ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I find it strange that energy alchemy is locked whereas fire, acid, and frost begin unlocked.

It doesn't seem to be that much stronger than the three other categories.
Is there something that I'm missing about why it would be locked?

Like it being stronger than it appears or some kind of skill synergy?
I'm hoping this isn't some kind of bug.

I agree that it seems odd. Just meant to me that I wasn't going to use lightning bombs.

Maybe it has something to do with the locked storm tree.
In the initial suggestion that lead to the new skills, the two seemed to be linked.
If anybody reading this still doesn't have access to the storm tree, could you comment on whether the energy alchemy tree is available?

Also, should this be moved to general discussion or ideas thread?
As on second thought, this doesn't really seem like a spoilery topic and it might get more responses somewhere else.

it is unlockable wether or not you have storm.
the category point for it is from my viewpoint too expensive.
if you want damage go for fire, if you are a golem player get ice.
why would you pick storm? it really baffles me.

I'll admit that I've only played with Energy-focused alchemists since the remake, but to me, they seem like they combine some of the best attributes of all the other infusion specs. Fire offers stupendous damage-per-second and a hit-or-miss escape via Smoke Bomb (at the cost of running into mana issues, little defense aside from Smoke Bomb, bad up-front damage, and Smoke Bomb's cooldown), Acid's blindness / golem-waves / Caustic Mire are great at groups of melee attackers and Dissolving Acid is the only single-target nuke alchemists have (but it doesn't have much to offer against multiple casters, particularly ones with access to large AOEs to hit you whether they're blinded or not), and Frost offers you incredible survivability, particularly against melee (but has no damage buffs, and the freezing effect will actually work against you if you're trying to spike a single target down). Energy Alchemy, however, offers you an on-demand self-defense ability, buffs to your golem to spike down any target of your choice or enhance its survivability (depending on what runes you've given it), great crowd-control in the form of Daze (completely shuts down most melee attackers in your blast radius, while seriously hampering archers/casters, without harming your spike-damage potential the way freezing them does), and powerful speed buffs from Living Lightning that can be used for anything from escape, to stepping out of a ground-damage-field without breaking your stride, to spiking down a target between bombs with Channel Staff. In short, it's got (more than) a little of everything, and if you're willing to swap your golem's runes around, it becomes the most versatile infusion tree by far.