Synergies.

[Roland]

No, that's the beauty of it. If Holy Shield gave Defiance a % damage reduction synergy, it would work whenever you were running that aura, not when HShield was up. This would give 2hd weapon Defiants a reason to pump HShield, though not to use it.

To which I ask (and have been asking since the beginning):
What is the point of pumping a skill you'll never use?

One of my biggest goals with synergies is to give them some viability, so that pumping them is worthwhile NOT just for the skills they boost, but also for themselves. And, by boosting the "main" skills, they in turn boost the lower pre-req / synergy skills, thus giving even more viability to the lower-end, or less-used, skills.

See where my ideas have come from?