Hey!

I've seen a lot of players, including myself, complaining about the inefficiency of basics attacks compared to any other thing: what's the point in using basics (~4K damage) when I can use let's say Bleeding Edge (~100K damage)? A lot of ARPG have put forward basics attacks in a good spot (PoE ; Titan Quest ; Diablo 2 for those I've played) where those are actually useful. That's not the case in Wolcen, and this is somehow... A problem.

I've seen as well a lot of players complaining about the huge gap between certain weapons, staffs and bows in particular. So, here is an idea to somehow fix and balance all of this... In a Wolcen style that no other ARPG made before.

The idea is really simple: we're using modifiers for skills & spells, that we level up through campaign making us able to modify as much as we like, to get our personal gamestyle. Why not making this for basics, as well as for skills? Creating a modifier panel, with 16 differents modifiers exactly like skills does. And here is the point where it could fix a lot of things: why not make different "modifier panel" depending of which weapon we are currently using? There's different icons on your basics that depend if you use an axe, a pistol, a sword... Why not make those icons relevant by creating differents panels of modifiers? Or at least, if not a new panel of EACH type of weapon, at least one for each category: melee (2H and 1H) ; ranged (bows and pistols) ; Mage (staff).

It have many positives aspects. First, in a pure roleplay language, it feels good to have our char increasing his skill with weapon he use. I mean, my character will probably be more skilled with an axe if he trained it all his life long, than with a sword if he just looted it two minutes ago. Feel like we have a progression, and using the same type of weapon make us being more and more good at using it.
Secondly, it can fix a lot of problem by adapting evolution to the type of weapon, and doing this through modifiers. Explanations:
Melee weapons might have, as modifiers: "Now scale with Ferocity" or "Increase basics attacks made with this weapon by x%". We can even imagine modifiers like "Your basics now deals damage in a corner in front of you" or "Decrease damage done, but basics now deal damage 360° around you". This way, basics might scale up with rest of your skills and still be useful endgame.
For ranged, it might be "Increase damage by travel distance", or "Projectiles now explodes, dealing damage in AoE", or "Basics now pierce enemies" etc, as well as "Basics now generate Willpower instead of Rage" for hybrid gameplay, for example.
More interesting in my opinion is for staff and Mage things, were modifiers could be "x% of your weapon damage is converted into spell damage" for example. This one improve spell damage, something that we do not see that often in Wolcen, and would be a great reason to play staff since this modifier with only appear on "Staff Panel". So you'll have the choice between versatility with 1H+catalyst or brute power with staff. And sounds logic that a Mage will get more powerful doing his tricks the more he train his staff. Could also be "Basics do not bounce anymore, but now explodes for an average AoE" or "Basics now proc 1 more stack of each ailment already applied on the target".
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Tell me what you think about this, but that would be a good way to:
1) Balance weapons depending of their types.
2) Adjusts different builds accordingly to what they use (like spellpower on staff).
3) Just feel more roleplay, mastering your weapon as long as you level up with it.

Cheers, and may the fun and the luck... Be with you ;)