Two Latest POE 3.6 Elementalist Lightning Tendrils Builds

This is a build for an Elementalist, Lightning Tendrils Cast While Channeling Arc for the clear, that can apply 50% shock to every monster in the game, even endgame bosses. The mechanics will be developed later in this guide.

What a glorious day, the patch 3.6 is heavily aimed at Spells and Hand-Casting and boy this build just received a lot of buffs. First, the most important: Lightning Tendrils got its damage buffed by almost 28%, its damage effectiveness almost doubled, its base AoE increased by 1 and its mana cost reduced. If you don't know how PoE works behind the screen just trust me, it's a huge buff.

Second biggest buff is the new tree, a bunch of new and revamped points is really efficient in this build.
Orb of Storm got its damage buffed, even more, almost 40% and with a much lower mana cost.
Lightning Bolt, the skill granted by Choir of the Storm is also receiving a massive damage buff and it was already powerful, on my character it's almost 10% of my total damage.
One the small buff list we have Lightning Warp with a lower mana cost and slightly better cast time and bosses are losing a bunch of Curse resistances meaning Conductivity will be even more powerful.

Pros & Cons:
+ Fast clear speed.
+ Extremely fun.
+ Elementalist. <3
+ Insane damage on bosses.
+ Party play friendly.
+ Viable for 95% of the content.
- Squishy on a full damage setup, so not HC viable unless you change the passive tree to a more defensive one.
- Some pieces are costly (but I've got you covered on the budget section).
- You need Uber Lab for a fully functional build.
- Elementalist 2pts Ascendancy doesn't feel rewarding to take, so Normal Lab and Merciless Lab feels a bit bad to run.

Ascendancy:
Beacon of Ruin -> Mastermind of Discord

Bandits:
Help Alira. The build is a bit heavy on uniques so the all res helps. We use MoM so the mana regeneration is a cool thing to have. But most importantly, the sweet 20% critical multiplier !

Pantheon:
Major: Soul of the Brine King, can't get stun-locked. The two first upgrades are nice to have too.
Minor: Soul of Tukohama, Physical reduction while stationary and life regeneration with the upgrade. Lightning Tendrils is a channeling skill so bonus for being stationary is good, especially against bosses.

You can also use the minor Soul of Yugul before fighting Atziri because she have a bit of reflected damage that can hurt.

Gems Link:
Main Damage setup :
Lightning Tendrils - Cast While Channeling - Vaal Arc or Arc (Shock Nova / Ball Lightning / ...) - Hypothermia - Controlled Destruction (5L) - Inc. Area of Effect - (6L)

Auras :
Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Conductivity/Warlord's Mark
Wrath in the Essence Worm

Orb of Storms setup :
Orb of Storm - Arcane Surge (lv7) - Power Charge on Critical - Unbound Ailments

Lightning Warp :
Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Less Duration - Swift Affliction

CWDT setup :
Cast when Damage Taken (lvl 8) - Immortal Call (lvl 10) - Increased Duration

PoB Link:https://pastebin.com/Jiyt4npv
Skill Tree:http://poeurl.com/chLe
Example Link:http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2109605

This is a re-published version of my old thread now locked since inactive for a long time.
With the rework of the skill and since I always liked it despite its relatively short range, I'll play with Lightning Tendrils for my first character in the upcoming Abyss league. Since there are not many threads about this skill I'll share my builds, if that can help someone. A non-crit version scalable w/ crit later*, and the crit one.

*The transition would require ~45 skill refund points, that's 21 more than the quests will give you. I'd recommend going crit directly. Even without crit gear, crit build is better. Though during leveling, you can still conciliate both versions of the build, like using the keystone Elemental Overload, etc.

3.6 Note: More damages from Lightning Tendrils o/. And Orb of Storms too. What's not to love? Note this build should be easily suitable for Divine Ire (here's my planned PoB for it) too with only a few adjustments depending on how you'll convert the remaining 50% physical damage (Hrimsorrow, Physical to Lightning Support gem, ...).

(Non-Crit Version)

Ascendancy:
Forbidden Power
Profane Bloom
Wicked Ward -> Vile Bastion

Bandits:
Kill all.

