I'm almost afraid to express this opinion, but...

If you take out honor and let me run it as many times as I want without coins it would be fun. Otherwise I dislike it. I like building tanky builds that can take hits. The honor system is very anti face-tank.

Me too, now that I can run 4 trials with Max honor resistance it's totally fine

Is honor resistance capped at 75%??

if you complete a 2 trial token prior to the 3rd ascension attempt, you can unlock more slots for relics when you make the attempt

Imo the whole relic system is boring. Honor resistance is a boring solution to an artificially created problem.

Seems like you are not melee. For me it was just straight up unfair before they patched it. Lvl 80 monk full honour boss fight of 3rd floor (lvl 62 Area). This scorpion just jumped around making it impossible to hit and even when you can hit your AS and MS got to zero because of the quicksand. I mean it was quite easy after the patch but I still think melees still have it much harder in sekhima. Also Monk is comparibly fast to other melees and has freeze so a warrior might have struggled even more.

Many people like the mechanic itself, the issue is that it's greatly build and player dependent and yet it's forced on everyone to ascend.

Especially seeing that ultimatum requires much more in order to ascend and drops way later.

So probably 70+% of players will get theirs 3rd point in trials of the sekhema.

And the way they set up 4th ascendancy, I wouldn't be surprised if only a small % manage to get it.

The problem is Inplay on controller and in the ones where you have to run and activate the crystals it literally won't allow you to click on them sometimes. I had 4 runs killed by that, drove me crazy.

Spending an hour reaching the last temple with perfect honor, good boons and feeling like I would make it, to die in the first room because ALL MOBS WHERE RANGED on chalice trial and got wrecked.

Impressive shitty design.

I like it too that we are not handed ascendancy for nothing and it actually feels good when you do it.

Add 1-2 relics with 2-3 more choises on the merchant and you can always force more dmg, less enemy hp, movement speed, cheaper shops, etc... Makes it so easy

I like it too, it can be hard and it's frustrating but in a good way. I understand that it might need to be changed so that ascendancy isn't gated behind it so that new players won't quit because they cannot beat it in a couple of tries. Just for player retention and longevity.

I personally think that Sekhemas is alright, I even like it more than the Sanctum version. What I don't like, however, is how the last boss is just pure RNG bullshit that basically forces you either to DPS check him or stack an insane amount of honour+honour resistance and be tanky enough so you can safely ignore some of his attacks.

The trial is great and actually quite easy once you accept that you need to adjust your playstyle a little

I'd rather have a limited amount of potions rather than lose to the boss because I got hit multiple times by afflictions though I still have all my pots and life :(

Never be sorry for enjoying the things you enjoy

There is still 1 more way to get the ascendancy points that we dont know how it will be, maybe that will be the solution 😛

In hate this shit so much that I don't want to play the game anymore.

It's a major progress halter, shouldn't have to spend hours on attempts to get your character fully ascended, I shouldn't be in red maps but struggling to get my 4th , you should have your 4th early maps because that's when the game starts.

yo mods take this heresy down before the devs see it for the love of god, this unholiness needs to be purged

I love that. I want morr berya coins. How can I farm them?

I'm with you. Also many people here don't realise that sacred water is indeed SACRED! Being able to buy boons is huge!

I enjoyed it as well. It took 3 tries but beating it felt rewarding. Every death was from running out of time on crystals w/ 0% move speed. If there was no HC element to it then it wouldn’t have felt as rewarding or exciting. Making it HC makes you a bit more serious and invested

People may complain but the Trial of the Sekhemas is likely the easiest Ascendancy trial we'll ever get. It's balanced around relics, which is why ppl are finding it challenging cos they're going in ignoring the relic mechanism. If you just get the right relics, you'll be set for all the trials on both that and all future characters. It doesn't particularly demand a powerful build, unlike Ultimatum. You don't have to hunt for Darkshrines unlike the old lab. And imo the traps are more engaging in this lab.

don't worry, you can do it. everyone have their own kink, even some are a bit weirder.

I'm with you 👍

Without honour, I think Sekhemas would be real solid.

I’m pretty sure you are not playing as a warrior my friend

The biggest problem with ascension right now is we are missing the 3rd trial.

It seems to me the way we are supposed to ascend is as follows: Acts 2, 3, and 4 have ascension trials. By the end of Act 6 you are expected to have completed all three. You get UNLIMITED TRIES on your quest trial tokens, so you are GARUNTEED a chance to get your first 6 points as long as you complete the 3 quest trials. Your 4th ascendency is tied to maps and is a maxed out version of one of the three trials. This is supposed to be challenged, semi-optional, aspirational content.

The problem right now is because we don't have a 3rd trial it seems the balance is out of whack. It feels much harder to get through the floor 3 boss than I thought it would. Doing 10 (!) waves of Ultimatum, including 3 bosses is quite terrifying, honestly. And those are just the challenges to get your 3rd ascendency.

