Trial of the Sekhemas

Hello GGG

Let me begin by saying I love POE 2 passionately. I love the challenge, the look, the integrity and authenticity of the story, art and sound design and I think many of the UI changes are excellent as well. That said, it is not without issues, some simple to adjust, like the overtuned boss at the beginning of Act 2 (quite a bit too hard for its position, given the number of adds and the damage of the constant volleys targeting you from the cliff), while others are more challenging.

The Problem:
The Trial of the Sekhemas, in particular, is pretty awful for a number of reasons.

1. First, with the old labyrinth system, if you screwed up the first time, you would make it the second. With this system, different each time, you have a slight advantage at times, but it is randomized pretty thoroughly, so if you have to do it again, you're screwed. In it's current state, you can bash your head against the wall all day without being able to move on.

2. Monster choice: for the most part, this is alright, but a one monster in particular is impossible to avoid, the Serpent Shaman (might have the name wrong, looks like a mythological Naga). This monster fires explosive bolts at long range but the real issue is that it disappears into the ground, then reappears right next to you. It is almost impossible to avoid. I just hit a Ritual Room (no proper explanation given for the afflictions, until you can see the debuff on your char and by then it is too late, your choice has been made), and one of the shrines was guarded by these shamans and of course they summoned more. Suddenly I am dodging ten of them, unable to close on the shrine because every half second, one pops up right beside you, or drops a bomb which you must avoid. I ended that one shrine having lost 500 honour and just threw in the towel. There is a spider as well, which throws poison bombs which explode in unpredictable directions - impossible to entirely avoid.

3. Trapped traps. Monsters waiting behind corners, or hiding behind barriers protecting you from a flame trap, where you literally have no options, no chance to outplay. Either you kill them and lose honour, or you run/dodge and get cooked - losing honour. This sort of thing I find insufferable - when the situation simply guarantees honour loss. That sort of thing leaves you feeling cheated, in my opinion.

4. Then, somehow, you make it all the way to face the last boss, who fills the room with explosions. These are badly telegraphed, without ground effects and do considerable damage. Regardless, if you die here, you start EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN. It only takes one bad room and I assure you, you'll get one, to ruin your run, so even if you make it to the boss, you'll lack the honour to learn him and you can pretty much count on having to start the entire thing over.

Bottom line, I detest this sort of content, which is why I avoided Sanctum in POE-1. No biggee, really, as there are countless systems to interact with, so you pursue the ones you enjoy. Here, however, critical character progression is gated behind this. It simply cannot be avoided at all, which feels downright torturous to me.

Even POE's labyrinth had choices. If you wanted to avoid some content, you chose another path, it might cost you a reward, but making it to the end was worth it. That's my point here, choice. You had one. I have died to this awful system a bunch of times now. I'm a veteran gamer, but not as young as I once was, have slower reflexes and kids. Interruptions happen and this sort of gauntlet style system, where one interruption or distraction can kill ALL your progress, behind which critical character progression is gated, feels terrible to me. I would avoid it if I could and do something I enjoy more, but that's impossible as the game does not offer that choice.

Suggested Solutions:
I'm not sure how to fix this, but short of scraping entire thing, I would suggest a few improvements:

1. Leave your Stash there. At least if I am going to fail, it will not be a complete waste of time, if I can actually pick up loot. In the old labyrinth, you had Stash access each time you fought Izaro and that gave you an opportunity to reset your inventory.

2. Get rid of "gotcha" monsters, like the Serpent Shaman. I watched ZiggyD's video on this before attempting it and he said the monsters were fairly easy to avoid, and were more a system of pressure working in conjunction with the traps. I think that video must have been made before the serpent shaman was included on the roster.

3. Don't trap traps, hiding a pack of monsters in a confined space which also happens to be the player's ONLY shelter from a flame trap is just cheap. If you cannot play around it through skill and quick thinking, it should not be there. It should be possible to avoid losing honour with reasonable, skillful play. Situations which make that next to impossible simply don't feel rewarding.

4. Boss fight: if you die, give players the option of trying again with the same honour level. If it's too low, chances are poor, but at least you could learn the fight and might get lucky.

I hope this did not come across as irritable, but I find this particular system one of the most irritating in gaming, generally speaking. That I cannot avoid it, makes it sting. Anyway, fantastic game on the whole. This is the only element I genuinely dislike and wish was either thoroughly reworked or, preferably, replaced with something else. At least the option of doing something else.

Thanks for reading. I admire you guys as gamers and professionals and have long extolled GGG as an example of how a gaming company ought to be. An example to emulate. POE2 is fantastic on the whole, and I can't wait to see what awaits me on the other side of this trial.

