Spellblade Build For a Noob

[Cav the Red]

So having never played PoE I, I was hoping to get some insight on how to build a Spellblade in PoE II.  I have a lot of familiarity with the older Infinity Engine games, but since PoE doesn't use D&D's ruleset I admit I'm a little confused on some things, specifically stats.  'Might' is apparently the 'deal damage' stat for everybody, and when I create a Spellblade in CG the game gold-stars it as my primary stat, but browsing through builds I've noticed that a lot of DPS builds don't ever bother improving Might. 

 

If I'm just looking to create a fun melee character who has the ability to dish out some supplemental spell damage now and then, is Spellblade the way to go?  If so, what kind of stats should I be aiming for?  What kind of abilities? 

[Teclis23]

citzals spirit lance builds tend to be popular because you can apply your afflictions/ powers in a AOE with every attack with it

[Haplok]

Might is fairly important for spell damage.

It's not prioritized by many builds mainly when they have another way to increase their weapon damage. 20 Might is +30% damage, but say you're a Streetfighter and you've triggered class special Heating Up. Then you're dealing +80-160% sneak attack damage + up to 60% damage for weapon quality and maybe a few other smaller bonuses. Then this +30% from 20 Might doesn't sound that hot anymore and it might be better to strengthen your build in other areas.

 

But what goes for weapon damage is not applicable to spell damage. Here mainly Might is important.. and Power Level.

Many wizard builds focus on increasing spell Power Levels (which also affects damage, like 10% per PL, more for some special spells with multiple projectiles or target jumps). For example for fire spells with items it's possible to passively increase PL by +5, plus another +2/3 trough active effects, such as potions/items.

 

Depending on what you aim for, an Assasin / Evoker could be fun. Dropping +25 Accuracy empowered fireballs from stealth (with +50% critical damage) and destroying whole enemy groups to vanish and strike again.

 

Fighter / Wizard is a classic, durable combo. Above mentioned Lance would be fun to group knockdown enemies with Mule Kick or multi-hit and ragdoll them with Clear Out.

 

Monk / Wizard is a bit more squishy, but he will make you faster AND with Duality of Mortal Presence will supercharge your Intelligence for huge aoe sizes and very long spell durations. Plus with the above mentioned lance, he can proc extra attacks on crits (and since you can hit several enemies at once, you have better chance per attack to land some crits).

 

OR for a similar archetype you could go with a Cipher instead. Either a pure Ascendant or a multiclass, like Monk/Ascendant, Streetfighter/Ascendant or Ranger/Ascendant. If you want melee, then a Paladin/Ascendant would also work.

Ciphers are fun, they are not limited by spell slots.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Haplok

[Mocker22]

One popular Spellblade build would use Citzal's Spirirt Lance. Persistent Distraction allows for auto death blows on anything engaged with you, and you can use things like Blinding Strike and Toxic Strike to apply big debuffs or DoTs in an aoe.