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

I can't take anyone that says they enjoy this content seriously. Even the no-life people agree that this system is problematic and a weird design choice to say the least. Masochists do exist, so maybe there are a few that actually like this kind of shit.

My wife snd I are having a terrible time as a duo, we just had a fight with each other during a trial that has never happened before in the 9 years we are together lmao, this is THAT toxic. It's clear that this is meant to be done solo, so yeah. She's thinking of refunding for now so I'll probably play alone. This sucks. Here's hoping there's some announcement regarding this soon.

My personal concern after this is how endgame feels like POE1, but that one is probably going to be tough to tackle.

If I make a new character I just pay the div and get a carry for all 8 points unlocked. This is how much I hate skanktum.

I hope this post gets the point across, that the community (albeit a small portion of it) really does not enjoy this system.

I havent got my third either as a level 85ish Deadeye and i'm on T15 maps.

I did consider paying the 1 div but how lame must it be to not do the content yourself. I would feel so unrewarded...even then i considered because i remember how frustrated i was the last time i tried.

Besides i already spent what i had buying new gear for and only this content.

My solution would be:
If honor is to be kept, it would make sense to remove or pause it at the bosses at the very least so that you can continue the rng/decisions/repercussions in the following rooms.

Also make honor scale with your level so that if its unobtainable now, leveling more contributes to increases in honor.
So you can come back to it.

There are also some choices that are far too punishing for some classes, that if you did it with friends, playing different classes, one would be at a serious disadvantage.

I speak from experience having had the evasion penalty variant. And my two friends ascended while i died with 2k honor and no defenses, left and carried on with maps, getting my ass beat without my extra points.

Removing Armor is another variant for warrior and ES for witch as an example (imagine removing witch's 8k honor to 1...rip)

I might do it again but the thought exhauts me...

If i was a dev id be sad to hear people dont enjoy what i made so im sure someone on the other side has heard about this enough by now.

At least after their NYE hangover.

+1

Just adding another person's feedback to this. Been playing since PoE1 beta and hated the original Labs but this is a whole new level of hate for me and may will be the biggest contributing factor for me not wanting to play v2. I hope all of the community feedback is taken into serious consideration, and quickly.

Ok, I’ll talk about my experience here.

For the context: I’m playing a Sorceress Chronomancer with a build that allows me to clear tier 15+ maps very quickly and is also very effective against boss (I don’t one-shot them, but it’s close). I almost never die with 6k energy shield, chaos inoculation, and 3k backup mana/life (wich si still can be improve, just waiting the good item loot). The build is a custom mix of fire/ice elemental damage and critical damage, enhancing damage against frozen enemies and those afflicted by elemental effects. The playstyle involves spamming fireballs that explode into a myriad of fire rays, quickly clearing mobs. Against bosses, tougher mobs, or large packs, I freeze them first and then obliterate them. (The build could probably be further improved, but given its efficiency on tier 15+ maps, I find it quite effective.)

Regarding the trial, based on each stage as I unlocked it:

Level 1: Still low level, with a build in progress (30-40% of its potential): 3-4 failures, then success with around 2.5k max honor.
Level 2: Build at 50% of its potential: 5-6 failures, then success with around 4k max honor.
Level 3: Build at 80% of its potential: 1-2 failures, then success with 6k max honor.
Level 4: Build at 95% of its maximum potential: 10+ failures with 9k base max honor. (I now pass levels 1-2 without any issues, sometimes struggle on level 3, but always reach level 4, which is where I fail.)

I persevered, and this morning I finally cleared level 4 with 1,800 honor left from a maximum of 15k honor (thanks to bonuses). I reached the final boss for the first time. I literally did 0 damage to it, and he one-shot me. After some research, I found out it’s highly resistant to freezing... making my build useless against the final boss of an extremely difficult trial (for the main reason I’ll detail below).

So now I have to start over again, but I just don’t feel like it anymore. I don’t see the point of struggling so much with something so unfairly punishing and hard. It’s not even a question of skill, talent, or “getting good,” because the trial is 80% based on luck: luck to get the right rooms with the right bonuses, luck to avoid the bad rooms with the wrong penalties… penalties that can stack one after another without being always able to anticipate or remove them. Unless you’re lucky enough to get good vision on upcoming rooms, which depends on having the right bonus that gives vision, bonus you get if you were lucky enough to choose the right path of rooms, and so on. And i don't even speak about the game forcing you to get a really strong penalty on each possible room choice (option1: no energy shield....great i'm dead, Option 2 : enemy dealing 50% damage, great my honor gonna vanish from outscreen ennemy shot, option 3 :max honor cut in half....damn well i guess ic an start over at this point, let just see what is on the next room ? more penalty or a bronze key....great !)

I don’t understand the purpose here: not being able to unlock the full potential of your character or build because the difficulty cap isn’t based on skill, mastery of mechanics, build or gear power, or build resilience, but on luck. And with each failure, you have to start all over again.

And here is the second major issue : On top of that, a boss, stronger than any other boss you encounter so far (don't speak about pinnacle boss 'cause havn't encounter one of them), immune to a core mechanic of some builds essentially says: “No, you’re not getting through because I’m immune to the core of your build,” favoring certain builds while greatly penalizing others. If you die to him ? well bad luck you can start all over again and maybe reach him again in like 10+ attempt IF you are lucky enough to drop the Key.

And this is to be done again every season? For every reroll? No, thank you! i'm out!

On this particular point, compared to POE1’s labyrinth, it’s night and day in favor of POE1, clearly.

(The same criticism applies to the Chaos trial, which is also 80% based on RNG with penalties to choose at each step, and you need to succeed three times to have a chance of reaching the boss.)

All Ascendancy needs a major overhaul: Do not depend on luck, Shekhema need a rework of the purpose of redoing levels 1-2-3, a revamp of the bonus/penalty room paths, the ability to retry the boss once you’ve reached it for the first time 'cause reaching him is already a challenge...And the chaos one also need rework, You can't imagine how discourage i am when i bit my first last utlimatum (10 trial) after many attempt and learn that i need to do it 2 more time to be able to challenge a boss.


As it stands, the majority of players won’t even bother anymore ascendency.

im on my third char atm,doing ascendancy part 3 and man this is just driving me to loging out. it is the most unfun i have had in a game for a long time. just frustrating and a time sink,and sadly a unpleasant one.

+1

Y'all really shit the bed with this one you picked the LITERAL 2 most hated mechanics in poe1 and chose them to be the way we ascend? why in the hell would i want to min-max my character..... to ASCEND!?!?!? i personally avoided sanctum like the plague in poe1 because of the time that had to be invested to do it even with the crazy amount of currency you could make. Lab in poe1 was a walk in the park compared to this shit at least of i died there i only wasted 10-15 minutes, MAYBE 20, now trying to get 3rd points its minimum 30 minutes, more stressful than fun, and just an all around awful choice. The campaign is AMAZING, mapping is a fucking blast so far.... and then you cant even ascend unless you fully gear your character for it, or over level it 20+ either make getting the points easier/faster or find a new way cause this shit is terrible design.

The new ways of ascending are far more difficult and annoying than the Labyrinth ever was - even in its first, longest iteration. Lab is a picnic, compared to this.

Played extremely carefully the third Sekemshyte trial for 30 minutes, then got obliterated by three rare devourers just before the end. From max to zero honor in a few seconds. Lol. :))

I'm simply ignoring the third & fourth ascension. Never liked sanctum or ultimatum, and if the third way to ascend is really that DOTA minigame league, that's a hat trick of mechanics I don't like and don't want to play.

Bring back Izaro!