Lolcohol's Lightning Conduit Elementalist^3.20

Notes

Small Updates: 09 December 2022
1. Using Arcanist Brand for triggering curses doesn't give us the -35% less curse effect. Linking this with Wave of Conviction, and either a second curse (with Whisper of Doom allocated), or a single curse, with Hexbloom support, will feel gooooood.

2. Don't get scammed: When buying cluster jewels, especially the one for Electric Presence, make sure you're buying a Reservation small cluster - I accidentally bought a 15% cold res one which shares the notable with the RMR small cluster. 

3. Play Seismic Trap instead

Notes:
Changes to Lightning Conduit in 3.20
Lightning Conduit now deals 33 to 98 Lightning Damage at gem level 1 (previously 43 to 130), up to 387 to 1161 at gem level 20 (previously 516 to 1548). It now has 140% Effectiveness of Added Damage (previously 190%).

This is a fairly significant nerf, but considering how Lightning Conduit overperformed in terms of damage, this will bring it in line with other Lightning Skills. 
That being said, the more multiplier per shock hasn't been touched, meaning this still does a lot of damage. You will have no issue with clear.
tl;dr, Lightning Conduit deals ~30% less damage than it did last league.

That being said: 
Pinnacle bosses, Map bosses, Incursion architects, Betrayal targets, Breachlords and others no longer have 33% or 66% less effect of curses on them respectively. 

For context: previously, a  level 20 Conductivity Gem provided -44% to lightning resistance to enemies. Against pinnacle bosses, this provided only -14% lightning resistance (-66% reduction)
Now, it provides -36% lightning resistance to bosses, but this isn't reduced. This means that Conductivity will be more than twice as effective against bosses. 
Linked with Hextouch, which now provides 35% less effect of linked curses, a Conductivity - Hextouch - Wave of Conviction now provides -23% Lightning Resistance, which is still -9%.
For this reason, it might be worth separating Conductivity from Wave of Conviction with Hextouch to get the extra -13%, but I'll need to test it when 3.20 starts

Overall, the skill damage is 25% less and the added damage effectiveness is *1.40 instead of *1.90. Depending on how much added damage you have, this should be about a 30% overall damage loss

However, against bosses, if you self-cast Conductivity, you'll be gaining another -22% lightning resistance compared to 3.19, which adds a noticeable amount of effective DPS,
 which should help to compensate for the loss of damage and added damage effectiveness

We can look at numbers all day, but we'll have to jump in to see how it feels in reality. But if you were wondering why I decided to play this skill after GGG "killed" it, this is why - it's not dead. 

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Swap to Eldritch Battery:
We do this around early maps once we have about 1.2k+ ES and a bit of leech from the tree. This will allow us to fully reserve our mana and use ES to cast
This also allows us to run Wrath with Divine Blessing

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Potential Issues:
The realisation that you aren't playing Seismic Trap - it's okay that you won't be able to kill Ubers on day 0.5 with this build. Try to have fun and ask questions in Discord if you run into any issues

Dexterity/Strength requirements - keep a look out on gear and the tree for extra strength and dexterity as you will need a fair amount to level Determination and Grace to 20

Eldritch Battery/MoM/Wicked Ward - if you take too many big hits, you won't be able to cast your spells. Also, don't run into Maven's beams because they will cancel your regen and
you won't be able to cast spells for 10 seconds :) Don't overlook the leech nodes on the tree! These are important.

Death - I tried my best to make this build as tanky as possible without losing too much DPS, but you will still die sometimes and then regret not playing Seismic Trap and then blame me for it.

Ailment Mitigation - you might need to run Purity of Elements early on if you want to be totally ailment immune. I'd drop Grace if you go this route.

Big Phys Hits - try to get some armour on gear - Determination will help, but your Granite Flask will sometimes run out and then you'll get slapped on the head by Minotaur and blame me for the fact you didn't play Seismic Trap instead

You Flame Dashed/Shield Charged into a group of Thralls and died. Leave a comment on the video blaming me as this increases engagement for the YouTube algorithm.

