Feedback on Ascendancy Trial (Points 7 & 8)

Hello,

First, I want to say that Path of Exile 2 is an absolutely amazing game. I have enjoyed every minute of it — the gameplay feels smooth and exciting, the combat is engaging, and the graphics are stunning.

Of course, I’ve noticed some technical issues here and there, but I know the development team is aware of them, and I’m confident they will improve with upcoming updates.

The real problem I’ve faced appears in the Ascendancy trial for the 7th and 8th points.

Here’s the issue I faced:
When I reach these trials, I simply don’t have the resources to buy or upgrade into strong enough gear to defeat the bosses reliably. I’ve tried several different builds, but the same problem comes up — I lack strong defensive items and damage output at this stage.

The main difficulty is that the random choice of boons in the trial heavily depends on luck. Sometimes I end up with options that don’t support my build, and by the time I reach the boss, I can’t kill it quickly enough. While many players seem able to burst down the boss in 3–4 hits, my fights often drag beyond 30 seconds. Once that happens, negative buffs start stacking up, the boss launches more dangerous mechanics, and survival becomes much harder.

I’d like to prepare properly before these fights, but I feel stuck:

I don’t have enough resources or currency drops to buy the gear I need.

Even with high item rarity stats on my gear, the currency that drops feels too low.

Many strong builds also require a high number of Divine Orbs, which are extremely hard to obtain at this stage. I’m currently farming map level 9–10 and haven’t reached level 15 maps yet, which makes the process even slower.

This leaves me too weak for the exam and unable to farm efficiently to fix the problem.

At this point, my character feels underpowered, and progression stalls. I can’t complete the exam, but I also can’t realistically grind enough currency to upgrade my weapons and armor. It feels like I’m stuck between bad luck with boons, limited resources, expensive build requirements, and scaling boss difficulty.

My suggestion would be to balance the 7th and 8th Ascendancy trials in a way that makes them more reasonable for all players. Maybe:

Ensure boon choices are less dependent on RNG.

Slightly reduce the boss HP or damage scaling past the 30-second mark.

Improve currency and Divine Orb drop rates at this stage so players can actually prepare properly.

Overall, I still love the game and find it incredibly fun, but I hope this part of progression can be tuned to feel more fair and achievable for a wider range of builds.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing how the game evolves!

At no stage of sekhemas does it require you to invest divines into your character for its basic ascendancy points

This post should be in build/gameplay help section.



Zarokh was nerfed so hard in .2 that it’s kind of sad how easy it is now



Boons and afflictions are not mainly on RnG. If that were the case people would close their eyes at every pathing choice throughout the trial. There is strategy and know how when it comes to sekhemas

You don’t take boons if they lead into a disabling affliction
You take afflictions you think you can handle
Maximize sacred water and merchant

Arrows after each room tell you how many options you’ll have if you can’t see ahead. Don’t put yourself constantly into a single pathing route



Ultimately when you actually do start spending divines on your character. You start caring less and less about this to the point you are bringing no honour resist relics and all quantity of relics dropped relics

And farming jewels/relics from it at end game. If you so feel like doing sekhemas for loot that is, which many do

I can say, the trial of chaos is problematic, but Sekhema is okay. With just 10-20 exalted orbs you can get relics that give you 81% honour resistance, +60% global defence, +60% damage against monsters (including bosses) and some max honour increase. Once you have that, Sekhema is real doable. Furthermore, I think Sekhema final boss is easier then the others. Just watch a Youtube Tutorial showcasing his attack patterns and you see, that boss is really no problem.

I'm no pro gamer, I never did tier4 uber bosses. So if I can do it, I assume anyone should be able to with some good relics.

Sekhema's is very easy now and it's probably just a simple strategy issue. Look, just do everything in your power to avoid bad afflictions, or take the least bad one. Do not go to a shrine room with a bad affliction behind it. Do not gamble on a room with only 1 arrow leading out of it, even if it has a boon. It's not worth the risk that there might be a bad affliction you'll be forced to take.

If you don't have afflictions like increased monster speed or player halved damage, the trial is actually really easy up to the 4th ascendancy.

GGG build a game which can be exploited, they develop measures to stop people exploiting it, these measures ruin the experience of the people not exploiting it and then ask for you to buy a supporter pack.

The Trial mechanic is just dumb. This game is amazing, but the trial absolutely ruin it for me, I'll quit for a while, be like "you know what, they can't be that bad" come back, lose honor (WTF IS HONOR, JUST WHY?) in room 13 or 21 or w/e after being perfect for 10-20 room/challenges, and BOOM. Lost your key, no extra life, no extra chances, have to farm for hours for another thingy to open it up. Just straight garbage. why on earth have they locked progression behind what is clearly a mod?