Swordmage- Assault or Shielding?

[Herschel]

I won't get a chance to play for a few weeks, but I'm going to try an Assault Swordmage as my next character (Genasi, Firesoul). Unfortuantely, I'm seeing some MAD issues trying to qualify for feats (not for effective powers, though). I decided to get hide armor for now and go longsword for the +3 AC from warding. My 1st-level AC is 20. I might go Fullblade after a while, though. I'm secretly hoping one of my teammates makes a Taclord to take advantage of my strong MBAs. I'm planning on taking the firesoul genasi paragon path, though I obviously won't do that for quite some time (we have rotating DMs, and each DM has their own campaign). I'd love to share my experiences.

A few questions:

1. Why Fullblade? Brodsword gets you to a D10 and you keep full warding.
2. Why spend you first level Feat on Hide Armor? There are so many good Feats for Swordmages and Genasi, as well as general, and Leather works well with the warding.
3. Why Firesoul? Watersoul and Windsoul offer better mobility.

None are right or wrong, just questioning.

 

[cmbarona]

A few questions:

1. Why Fullblade? Brodsword gets you to a D10 and you keep full warding.
2. Why spend you first level Feat on Hide Armor? There are so many good Feats for Swordmages and Genasi, as well as general, and Leather works well with the warding.
3. Why Firesoul? Watersoul and Windsoul offer better mobility.

None are right or wrong, just questioning.

1. I'm honestly trying to be a bit strikerish, so I'm working on making my MBAs really hurt. This should not only help take down enemies faster, but also make my Aegis more effective. I've considered Bastard Sword as well, but I really want some nice crit action going on since I'm shooting for Heavy Blade Mastery at Epic. I'll keep weighing my options, though. I also want to keep that +1 to hit which is why I'm not going for the Broadsword at the moment.
2. Hide armor works well with the warding, too, and I'd like to keep some survivability at 1st level. With hide, I can also look toward specialization once I qualify.
3. Partly for strikerishness, partly because I made a good backstory. I'm thinking of taking the double manifestation feat at epic, as well.