The thing about lightning beam is that you need to dedicate some gear slots to the scaling, +max beams, +beam splits etc. ring of I've doesn't even need extra area of effect, is such a good plug and play skill. I like lightning beam though and I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work with a similar setup to this one.

dmg per mana consumed mod isn't available on wands.

exactly this, they removed that from wands this season, I feel like a lot of damage comes from this mod, it did last season but I can see a scenario where instead of focusing of spending you focus on remaining on high mana through Damage taken before life and actually make use of the Mind Focus passive by keeping costs low instead of high, in that scenario I Think even a staff could be better for Off the beaten and +4-6 focus blessings.

Aye thanks for the reply both of you!

They have really strong defensive options but yes, they are suboptimal when comparing to something like steel vanguard or even machinist.