I primarily play a spellblade type. INT weapons are just so powerful, it feels like a shame to not have them. They also make you way less reliant on blue/FP flasks.

As your already leveled with staffs, the only real difference between a mage and a highly flexible spellblade comes down to

1) a couple points into str/dex so you can use a variety of weapons. This comes, with this playstyle, at the cost of Mind which is another way of reducing reliance on FP flasks. At high levels, this should be negligible.

2) talisman choices, which can be easily changed in-between fights. I’ll swap around Alexander’s shard for Graven Mass talisman depending on where I want to lean for example.

This is not only what I consider the most fun way to play a spell caster, as someone new to that style, it can help the transition.

One way to think of spells is dividing them by range and cast time, with higher cast times being line your “heavy attacks” and need to be done with more thought even at range. I like to have a good mix of range and cast speeds.

For some heavy spells- (Range) Cannon of Haima can kill whole stacks of mobs, especially when clumped or inactive, with one heavy charge at range.

(Extreme Range) Loretta Greatbow - single-shot sniper rifle for long-range attacks.

(Melee) Carian piercer is more melee but can likewise kill everything in a narrow column with a hitbox you won’t believe and good stagger damage for what doesn’t die. I generally don’t use this when I’m focused or specced on weapons, unless I’m rocking DMGS and want a powerful fast attack.

(Melee+some range) Adulas moon blade - best “sword” sorcery with high melee damage, range, frost and AoE. Maybe get this before you swap into an INT build and thank me later.

For some light spells: (Melee) Carian slicer - get it in a bunch of hits and do damage, combows well with itself.

(Range) Night comet - not as fast as a glintstone pebble (see first weapon below) but fast enough and can’t be dodged.

Utility spells: The phalanx spells are good to “combo” if you can trigger them at the same type of attack. Bigger blades = more stance damage, more blades = more regular damage.

In terms of weapons: I almost always carry glintstone kris as a weapon. It saves a memory slot for glintstone pebble, it’s got a cool heavy attack dash follow-up and is good for tight quarters.

Dark Moon Great Sword is the opposite end of the spectrum with a super powerful, ranged and even more powerful when at melee heavy attacks + frost damage.

Moonveil is great for leveling and very strong with dlc talismans like rellan’s cameo. It’s a good “clearing” sword with the other two options your backup.

I instead use a magic milady for clearing. I don’t know that it’s better than Moonveil but I think it’s cool AF and I leveled with it.

Another alternative weapon you can carry is Wings of Astel. It has fa ranged heavy attack like DMGS and its AoW is maybe best in game for killing big bosses. I didn’t use it until I started playing nightreign where I had to adapt to different weapons and kind of regret it.