I forget where I went into more depth, here or reddit..
but yeah.
all skills scale off weapon dps. im not sure if there is an actual attack speed vs damage per hit thing... more dps tends to be best. also, since most classes are alimited by a second stat. mana, ammo etc. raw damage tends to be king, as its damage per ammo, or damage per mana.
many skills are total shit. this has gotten alot better over time. skills buffed/rebalanced. the current system added synergies which allow you to invest in shit skills to buff the good ones, as transitions to the good ones, which are higher level.
Theres now also passives. rank 1 buffs the skill, rank 2 buffs ALL skills, rank 3 buffs the skill again.
RElics. they all seemed to work to me. there is some hard to understand elements there.
1. active vs passive. first few iirc are passives for when the relic is active.
then, there is an ACTIVE relic skill, which you need to slot into your skillbar to use. (due to lack of passives, these tend to suck.)
then, there is a global passive. example the electric relic, cuases ANY electric damage to cause sparks to proc, dealing extra damage. so you just need to make sure you have a source of electric damage, on your main weapon.
resource limits. yes, dusk mage is always mana starved, and spends too much time meleeing. same with ranger and ammo.
you can gear for mana regen, which helps, and learning the mechanic to make sure the light buff procs often. gearing for heavy damage helps too, for again, high damage/mana eff.
was def a serious problem though.