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Gear:

Thunderfist (Gloves) 
These should be your first goal upon reaching maps. These will be fairly expensive early on - last league they hovered around 3 Divines for the first week
and only dropped to 1 Divine, two weeks into league. They might be cheaper if lightning isn't the meta this league.
Alternatively, you can get an early 6 link for Lightning Conduit - I'd advise against hording all your currency and not getting basic upgrades in an attempt 
to get these as soon as possible

The Gull (Helmet)
This is a great option for early maps if you want to focus on Domination. This item will feel like a mini-headhunter, but will also be fairly pricy in the first few days of league

Valako's Sign (Ring)
Very common and should be very cheap early in league. Great for increased damage and leech

Berek's Grip  (Ring)
Another great early option - provides flat lightning damage and recovery in the form of leech. Super common, super cheap

Doedre's Damning (Ring)
If you decide to go for the triple curse setup, you can use this for the additional curse. Honestly, a single curse aura + Conductivity with other auras will probably be better

Ungil's Harmony (Amulet)
Not totally necessary, but this will help you proc your Elemental Overload more easily. Don't use this if you need your amulet slot for more life, res, cast speed or what have you
As long as you aren't using Controlled Destruction (don't), you'll proc Elemental Overload fairly easily.

Doryani's Prototype (Body Armour)
My build doesn't include a Doryani's variant because getting negative lightning resistance won't be as easy as it was last league. If you enjoy this build and want to go all in on this build and do
ridiculous damage, try to find a Doryani's version from 3.

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Baits:

Don't let PoB fool you - there are some skill gems that will make this build feel worse and do less damage despite the numbers going up in PoB 
Controlled Destruction - despite this gem showing more damage in PoB, it will absolutely tank your crit chance, meaning you'll never proc Elemental Overload and lose out on a ton of damage
Spell Echo & Concentrated Effect - these don't actually work with Lightning Conduit

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Offence:

Damage Scaling:
> Flat lightning damage to spells (wand, Herald of Thunder, abyss jewels, boot enchant)
> % increased spell damage/% increased lightning damage (wand, tree, Valako's Sign)
> % increased effect of non-damaging ailments (scales shock effect) - mainly from tree, but 100% increase from Thunderfist
> +1 to level of all/lightning skill gems (Empower, amulets, body armour corruptions) - if you can find an early corrupted +2 AoE implicit chest, this could make using a 6L 
> +% increased Cast Speed (tree, wand, gems, amulet)
> %chance to deal Double Damage (wand/shield unveil or craft, Lethal Pride) 
> %more multipliers - Zealotry, Wrath, Elemental Overload, Convergence, 20% more per 5% shock on Lightning Conduit 
> Shock - we should be hitting a 65% shock on everything, always. This (sorta) increased damage by 65%, and on top of that we are getting 20% more per 5% on Lightning Conduit = 260% more damage

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Defence:

Overall:
Decently tanky for a Witch but not comparable to other classes like Inquistor and builds like RF. Hopefully the changes to Archnemesis make it feel even more comfortable.
Our primary defences are coming from auras: Defiance Banner, Determination, Grace, Spell Suppression, Molten Shell, as usual.

I tried to use Blasphemy + Temporal Chains + Enfeeble, and while it felt alright, Determination, Defiance Banner and Grace felt more consistently good and defensive.
I might still try to use one of these curse auras in 3.20 to see how it feels, but it's likely that the default DDBG setup is superior.

Recovery: 
Leech - Berek's Pass/Valako's Sign
ES Leech - 1% leech from Elemental Mastery
ES Leech - top right of the tree by Eldritch Battery
ES Leech - Energy Leech support gem

Avoidance/Immunity:
You can run Purity of Elements instead of Grace to solve ailment avoidance early on and free up some weight on your suffixes from resistances
Get chance to avoid bleeding/freeze on flasks ASAP and try to get freeze immunity from the Soul of the Brine King upgrade when you can if you don't use Purity of Elements
Later on, we can get ailment avoidance on boots (Essence of Loathing), as a boot implicit (Eater of Worlds), on our shield and by using  Impossible Escape with Precise Technique to tag Thick Skin at the bottom of the tree
Don't forget that you can also get some ailment avoidance on abyss jewels now
Evasion - can get a bit from Grace and Jade flask and evasion on gear

Mitigation:
Spell Suppression: This will come in the more expensive variation of the build, but you can path to the right side of the tree earlier to pick up spell suppression and maybe even buy Atziri's Step for more. 
Armour - Determination, Defiance Banner, Granite Flask, also try to get some armour on gear

HP/ES
I picked up a fair amount of HP and ES on the tree - we need ES to make use of Eldritch Battery, which will allow us to reserve all our mana and use our ES to cast spells, as well as Wrath with Divine Blessing
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Map mods to avoid:

+x% chance for monsters to avoid elemental ailments
Crit Chance + Multi and Monsters fire 2 additional projectiles will probably get you killed
Elemental reflect is totally fine to run - we get elemental reflect immunity from the Bastion of Elements Elementalist ascendancy notable