Third and fourth ascendancy trials are completely unreasonable.

3 (THREE) floors of Sanctum is the most painful thing I'd ever do as a Warrior. I choose to just not ascend. Ultimatum is not better. But FOUR? OR all 10 floors of Ultimatum and/or DEFEAT the Trialmaster?

THis is not reasonable by any metric GGG. In PoE1 both Sanctum and Ultimatum had their haters, but they were OPTIONAL content. Here is MANDATORY for one of the most fundamental systems in this game.

My class is slow, and melee. It destroys bosses, yes, that's not my issue, if only I could get to the boss. If only the boss was the only challenge. Being stripped off my defenses that I've built only for them to be nullified for the sake of an arbitrary challenge and 2 points in my ascendancy is not what makes an ARPG an ARPG. Being followed by a spectre that makes you lose if you get hit 7 times. Or a cloud of poison damage. Or a growing circle of physical damage. All absolutely awful, melee and ranged unfriendly.

Rogue like elements are fine, and fun, when they're optional for profit. In this case they're mandatory. And that's just not fun. The game is about to be fun. If this game is just meant to be for the elite, the streamers that have played ARPGs non stop for the past 15 years, then just say so and we can just give it up and play something else, more casual.

I don't mind the game to be slow and difficult, but having Sanctum and Ultimatum, both very controversial systems as a means to ascend is just unreasonable. 1 floor, 4 rooms, I can live with it. But 4 full floors, 4 bosses, 1 hour long attempt to ascend or 10 whole trials AND taskmaster is just beyond any reason.

They have to go GGG. Please. This is not it. People complained about lab for 10 years and it's unbelievable that we rather have lab than this. Every build was fine for lab, any build could get through it easily and if you failed any of the first 3 it was fine, just try it again. The fourth lab could wait, but it was doable eventually if you overleveled it. Sanctum automatically filters melee, and warriors for being overly slow. And Ultimatum strips you off your defenses, empowers the enemies, fills the floor with lava and you have to survive 10 trials of those AND defeat the big bad boss at the end. Lol.

I will say that if they dont change a lot I wont be playing POE2 Ill just play POE1

Im lvl 48 and I cant beat the Trial of BS Chaos
Literally got the boss to Culling and went I went to Cull the boss breathed on me freezing me and killing me in 0.5s. After 8-10 minute fight.

Ya nope not fun needs fixed.

I couldn't agree more. I fine with hard acts, bosses, endgame content, but the Ascend system really really suck, please GGG

I second this. Unlocking your character should NOT be "aspirational content." It is better to admit that the current trials were a mistake and retire them.

Merciless lab could be done before finishing the campaign. Here, you need to finish the campaign, grind levels and gear and either slog through three floors of mostly "find the exit" or get lucky with modifiers that don't turn a boss arena into a death trap.

This sucks

I completely agree!

Ascendance trials should not be a serious obstacle for players.

Been trying to do my 4rth ascendancy as warrior doing Ultimatum and is total bullshit. I can do the 10 floors (not all the time cause of stupid RNG) but even if you complete it you are tied to the RNG of the piece of the head drop at then end so you need to run this RNG bullshit multiple times to get 2 more points on your ascendancy that are not much better than what you actually get on the passive tree lmao

This needs to change.

Obnoxious, unfun, time wasting and not rewarding

I have tried 6 times now to get my 3rd ascendancy. I just got one shotted at full honor in the 3rd room of the 1st floor. What in the world? Not even sure what the hell hit me or happened.

This is seriously the worst game I have played in a long time. I'm done.

I actually disagree that ascendancy should be easy / not significantly challenging. Especially the last 2, I think it’s fine if they are very difficult, and something that isn’t feasible until you at least get through campaign and start mapping. 2 easy-mid ascendency and 2 difficult ones feels right. (To be clear, I think positioning them in EARLY endgame is appropriate, not super late endgame).

BUT I think the current difficulty is VERY BUSTED. It should be a “flat” difficulty, and not some RNG fest where the difficulty is determined by your luck in drawing modifiers/rooms. That just feels awful.

I wouldn’t say the current ascendencies are the right type of difficult at all. They aren’t difficult, they’re just random, and locking a major part of your class behind randomness is FUCKING AWFUL.

I did up to the third with Monk and Summoner after the last patch and it was OKish once I understood the Scorpion fight.

Now I can farm it with my Monk and might have lost 100 honor after the Scorpion fight.

But then ... even the tiny Moskitos do a TONE of honor-damage :(. Any mob after the third trial is absolut over the top and not balanced at all!

Ultimatium on the other hand has it's very own problem.
Sanctum I do 4 bosses and X rooms and when I survive it I get mmy points.

WHY do I have to fight Ultimatum 3+++ times to aquier 3 different fragments (which are not garanteed to be diffent!) to fight a pinacle-boss then? Depending on the choises you get for each room it can allready be a pain in the bud.

Fixes:
Sanctum: balance the honor damage of all trash-mobs after the Scorpion. Simple.
Ultimatium: Give the 7 and 8 ascendacy points after players finished a full 10 room run. Easy fix.