I like the trial itself I just find the falling rocks in the Rattlecage fight a bit too hard to see

"

I like the trial itself I just find the falling rocks in the Rattlecage fight a bit too hard to see

I don't mind most individual rooms, it's the mechanic of starting everything over from scratch and those ridiculous serpent shamans which killed it for me. No boss, no challenge, has ever made me just quit before, but this system is, for me, frankly demoralizing, without the sense of accomplishment of a boss fight or other challenge. Once I'm through it I will simply dread the next time I have to do it.

Just finished another failed run. Why? In a Chalice room 3 elites spawned on top of each other, two of them Serpent Chan Shamans. Frankly, most of my failures are to blame on these obnoxious inclusions.

That's the key word here. Obnoxious. Know why boss fights, however hard, do not upset anyone? They might need tuning, but rarely does anyone think they are obnoxious.

It's simply because they are predictable. However difficult they may be, you can learn them and beat them eventually. Here, in the Trial of the Sekhemas, you cannot predict anything. During an escape room I had an elite spawn on a narrow ledge with crappy visibility. Obnoxious. Run over. Multiple elites spawning on top of each other. Obnoxious, run over.

Imagine how players would react to a boss fight which sometimes just hits the whole screen, leaving no room to dodge and one shots you. That's not difficult, that's just obnoxious and therein lies the problem with this awful thing.

At this point, it's the only element, thus far, I've seen in an otherwise great game, that I dislike. And because of the obnoxious, gotcha mechanics, I predict this will cause new players to leave in time. I would bet if you could hear their reasons in a poll, this Trial would be in the top spot.

Please GGG, fix this fast. At least make no elites spawn in Escape Rooms. Make sure multiple elites do not spawn on top of each other in the Chalice. I get random generation is the name of the game, most of the time, but this structure is not a normal map and should follow stricter rules, otherwise it just wastes player time and dilutes their goodwill, as it is, despite my best efforts, eroding mine.

Point #1 counts triple for ultimatum, by the way. That trial is still the hardest part of act 3 and I'm right outside the final boss.

Ascendancy trials need to be at LEAST semi-static to be meaningful. Right now they're basically a slot machine because if you roll bad mods (especially in ultimatum) you just lose, you simply do not have the build power or gear to handle what they can throw at you with bad RNG.

Hello GGG

Having finally beat the Trial of the Sekhemas, I feel like I can fine tune my earlier criticisms.

1. Melee needs some sort of help here. Perhaps guaranteeing a vendor mid-run would help, allowing melee to replenish honour and making Sacred Water more meaningful than it currently is. Right now Sacred Water is not doing enough, as you can easily go through an entire run without an opportunity to spend it. Moreover, this provides players with a meaningful choice: do I save my Sacred Water for keys at the end, or do I spend it and make my run more likely to succeed.

2. Serpent Clan Shamans remain obnoxious. It is very difficult to not get tagged when they pop up next to you and impossible to not get tagged if you are in a Shrine room. Some solutions might be to disable Serpent Clan Shamans for Shrines, remove them altogether or adjust them so they they telegraph their "Popup" move more clearly, giving you at least a chance to reposition.

3. Chalice Room: make it so that elites cannot spawn on top of each other. Fairly close is fine, that gives you the chance to play tactically and if you aggro more than one, that's on you. However, when they spawn on top of each other the challenge, depending on the types of elites, can be insurmountable with area denial (again, Serpent Clan Shamans. And, again, melee ouch).

4. The Escape room: there is a ledge in the north which COMPLETELY obscures your vision. You cannot pass through it except single file. I have seen elites spawn there. This is an instant run fail. Nothing you can do since you cannot even see the monster or yourself and, with the clock ticking, you might as well give up. Seriously, I can only think that was an oversight on GGG's part, since most objects become transparent when you pass by.

5. The Boss: First, falling rocks needs to be better telegraphed. Second, and more importantly, it would vastly improve this experience if, after failing to down the boss, instead of starting ALL OVER again each and every time, give us two resurrection options.

Option 1: Resurrect at Checkpoint and start over. Sometimes this is the only way if you faced the boss without enough honour, but ...

Option 2: Allow resurrection right before the boss fight. Say you've had a great run, careful, well planned and executed, going into the boss fight with high honour. Then a power failure, lag spike, a kid or pet distracts you, what have you - and that moment spells an unrecoverable honour loss. Giving players this option would allow you to preserve that great run and try again from you previous honour level - that's key. If you had low honour going into it, likely you'll die again and Option 1 is better for you, but at least you are given a choice.

General: I want to emphasize that I adore POE 2 thus far. The complaints I am hearing about loot and difficulty in general are not well founded. This is a more challenging game, demanding a higher level of engagement. I personally LOVE the challenge. I am soo tired of entitled players, spoiled from the decade of way too easy games, expecting to just be handed power. This game is challenging and I cannot remember the last time I felt a sense of accomplishment like the feeling POE 2 delivers in spades. Sure, some bosses and areas need tuning, but overall it is a magnificent experience and I am praying the whining does not, for once, win the day.