Trajectory of a true casual

I had to level a new explosive arrow gem from scratch before I could afford a fully leveled one, which took a bit, but I ran lower level content to do so. Doing it this way I realized/remembered that running very tanky builds that don't kill bosses within seconds is a great way to get the full boss experience the dev's intended. I saw some effects I had never seen before, but didn't die because the build was still very tanky during the slow transition to the explosive arrow ballista tree.

With a fully leveled explosive arrow gem now, but slowly evolving gear, the damage is high enough to run yellow maps, and run 25% delirium 6 mod yellow maps on the edge of your seat. The great thing about explosive arrow ballista is that it is cast and run, with a dot that also continues damage while running, so for broke players, it is a great way to kill challenging rares (like Kalandra Lake metamorphs) somewhat safely, albeit very slowly until you get better gear.

With my basic gear so far, it has been a lot of fun running a build that safely, but slowly kills challenging bosses and rares, even with ~2.5k HP. Again, this is a different side of the game for me.

I did not have enough orbs of regret or refund points to fully transition to the common champion ballista explosive arrow trees, so I adjusted my armor-heavy tree to fit. I feel like this added tankiness, although I don't yet have spell suppression. Also, there is a good dot reduction fortification mastery which stacks nicely with the pantheon dot reducers and other sources.

After the experience below, I started a new champion character to try out armor stacking with two replica dreamfeathers (15 chaos each). No Doryani's, as I am not nearly that rich yet, so any suggestions for fun attack builds with replica dreamfeathers that are not LS? I was thinking a simple cyclone impale, but have not tried many other attack skills. Sweep seems fun in lower levels, and hits hard, but is very slow. I also forgot how hard mana management it on attack builds (eldritch battery is really easy for those on the other side of the tree). Without Doryani's, is it better to stick with pure phys damage attacks or are there other good elemental attack options worth trying? Bleed a viable option?


1st Post and Context:

I have been leveling a lightning conduit build, trying out different, but affordable, variations, and am hitting a big red map wall. I only generally have time to play several hours Saturday and Sunday, so currency and grinding for gear is limited. I have used chaos recipes to earn about 50 chaos this league. No divines, and selling on xbox trade market is not easy, even if I do have some things worth selling -- its almost ssf.

https://pastebin.com/fNdEpYZq

I really enjoy the gameplay with lightning conduit -- it hits really hard after a satisfying lightning brand, arc, or orb shocks things. So far, brand is by far the most enjoyable with conduit for me (hence the tree nodes).

For those wondering about Shaper of Flames, I was trying out Stormfire to see if I could make ignite work as an alternative to the call of the void and winterweave or very, very, very, very expensive Doryani's versions. Yes, I only have ~30 Chaos and zero divines (and zero exalts, for that matter). Playing with little amounts of time makes this a very different game. Ignite is not bad, but, from trying hard staring at the screen, I don't think lightning conduit can actually ignite (it says it can't shock, but I assumed ignite would still be possible). If anyone knows for sure, please share.

The problem is that I am super squishy. Yellow maps are fine. Red maps are not. Lake at level 6 and 7 are not.

Therefore my questions are two:

1) Any suggestions for a permanently broke player to continue with Lightning Conduit?

2) Anybody have a lot of fun with any (cheap) super tanky Marauder or Slayer builds? I love the ones I played several years ago, but it has been a while.