Trial of Sekhemas Runner: Frozen Concoction QoTF Pathfinder

Hi all. Wanted to share the details of my purpose-built Sekhema trial runner. I wanted something that was fairly low-risk and chill to play while simultaneously being speedy; also, I didn't want to use temporalis. I ended up going with a shattering concoction Queen of the Forest (QoTF) pathfinder.

With this build, I can reliably clear Trial of the Sekhemas in under 25mins; best of all, it's fairly forgiving/low risk so I can zone out a bit and watch youtube or something while doing these runs.

My basic build is outlined here: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/duosa0y4

Here is a video of me clearing 4 floors: https://youtu.be/7HpXb8YaKv4

Reasons for Shattering concoction:

• Really high single target damage (same with all concoctions)
• Freeze defensive layer
• High base crit for reliable crits and better crit multi scaling
• Able to use dual herald tech for clear (FYI I am using a +49 spirit amulet and taking a single herald reservation passive node)
• Lots of passive tree nodes to increase cold exposure effect/freeze buildup

Reasons for QoTF:

• High baseline movement speed
• Ability to scale movement speed higher via relics
• Ability to scale movement speed EVEN higher via boons

For reference, my current build (mid-tier investment) has 50k evasion/+100% base movement speed in trials and it goes up to 80k/+160%MS with all +def boons active. I can consistently complete trials in <25mins. It also does reasonably well in maps with dual heralds.

Relics you want You want 2x large relics with +3 additional merchant choices (Cornucopic prefix), and the 6x small relic with +%def/+%increased quantity of relics (thickened/girded prefix, investigation suffix). Defences will increase your speed through QoTF, and merchant choice is essential to allow you to obtain all of your key boons before the end of the trial.

General Trial strategy The more you do trials, the better/faster you will become, to the point you can consistently do them nearly hitless (I took one hit during the entire trial in my linked vid).

Priority at different floors - General things to be steering towards:

• Floor 1/2 - Prioritize getting sacred water
• Floor 3/4 - Prioritize getting merchants and gold keys

Room type strategies:

• Ritual trials are hands down the easiest/fastest
• Floor1 gauntlet trials are slow and difficult, so recommend avoiding
• There is only one floor4 layout for escape trial/gauntlet trial so would recommend choosing those - they go really fast with this build (see my video)

Priority for merchant buffs - you should be able to get all of these by the end of the run:

• S tier: Silver Tongue (50% reduced costs), Scrying Crystal (see one more room ahead) - Get these as soon as they pop up since they greatly increase the chance of successfully completing your run
• A tier: Enchanted Urn (30% increased relic effect) - The sooner you get this, the more profitable your run will be
• B tier: Lustrous Lacquer (50% more def), Ornate Dagger (+50% more damage), Sanguine Vial (30% monster reduced health) - These all let you complete rooms faster

Boss Strategy - do the following:

• Curse with frostbite (with duration nodes, this will last 12-15s)
• Eye of winter for crit debuff
• Throw 5-6 concoctions - boss should be frozen by the end of the first salvo
• Reapply eye of winter, then repeat with concoctions
• Floor 1-3 bosses should be dead without having to reapply frostbite

Zarokh strategy once you have sufficient concoction dps (300k+ tooltip):

• Get boss down to 75% however you can
• Wait for boss to teleport to center
• Once boss goes to center, stand in lower left corner of the room and do the standard boss strategy - Zarokh will be locked in the spinning animation and die before he can trigger the intermissions

Other quick tips:

• Learn to quickly dump your inventory at the end of each floor - I usually have one quad dump tab that I fill up with 3-5 trials before I take a break and sort through all my loot
• You can dodge most traps and/or outrun mines before they activate (with 100%+MS)
• If you want to get really good, turn off the minimap - it helps you learn the layouts quicker and tattered blindfold becomes a free affliction
• You are unaffected by Worn sandals affliction (-25% MS) and Hare foot boon (+40% MS) with QoTF