Think most warfare skills are based off weapon damage atm, although I might be wrong.
You're right. The Warfare skills that are based off of the weapon use the damage the weapon deals, and then scale up additionally from Strength. I meant that Strength was the only attribute that scaled up Warfare abilities in addition to the regular attack's damage. Because of this, if your staff hits hard, your warfare abilities will hit as-hard. Str users will have their Warfare abilities hit harder than standard attacks though.
I'm sure playing a hybrid is viable (playing any way is viable at the moment), but I don't think it's optimal.
Melee characters generally have damage boosted by a weapon Combat Ability (e.g. 2H, dual wield, etc.), and spells will be boosted by Huntsman or Pyrokinetics. The only viable Combat Ability overlap that boosts both is if one stacks Pyrokinetics and always uses a Fire Staff and Fire Spells. Even in this case, the lower weapon damage of the staff and lack of stat scaling on the Warfare abilities will hurt (compared with standard Str 2H). The character won't be any worse off at shooting spells at least, but you'd still have spent some slots on the Warfare skills, and any time you actually have to use them it'll be strictly worse than what a Str user could do.
I think one can do it, but I don't think it's particularly rewarding. I'd rather just bring a Fire Wand in this case, ditch the Melee abilities, and try to assume high-ground for the damage boost and safer distance.
I guess I'm wondering, what are the advantages of Staff melee over a standard mage or standard Str melee?