But I think once they add act 4 and we get TOTA or whatever, and likely it'll be a slightly easier version (IE no need to actually WIN the entire tournament), getting 3 ascendency trials complete will be very easy. The 4th ascendency will remain challenging, because its supposed to be aspirational content, however.

I actually think both the mechanics are pretty interesting as kinda "endgame repeatable dungeon" style content, but I also agree it feels very bad right now because so much power is gated behind completing them.

Nothing wrong with liking it.

The problem is GGG forcing it onto players that hate it (ie the majority) and that you have to run it multiple times because you practically guaranteed to fail it without farming relics first.

And honestly I wouldn't hate it if it was adjusted a bit. Afflictions and how you get them need a complete overhaul (they should be on receiving the reward not on entry to room and and why the fuck is "40% less damage" and "have no energy shield" minor affliction?).

Honour resist should be baseline then the Relic reduce Honour resistance but give increased rewards, so people that hate the mechanic are not forced to farm it for relics before completing, just do it once and it's done.

Aka be more like Lab in PoE. My biggest complaint with Trial of Sekhema is that it takes everything people hated about Labs and makes it worse while keeping almost nothing about what made Lab good.

I don’t mind the trial of sekhemas, but don’t make it a mandatory way for people to get their ascendancy. This should be an endgame mechanic similar to Poe 1, especially the way it is currently balanced.

I think it is more fitting to poe 2 direction, slow, mechanical and deliberate.. Than just overpower your build and tank through the game/ascension.. Its fair because you still gain relics to help for your next attempts. I also like it..

Just dropped a level 61 3 floor on my alt and am honestly stoked - going straight over for 3rd ascendency on my level 80 lol.

If you know about capping honour resist, it's the easiest shit in the game right now. I actually just run through gauntlet trials like a madman no issue.

I like the mechanic itself, i dont like that ascendancy is tied to it though. While poe1 lab was annoying it was atleast easy and kinda fast to do. You just always ran top right and got to aspirants trial most of the time. Izaro was also my fav npc in the game.

I also love it, it's cool af thematically and looks and plays amazing, it just needs better balance. I prefer it to lab by a mile and only really miss izaro voice lines

It's fine when failure isn't "you don't get the only unique part of your class". It's a rogue-lite within an already exceptional game and a nice break from Mapping. You also have several floors with potential rewards in addition to pretty good drops in the rooms themselves. Being able to focus on certain chests is a great way to hone in on weapon drops or jewel drops which is completely RNG everywhere else. I think doing 3 runs gave me 5x the amount of jewels I had gotten from 50+ hours of gameplay. Also like a rogue-lite you can kinda see how well your boons are stacking midway through and then decide if your going for a full clear or just semi abandon it and focus on keys to get loot from the upper floors.

It's a system that needs preparation though as stacking honor resist and +honor makes everything a lot easier, which again creates friction with those just wanting the ascendancy and never touching it again. Having a failed run be tied to an item expiring is also annoying since rewards aren't so great to the point of access needing to be limited. Having it be purchaseable for gold when you run out would be simple enough

Trials are actually easy once you know which relics you need and how the rooms work

You're right and you should say it

As a casual player who plays ranged, I dont have issue with it either. Im having some issues with my 4th ascendancy tho. Got last boss to 30% on my best try.

I heard its a different experience as melee tho, and especially warrior.

Same, Troal of Sekhemas is SO MUCH better than sanctum

Its a blast

I loved lab. Started every league with a lab runner build and had tons of fun with traps, puzzles etc. This honour thing makes me wanna RQ before l even start, hated sanctum as well.

Say youre a ranged character without saying you're a ranged character

The trials themselves and honor I don’t have a problem with. I am having trouble getting keys to drop that willl give me the ascendancy. I think I’m just running the wrong level of content but I don’t know how I would know that.

i love it as well and i think people struggling with it just really need to take a bit of time to look at some relics. and set them up properly.

It’s amazingly fun

Mate I agree but that last boss is my bane I just can't see these fucking hourglasses I always miss one and dying to this shitty mechanic is soul crushing AF.

I don't understand what the fuck is the point of 'honor' other than a balance problem which can never be solved because a game balanced around not dying i.e not lose your eHP cannot have a balanced game mode balanced around something else entirely.

To put it another way, let's say Sanctum was more dangerous but you lose when you die. Maybe there are some rooms which themselves have some honor mechanic. Would this type of Sanctum be worse for you? Why?

me too! compared to poe1 the trial is so much easier and nothing in it feels unfair, every trial i lose i lose because i wasnt careful enough.

If GGG are going to make changes then call this pre-changes Masochist mode for the rest of masochists.