My way of building Lightning Counduit (Uber Cortex and Simulacrum Wave 30 included)

I, as many people, thought Lightning Conduit is dead. I couldn't be more wrong. I did play it back when it wasn't nerfed, but I did not achive much anyways. This league I really pushed the limits. The build I'm showcasing was my starter, so it was made from zero to hero.

I uploaded a Simulacrum showcase a couple of weeks ago and got much more feedback than I expected: people were leaving comments, reaching out to me in game, I saw some people copying it in poe.ninja. So I figured I'll post it here: maybe some of you are looking for a new exciting project.

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In this post I won't go into basics about how Lightning Conduit works, etc, I'll just talk about what's actually important to know.

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So, here is the current PoB: https://pastebin.com/qk555ufY

PoE ninja: https://poe.ninja/builds/ancestor/character/EachFlowerIsLove/Bella_Hadid

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Simulacrum Wave 30 showcase: https://youtu.be/A4BPmuj-J4s?si=I4Ge1Y3cy-vycV1U

At the time of the recording I didn't have Mageblood and my setup was a bit different: https://pastebin.com/ACuxPBVv

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Uber Cortex Showcase: https://youtu.be/A4BPmuj-J4s?si=2RgUtEAVtWQxmpmP

(this one is made today)

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Build's strengths and weaknesses:

+ very well balanced good mapper, good bosser, good damage and good survivability

+ explosions, pops, fireworks

+ maxed spell block, high attack block

+ non-meta: amulet, boots, gloves are pretty cheap

+ style points for not playing long-necked old man who runs as if he shat his pants. you'll be playing tiny little witch

+ can be a league starter or be started with nothing in your pocket

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- expensive if you want to do high level content

- doesnt do Sanctum well (at least it's what I heard, I didn't do a single Sanctum in my life)

- isn't the best mapper or the best bosser

- no spell suppression. zero.

- non-meta: requires crafting some gear pieces (helmet and shield)

Crafting guides

Helmet:

1. Get Archdemon crown (iLVL 83 is max it can spawn with), put random Conqueror Orb on it (not Hunter cuz it's expensive), go to Harvest bench and randomize Influence until you get Shaper. Roll T1 Innervate with Alterations Orbs. Regal the item and fill suffixes with exalts. Craft "Suffixes cannot be changed" and use Reforge Lightning on the crafting bench. You'll be guaranteed to get shaper mod on prefix. Now you have 2 Shaper mods with one of them being Innervate T1

You can get the same result without metacrafting, it's just so painful to roll it.

2. Use Orb of Dominance and hope it hits Elevated Innervate. If not, repeat Step 1.

3. Get random Crusader helmet with -9% enemy Lightning resistance and any other Crusager mod, Use orb of Dominance, hopefully you hit -12% enemy res.

4. Use awakener orb on Crusader Helmet and merge it onto Archdemon Crown.

Now you have Archdemon Crown with Elevated Innervate and Elevated Enemy lightning res + random mods. In my helmet I hit item rarity, well, it sucks kinda.

5. Use "Suffixes Cannot be changed" and then Harvest-craft Lightning Reforge. You'll hit either "Phys damage taken as lightning" of Crusader or "Lightning damage to spells" from Shaper.

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Make sure your suffixes are filled. If you don't, you'll get lightning resist as the result of this craft.

I want Shaper mod. Repeat until you hit something decent. Remember that if you hit 3 mods on prefixes, you'll have to Anuul a prefix to continue and this move can destroy one of elevated suffixes and ruin your item. So can't be too picky.

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Shield:

1. Get Shaper influenced Titanium Shield (best base for block) and roll 30% reservation efficiency on it. Make sure there are no other Shaper mods.

2. Get any Warlord influenced shield with %life when you block. Make sure there are no other Warlord mods on it.

3. Use Awakener Orb and merge shield in the way so Titanium shield remains.

This step is the most random. Hitting good 3rd suffix is unlikely and you want it to be attack block. As high roll as possible. My roll is 7%. Max roll is 15%. Crafted roll is only 5%. If you are happy with suffixes, proceed to step 4.

4. Use "Suffixes cannot be changed". Harvest Craft reforge lightning. DO that until you hit decent "lightning damage roll" and/or +1 All Lightning Spells. Make sure your suffixes are filled. If you don't, you'll get lightning resist as the result of this craft.

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Some things I'd like to talk about

1. The reason we need Archdemon crown is because it provides reliable source of Exposure, which is crucial for Elementalist ascendancy. Other reliable sources are rare gloves with Eater of World implicit. This option disables Algor Mortis, so I don't use it.

Hydrosphere can be decent but it's too clunky to move it around since it's already 2-button build.

Awakened Lightning Pen has 10% esposure chance. I consider this too low.

2. Controlled Destruction (CD). It might be a controversial gem since it cuts your crit chance by such a large amount. It gives us a lot of damage and a chance to unnerve (since we're using Algor, we can't get this mod on gloves).

Let's compare it with Awakened Added Lightning damage (ALD) which is one of the most popular suports, and I don't use it.

If I disable Unnerve and use ALD I get 28mil dmg with the current PoB

If I enable Unnerve, disable Elemental Overload and use CD, I get 26mil. If I enable EO back, I get whopping 35.5mil DPS.

So, even if you don't crit with CD, you stil get very good damage comparible with ALD + EO. And if you DO crit, you go into space right there.

On Uber Cortex showcase you can see that I still get a crit every wave (5.63% chance)

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3. Ascendancies. MoD, HoD, SoS are non-negotiable.

My current setup uses Bastion of Elements as 4th node and Profane Bloom from Forbidden Jewels. You can totally skip Profane bloom (it just makes esplosions stronger and louder, but Inpulsa alone is totally fine tbh) and use Shaper of Winter instead. Or skip Bastion of Elements and use Shaper of Winter. Swap around and see what works best for you.

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4. Reaching max Shock is important. Not that I have 2 Overshock nodes in my clusters. They're there for a reason. Make sure you apply 65% shock on bosses.

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5. I did try some other tech, such as freezing enemies with Three Dragons Helment or Expeditions End with Call of The Brotherhood ring. I didn't quite like it because you lose a lot of damage as the result. I was a fan of it on Arc build I did some time ago but here not so much.

I also did try Annihilating Light, it was my first intention actually. I don't know how people play with this thing. It makes you soooo squishy and forces you to accumulate insane amount of resists on your gear, disabling a lot of good options and tattoos. Not recommended.

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6. I farmed everything by mostly doing Expedition, Maven Invitations, Delve (I'm now moving horisontally at around 500 depth and I cannot believe how good the Delve actually is down there), Crimson Temple Delirium farming (only got 1 Apothecary though). These are mechanics this build does best.

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7. I got to 1K+ at TotA at the moment. I took out "cast when damage taken" and put Void Sphere instead. Lighning Warp is very good for jumping around and protecting your totems.

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8. I really SUCK at bossing as a player, but I did Uber Cortex, Uber Exarch so far. Didn't even attempt the rest of it, not really my thing, but will do in near future.

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