wow

[Jugalator]

Most skills that have synergies require that the synergies all be maxed for the skill to be useful, pigeonholing you into a handful of skills.

I think Blizzard did this on purpose, so you would have a hard time suriviving with characters putting points into many different skills, while rewarding players who restrict themselves to master a specific art. Of course, the additional power would then be balanced by the fact that they wouldn't survive as easily on their own. So this would make it tougher to solo in Hell difficulty (something I recall Blizzard said during the days of D2 beta should be extremely hard), and encourage party playing, where a team could be master of several different arts, maybe even if both chose to play Fire Sorceresses for example. The higher level you are, and the later difficulty you play in, the larger difference will the synergies start to make as you put points in them. Coincidentally, the more Blizzard probably wish to encourage cooperative play, so we don't once again get solo players slaying hordes of monsters in Act 5 Hell. Yes, they probably will once again due to bug exploits and overpowered duped items, but it's a try. :)

At least that's what I think is what Blizzard had in mind.