting enemies just once. Also im not sure whether i should have went for claw+shield rather than dual wield claw, because it might be that the character is too weak in merciless.. Anyway i will definitely try to make some spellsword build work! Ice spear is propably the best because of freezing the enemies so easily, and not needing to put passives on crit chance to get them freezed..

Funny thing, i also wanted to do this build because spellsword worked and was very cool to play with on Skyrim :D I also use ice spear because it freezes mobs nicely! With lesser multiple projectiles, cold penetration and faster casting it makes some nice dmg too! I try to get some crit damage to enhance the effect of ice spear

One trick that seems almost overpowered to me is to get conversion trap with multiple traps - gives you mobs on your side to keep enemies from targetting you. They dont do much dmg, but they give you time, and you can easily get like half of them on your side even when the mob is quite big (you can throw 9 traps without leveling any of these 2 gems)! Normal summoned zombies or skeletons would require items, passives and support gems to be effective but if you use conversion trap they will always be on the same level as other mobs in the map, so they kind of "level up" without you having to put any effort on it! You can even take rare enemies on your side, get their auras and have them make good dmg. Dodging enemies with whirlin blades while waiting for conversion traps to recharge always works. It really works so well that im starting to be afraid that this skill will be nerfed at one point :p

Anyways this spellsword shadow may not be a swift killer, but its versatile and thats why very nice to play. But as they say, you cant really tell whether the build will work before merciless final acts.. But anyways i think its fun to play and worth it :) just need some expensive gear like bloodseeker..

Are you going to take acrobatics passives? i thought of making this char pure evasion, since i heard it usually pays off to select either armour or evasion rating..

Oops, long writing.. but anyways, looking forward to hear how you will make it with that spellsword build!

To conclude my tips (im not really pro player, so dont take as fundamental truth):

Get some life leech if you want to stay alive!
Get the conversion trap, its awesome!
I dont know if its a good idea to put passives on energy shield. I have a feeling that its not so effective on melee attacks.. Rather take loads of hp passives!
MAYBE switch to claws because if you take a look you can see that there is alot more claw passives nearby, which means that you dont need to use unnecessary passives to get into sword dmg passives.
MAYBE put all energy on evasion rating - the acrobatics passives are awesome! It stacks with evasion rating, adding extra change to DODGE attacks instead of evading them. You will have 40% chance to dodge in addition to your chance to evade plus ofcourse chance to dodge spell damage, which is generally the cause for most deaths in PoE.
Go for Ondars Guile to evade the projectile attacks - take even less dmg from spells!