POE2 Trial of the Sekhemas: 3 floors is still way too much for 3rd ascendancy
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The Trial of the Sekhema's mechanic is really rough for getting third ascendancy. The individual rooms of the trials are fine in terms of difficulty, however having 3 levels of the trial gives the player too many opportunities to accrue a collection of horrible afflictions.
Due to the layouts of the trial maps, in my experience, the entire run relies on avoiding lanes that give build disabling afflictions. This can be fine on some runs, but many extremely long, nearly perfect runs have been ended by having to choose between two modifiers that make the trial essentially impossible. For clarity, I tend to go into the trials overleveled by a minimum of 10 levels with strong gear, and have played many leagues of both poe1 and 2. While many would call it a skill issue, I feel it can be a luck issue too often. A luck issue is usually no problem in POE, but the time investment into individual runs is where the disappointment and dissatisfaction come in. Dying in a map sucks, but you haven't invested over an hour into that map. I have yet to be able to complete a 3 floor sekhema trial in under an hour, and it consistently becomes the most frustrating part of building a character. Labyrinth could be frustrating for the same reasons, but failure in a lab was solely a skill issue every time. Trial of Chaos being the alternative doesn't necessarily solve the issue because you run into the same issues, however the time investment is substantially different. I wouldn't mind running chaos trials over and over hoping for good luck, but on my current character, I have yet to drop any chaos trials eligible for ascendancy points. I am hoping that the final option of for ascendancy does not rely on luck as a significant variable in whether or not you can get your ascension, a vital part of the character building process. I don't want to be too negative, I am enjoying many of the changes in 0.2.0., however there is one other glaring issue. We go through all this trouble do acquire ascendancy points that can be a little underwhelming if I'm being honest. The current set of points feel more like notables that are specific to a class. I am optimistic that there will be a solution to this friction eventually, but this is the number one thing driving a wedge between me and my love for POE. If the trials stay the way they are, I'm worried I may not be as interested in POE2 in the long run and I think many people feel the same way. (EDIT): As well as pointing out what I think is a flaw I should also make a suggestion for improvement. I think the issues I've listed above would be solved by adding some additional rooms to each floor and making the 3rd point require 2 levels for completion. If the floors were all longer by 2-3 rooms, the 4th ascendancy point could be acquired after 3 floors. Considering dev time has gone into the 4th floor, the appropriate fragments could be made a rarer drop, and 4th floor completion would then offer more rewarding drops to make it worth doing for advanced players. Also broke this into paragraph for easier reading. Last edited by Axl5kRoses#0968 on Apr 15, 2025, 6:17:54 PM Last bumped on May 18, 2025, 1:39:27 AM
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Holy wall of text dude. Paragraphs please invest now!
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Haha I had a feeling that was coming, I'll see if I can edit it after the fact
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" this is how a frustrating player do, when game mechanics are bad. this trial of shekhema is not a players challange, it far more than that. and i recomend it for torture sections. |
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" This. I'm cruising through the atlas having done only two trials, because all I have is the sanctum tokens. I have like 8 of them that would reward points, and none for ultimatum. If that's intended, it's... not great. | |
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Did 3rd ascendancy today on 3rd attempt.
If you get -30% movement speed afliction, then its GAME OVER man, GAME OVER. SSF player✔️ ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!? Last edited by Annastasia_Steele#3866 on Apr 15, 2025, 7:51:34 PM
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Agreed
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" Honestly I have never understood peoples problems with Sekhema. I'm going to honestly say it's not a skill issue, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's most likely a relic box issue. I have help quite a few guild mates with it, and once I did they learned what relics worked best for their specific play style. |
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There is nothing difficult about this content besides staying awake after spending an hour or more touching crystals and pulling levers and spamming dodge roll.
It's mind-numbingly boring content. It's not a trial of strength, wisdom, or cunning, it's a trial of patience and/or having literally nothing else better to do with your time. |
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I'm at level 83 lightning spear and opened the 3rd trial with a level 71 coin and finally beat it. Was certainly not fun as I had to go through it like 5 times, losing all them. Two of those losses was at the 2nd round on those two bosses.
It is very long, tedious and grueling. It is a bit too much. Maybe just the first two rounds of it would have been sufficient to get your 3rd ascendency. Many people say that you need the right relics. However, you need to acquire those relics first. You can not just get the perfect relics at your first ascendency for later use on your 3rd. And you can not open that relic box to hold a good amount of relics for use during the 3rd trials. You would have to enter and lose a few times to gain those better relics and to open that relic box to further hold even more relics. Then you can park more relics in to be able to pass that 3rd round and final boss. Its such a frustrating mess imo. I do not know how a beginner player would even pass this. It is a bit absurd. When I finally got it, I was actually not excited for achieving it. The frustrations and time invested outweighed the joy of getting it. I finished it shaking my head... Last edited by Emmet#9384 on May 16, 2025, 9:52:35 PM
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