Ascendancy Trials in POE2 make the game completely unbearable and unfun.

100% bullshit and idiotic mechanic

I completely hate both Sekhemas and Chaos... I mean I will never do them again.

Need my last 2 ascendancy points and I can say goodbye forever... but until then it's time to buy a boss kill.

It is antithetical to the game to spend 30 mins rolling thru the floors/levels only to be overwhelmed at the last boss/room.

Now I understand that there will be a third method to ascend but it is not in game yet... but these have always been GGG's inside joke to cause it's customers to feel frustrated and angry.

In an otherwise PERFECT game, this truly feels bad and it gives POE2 a black eye.

Oh and I am level 91 Stormweaver Sorc cruising thru T15 maps with ease.

+1 I currently have 6637 hours in poe i love the base game and also enjoy both hardcore and ruthless. I have completed all content and generally finish all challenges every single league. I am trying so very hard to enjoy this game but am on the very verge of just finishing with it for now. I over level the trials by more than 10 levels comfortably mapping in yellow maps and are still unable to even get my 3rd ascendancy because of the compeltely toxic honor mechanic, I have well rolled relics with a large amount of honor resistance yet i get to the 3rd floor(providing i have had good rng and just not being completly bricked by the horrific choices that have to made, often with no good option) only to lose 80% of my honor on the very first room. This type of content should never be mandatory and imo is having a hugely negative effect on the entire game as it stands in its current state.

Yeah it is bad, I got my 4th points with Chaos trials because they are slightly less ass

Srsly guys i have no clue whats wrong in the house of GGG, but the developer of these trials needs to be fired immediatly. WHO the fu ck creates a trial with at least 8 different punishments to his CUSTOMER in every fuc king try i receive choices like: 40 % less armor / evasion. I mean WTF 40 % ! and to get stacked with all the other bullshit. You need to be extremly lucky to get choices which do not effect you that strong. I don't wanna start with these honor system, this needs to be someone who ran out of mental delusional station.
Last run i had:

Bloodblobs 2 times ( spawns everyc 5 or 6 seconds) + 1 binding heart ( spawns every 4 or 5 seconds) and mobs always poison and bleed you.
50 less range to your attacks and buffs spoil 3 times faster and debuff last 3 times longer.

Bosses with ranges you can't imagine and twisters with a range of 40 % of the plattform which kill you nearly instantly.

I mean srsly: Fire this stupid developer and his boss as well, because he allowed it to installthis kind of stupid combined mechanics and hire someone who is capbale to do his job.

Many people complain about the unfair honor damage or the anti-specific-build issues, but I feel that it’s fundamentally an uninteresting and frustrating gameplay experience from a mechanics perspective.

The design of honor, combined with the pain and randomness of level paths, often creates severe conflicts with players' builds. This can lead to certain playstyles facing unreasonable difficulty or challenges in clearing, which significantly undermines the gameplay experience for non-meta builds.

Even compared to my friends, my playstyle is ranged, with higher health and decent damage, capable of taking down bosses before they even act. Yet, I still often get eliminated due to unfavorable terrain, monster abilities, or level mechanics that work against me purely by chance. Even when I stack as much honor resistance as possible, enemies with multiple ground effects and unavoidable close-range combat can still easily knock me out.

Just onec, one uncontrollable unfavorable situation can spell the end of this turn(unfortunately, this kind of situation is not uncommon.).

I can understand that the development team wants to design a challenging trial, increasing difficulty to let players find enjoyment in the challenge, choices, and strategies (or maybe not).

But the honor mechanic feels entirely like a system designed to filter out and "educate" different playstyles.

If I could, I’d rather ignore its existence, but I can’t, because it’s a mandatory stage for every character.

Even when my combat strength is high enough to easily defeat enemies, I still have to spend time gambling on my luck not being too bad to clear it successfully. This kind of design is terrible.

This is, so far, the part of my experience with the game that I’m most dissatisfied with.

https://i.imgur.com/ALRtZnn.png
Here’s the character I’m currently playing as, just in case anyone thinks I’m just a newbie.
I enjoy playing SSF, and most of the time, I even deliberately avoid trading or buying gear from the auction house. This character has also never directly followed any builds from others. I’m quite happy that my second character was able to complete the entire main story with fewer than 20 deaths, although I’d need more practice before attempting Hardcore mode.

I mention this here simply to provide context for my concerns about whether the trial’s design is reasonable.

By the way, although this character is on the Standard server, it’s only because I occasionally need to help friends who can’t defeat bosses. This character was created for socializing with friends, as my SSF character cannot switch back to the Standard server.

I like the game in general but the trials are very disheartening for me. Never liked the sanctum, played it few times only, it just isn't my playstyle at all. Boring slog through rooms that punish you awfully only to die to boss on second floor after 30 mins of evading stuff and hiding...I never thought I will miss the lab but comparing to this situation lab is heaven.

Seriously GGG, why oh why...

Major issue is trying to do them as a melee character, esp one spec'd into block since the first trial you have low block chance and by the time you do the 3rd trial in cruel the mobs don't care cause they'll always inflict some ailment instead (not to mention such a hardcore cut into your resistances w hardly any resistance nodes on the passive tree lmao)

I'm doing a dual wield build and even at full honour by the time I get to the boss, the boss himself unleashes endless chains of massive explosions my dodgeroll can barely (usually doesn't) manage to outpace because the aoe is always at least 20% larger than indicated by graphics (I'm on max) Not to mention that the dodge rolls aren't your classic iframe dodge, it just means hits automatically miss- unless it's aoe or a "red attack" which you have .1 seconds to read. The Count in act 1 has a similar issue where you're better off just running instead of dodging cause the animation is slower so you get caught on the edge of the mysterious boundary of the aoe.

It just sucks all fun out of the game cause it shoehorns you into specific builds and specific boons, cause if you don't get the 50% extra damage boon as melee you might as well as restart.

There was a reason it was one of the least enjoyed leagues in PoE1 and PoE1 had some insano builds. I really hope they tune it way tf down or buff the HELL out of relics

And for you "Lmao git gud" ppl, idk, if you want extra challenge take the sht afflictions that suck or maybe they could add debuff relics that grant other bonuses, idk. But your lot aren't who the game should center it's balance around.

We'd like a middle ground at LEAST. Where it isn't a gamble if your build, that has otherwise been doing pretty damn good, gets annihilated because oops you spec'd into armor so you could face tank :) meanwhile sorc or witch w several thousand ES (a single unique can make this easy by lvl 20 lmao, I did it) has like 9273927 honour.

The issue is as well that many things are simply not telegraphed well, or enemies can outright push you into certain aoes with a glitchy screenshake that's difficult to roll out of due to framelocking(?)

I beg for differ, compared to specialized skill in D4 for each class, the ascendancy trails give me a thrill to unlock more potential from the character.

the ascendancy trials esp the 3rd and 4th trials are pure tortures. They are achievable only by a few builds and discourage build diversity. Core mechanics of ascendancy should not be locked behind such ridiculous trials, which take way too long to complete. I get they are trying to make the game challenging, but this has gone too far and is a joke...