Link skill revamp suggestions

Intro
i've been pottering around with support builds for around 3 seasons now, with the past season being my most enjoyable for a long time (playing since bestiary league). Not solely because the inclusion of mercenaries, but also due to my girlfriend starting poe...

This has led to some wild support builds to get her through the game (she is not a gamer.), and has forced me to get very creative with builds, which i will be releasing on reddit and some other platforms to encourage other players to pair up for the game, not just for the increased loot, and not just to overbuff one player; most of my builds function well solo, but the effects and buffs they provide are maximised with a 2nd player. More like a sidekick than a support

The Problem
The Main issue i currently have running and making these builds, is virtually none of them include any of the current link skills due their strange nature. Most of the link skills force players to invest in stats which are normally that applicable to where theyre situated on the tree, or the effect actually gates the caster into a gimmicky build or even losing some of theyre stats or EHP (vampiric link/soul link) they;

-require high mana regen to sustain
-require odd passive tree routes to reach passive clusters/masteries
-take up gem slots for low return
-virtually 0 returns to caster (besides intuitive link)
-very little benefit to recipient without heavy investment
-short range and clunky
-deal no damage

The downsides make the builds very restrictive, and limit most of the builds to gimpy guardian aurabots and sole supports, which are uninteresting and unplayable solo.

Suggestion
The best way IMO to get decent returns and usability from the link skills, is to create skills with both a return to the user, and sought after effects that are not easily attainable in game. here are some ideas;

Destructive link:
linked targets hits have culling strike, enemies culled by linked target explode, dealing 10% of life as physical damage to surrounding enemies (reflected/overkill?).
Base radius is 0.5, increases and reductions to area of effect from both linked players apply to this area of effect.

Snipers link:
Linked targets have 25% more accuracy rating.
linked targets gain projectile damage equal to 25% of combined projectile speed of linked players. Blind effect of both linked players is equal to the highest blind effect value of both linked players.

Vampiric link:
Linked targets have 100% increased total recover per second from life/energy shield leech. Damaged leeched from either linked target apply to both.
10% reduced damage taken whilst leeching. Maximum recovery per second from leech is doubled for 5 seconds when linked target is reduced to low life, with a 10 second cooldown.

Protective Link: (not a bad skill comparatively to the rest)
Linked targets have 25% increased chance to block attacks/spells. Both linked targets are granted a buff which regenerates 1% of damage prevented by blocking recently per second for 3 seconds.

Besides changing the skills individually, it would make for more diverse options to change the skills to be scalable to some extent by skill gems; if the base skill was made to be a flat mana reservation (like vitality/clarity), and make the skill automatically snap/link to targets in range, the skills aoe could be restricted to balance this. This would force players to invest into the skill to make it feesible, but also to gate the strong effects by having to be close to the linked target, or invest in a lot of area of effect. Furthermore, masteries for linked skills could then include the likes of: 30% increased reservation efficiency of link skills, or 50% increased area of effect of link skills, and buff effects from link skills linger for 1 second after breaking.

All in all the skills need to change wildly to be usable, and i dont think they should be inclusive of minions, or have negative effects for linking to multiple players. The skills effects can always be capped, but giving high returns for linking to multiple players should be encouraged to support multiplayer, and because of the increased monster difficulty during multiplayer.

TLDR;
-change link skills to aoe style flat mana cost (vitality/clarity style)
-auto snap to players in range
-gate strong effects behind the links, but make them require investment (explode on kill, higher leech rate, adrenaline, block etc)
-provide a return for link caster, and scale the buff on both players stats, ie: the explode area is effected by both players inc/red to aoe.

thanks guys.

Really great ideas!