New Player Interested in a Sword Shield Build

Hello o/

I'm new to the game and currently leveling an axe shield gladiator, but i'm kinda interested if there is a sword variant build with shield? Idm if its not the best build i just like sword shield.

with regards
Hengeko

Hey! so axe is more meta for things like Lacerate, Earthquake, Bladestorm... but if you want to play a sword specific build you can try Reave. But Lacerate or Bladestorm work with swords.

The thing is with Gladiator you usually want to go Bleed for your way to deal damage and this is best with axes that have a big range of damage. Because an enemy gets damaged only by one instance of Bleed on them.
So when you reapply bleed, if it's a bigger one it overrides the previous bleed basically. So the best stat on your weapon is the maximum physical damage.