Pantheon:
Brine King
Gruthkul

Gems Setup:(64 dexes, 163 str, 323 ints from the tree; you may require some dex on your gear) :
- Main skill (6l) : Lightning Tendrils + Controlled Destruction + Lightning Penetration + Infused Channelling + Added Lightning Damage + Concentrated Effect / Increased Area of Effect. BBBBBB. Conc. Effect for bosses. Inc. AoE for the rest basically.
- CwDT setup (4l) : Cast when Damage Taken + Summon Lightning Golem + Immortal Call + Molten Shell. RBRR. You have a lot of choices here like Increased Duration, a curse (Enfeeble or Temporal chains), etc. I just like Molten Shell.
- Auras (2l) : Wrath / Zealotry + Blasphemy + Warlord's Mark. BBR. It'll curse the enemies to let us leech / get endurance charges on the kill. If you want more damages, Conductivity (B) will be great instead of Warlord's Mark. Zealotry is a decent alternative to Wrath, offering more defense and +/- same damages while enemies are on a Consecrated Ground.
- Movement skill (3l) : Shield Charge + Faster Attacks + Fortify. RGR. Fortify is a great defense (20% reduced damage taken from hits). Shield Charge requires a shield and no wand. Whirling Blades is an alternative (G, dagger/claw or 1h sword). Both will proc the ascendancy node Instruments of Virtue (for the +30% cast speed part). Flame Dash isn't really that good but can be used during leveling.
- 4l Orb of Storms + Increased Critical Strikes + Arcane Surge (lvl 5/6) + Culling Strike / Blind / Onslaught. BBBG. It'll proc our passive keystone Elemental Overload for 40% more damage and give us Arcane Surge buff. There's a free slot for any support gem you'd want there, I put 3 of them as examples.

Skill Gems:
- Lightning Tendrils (B lvl 1): After killing Hillock. Take 2 of them to level. That way you'll have a 20% quality to level while using the second gem level 20. That's something you can do for a lot of gems. But I'll only mention this for our main skill as it's the most important.
- Decoy Totem (R lvl 4): Quest Breaking Some Eggs (Act 1).
- Molten Shell (R lvl 4): Quest Breaking Some Eggs (Act 1). Can be used in our Cast when Damage Taken (CwDT) setup.
- Orb of Storms (B lvl 4): Quest Breaking Some Eggs (Act 1). Note: If some gems are from the same quest, you can buy the others to the NPC selling gems in the act, here Nessa in her tab 2.
- Clarity (B lvl 10): Quest The Caged Brute (Act 1).
- Flame Dash (B lvl 10): Quest The Caged Brute (Act 1). Movement skill is your own choice. This one can be used with wands.
- Shield Charge (R lvl 10): Quest The Caged Brute (Act 1). This one requires a shield and in our case dagger or scepter (only weapons others than wands that can roll spell affixes). You can get Fortify buff (20% reduced damage taken from hits) with it.
- Whirling Blades (G lvl 10): Quest The Caged Brute (Act 1). This one requires in our case a dagger. You can get Fortify buff with it.
- Frenzy (G lvl 16): Quest The Root of the Problem (Act 2). Don't feel forced to play with it. Skip if you don't like, and it's mainly useful on bosses.
- Herald of Thunder (B lvl 16): Quest The Root of the Problem (Act 2).
- Conductivity (B lvl 24): Quest Lost in Love (Act 3). Non-crit / leveling. Penetration is useless on the crit build due to Inevitable Judgment ascendancy node.
- Warlord's Mark (R lvl 24): Quest Lost in Love (Act 3). Crit / leveling. Great life/mana leech. I quickly used it over Conductivity, especially with these Abyssal monsters.
- Zealotry (B lvl 24): Quest Lost in Love (Act 3).
- Wrath (B lvl 24): Quest Lost in Love (Act 3).
- Immortal Call (R lvl 34): Quest Breaking the Seal (Act 4). Important in our CwDT setup.
- Summon Lightning Golem (B lvl 34): Quest Breaking the Seal (Act 4). Useful, and in our CwDT setup. Can be self-casted too.

PoB Link:https://pastebin.com/59r1Hs8d
Skill Tree:http://tinyurl.com/yxwc8emp
Example Link:http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2451348