Now lvl 22 and really enjoying 1HSword/Shield combination. I have really good survivability with decent damage still, it's nice.

your damage as pure 1h sword will be low. it rocks in pvp, that's sure, but in PvE, Axe/Shield is better, but you have to combine it with another weapon path. To save statpoints dualaxes would be perfect. It's damage is great in PvE because you will have lots of AoEs which you need. 1h Sword is lacking AoE skills, so go hybrid and focus more on ur dual path at the beginning.

you should go shield/sword/dual axes. best build on ak.

theres no best build. that's just a good pvp build especially vs phys dmg classes because sword defense rocks. axe/shield has the blow effekt and also some really cool skills and does better in PvE than Sword/Shield.