Gamer Dad beats Trial of Sekhemas 3rd Ascendancy - 194 hours and 49 minutes in

I posted this to reddit, buy your "moderator" removed all of my feedback because....its TOO TALKED ABOUT. I wasn't going to post it anywhere again, until a week later I tried the Trial of Chaos for my 4th Ascendancy. The bottom portion, I'm irate, i'm tilted, and I am malding. But that is what you wanted, so I will share it anyway.

Long feedback here, I understand that. Maybe a dev will see it or another player will read and commiserate. Quick backgound, I chose Monk. Invoker. I chose to do "I am the thunder" first, then "Sunder my Enemies". The "and Scatter them to the Winds" seemed so cool to me, I couldn't wait to unlock that next.

The first trial I beat before they patched it, and as a melee character it wasn't easy for me. I failed twice. I didn't really mind it at this point of the game. I thought it was unfun, but doable. The Trial of Chaos was more annoying since the debuffs were much more punishing and just as random. But this third ascendancy....holy shit. If the goal of the developers was to have the majority of people not be able to unlock this power for their character, they should leave it the way it is. IF that is their goal, they will achieve it by doing nothing. I don't think I can say I am a casual player, but I'm certainly new to POE and I love the game. Clearly, I've spent every free second I have since release playing the game. I don't know how many of the new players like me will have the time and patience for this type of game to put up with RNG difficulty like this. I have several problems with the mechanic.

First, is the lack of tutorial, explanation, rules, etc. This is the same exact problem they had with POE1, which I played for about 100 hours or so in Settlers league. Nothing is explained. This is a drastic change from the rest of POE2, where most systems are introduced and explained, even if it is a bit vague. You can figure it out. My first attempt at the ascendancy, I had NO idea that there were more than the first floor and first boss. I managed to get to the 2nd boss thinking that would be it, but after failing 3 times and then beating it...SURPRISE! There is another floor, no ascendancy. This is where I finally gave up the "blind" run of the game and started looking up info on how the hell the mechanic works. I shouldn't have to go to a Youtuber to figure out how a games basic progression works.

Second problem I have is access to the trial. Both physical access, and the actual key access. It's location is not marked clearly, and it confusingly makes you travel back to the first act 2, or the cruel act 2, or something. I still don't know if that matters. Nit picking, but weird design. The keys though, this is not nit picking. I have nearly 200 hours in, and I have dropped 5 total keys for the ascendancy. There are dozens of hours of gameplay I had to play between attempts. A character's major progression is locked behind impossibly rare RNG drops of a key. They rub salt in the wound by dropping my 20 Trial of Chaos keys that I can't use to ascend. My 4th attempt I did with full 75% honour resistance, 40% maximum resistance added, passive points respecced to give more evasion/energy shield, and "over leveled" to level 75.

The first time i ever traded was to get the items (relics) to be able to do this. I had been loving NOT being involved in the crazy trade economy this time(i did this in SoK league POE1, I suck at trading), which is its own seperate issue. I spent 10 exalted orbs (ALL of my currency) to get these items. I died at the Scorpion boss because I didn't realize that the developers thought they should double down on screwing melee players by making it spawn quicksand AOE all around it whenever it is stationary. Debuffing my attack speed and move speed is a death sentence. I put the game down for 3 days for the first time since release when this happened.

I didn't think I would come back. Tonight I came back and dropped a key. I decided, that with my wife and daughter as cheerleaders, I would try it again. It didn't start well, and my Animal Crossing loving wife and daughter were shocked at why the game randomly gave such major afflictions to a player. Half honour left at the beginning of the third floor, the RNJesus blessed me with the move speed, and a parameter that removed 3 debuffs at the cost of not getting any further boons. This took me swimmingly to the final boss room with the same half honour left. With prior knowledge of the quicksand and adding META skills like ice strike and Herald of Ice to the build, I was able to BARELY beat the boss. escaped a slam that nearly took my 2500 life/ES. I did it. I got those points, and I loudly cheered. My wife and daughter were happy for me. But my feeling wasn't of accomplishment, it was a feeling of relief.

This is NOT the feeling that you get from the Campaign, or Elden Ring, or any other difficult game. I should feel accomplished. But because I had to source Youtube content, trade, and spend all of my currency, it felt like I was playing into some kind of sick joke. A chore that the developers gave me, while they sip their well earned new years champagne on vacation laughing at how bad I am at their game. Maybe this feedback is worth something to someone. Maybe not, but it was cathartic for me to put on Reddit (EDIT: YOUR MODERATORS ARE AWFUL, AND REMOVED IT BECAUSE TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS, WHICH I HAD NO IDEA). And that is just what Reddit was made for. Complaining about video games.

UPDATE: I am now level 83, i can't stop dying so I'm leveling slowly. You are punishing me and disrespecting my time with how punishing the endgame is. I hated the trial of sekemah, so I thought, "Maybe I'll have an easier time with Trial of Chaos to get my 4th ascendancy." SHOCKER: NOPE. You don't explain that we have to do the trial of chaos 3 TIMES BEFORE WE CAN EVEN UNLOCK THE BOSS FIGHT????? Again, you locked something behind an incredibly RNG part of your game, then didn't explain it to us what the actual goal or requirements were. The trials were not fun. I ended up just buying my third material to unlock the door after a haggard and awful time playing through on my own. And of course, I've never seen the boss fight. He has 6 billion health, but I was doing pretty good. Until I got one shot from a ground effect I couldn't see when he was at 1/8 health left. Before I even hit resurrect, I knew: I just wasted all of that time and 30 exalted orbs (most my money...again). I would just have to go ahead and try again---by playing another 8 hours of trial of chaos. ALL of the experience I had gained throughout those hours, lost. I am lower progress now then I was when the day began. I spent all my orbs to even get the first attempt. These two ascension mechanics I have not hated something in a video game more in my life. This was a masochistic person who thought that this huge new player base would "enjoy" these trials.

I will just stop trying to ascend I guess. That's what you designed it to do. Flatten, dishearten, and defeat your players to the point of not wanting to play the game anymore.

+1 OP

I commiserate.

>I hated the trial of sekemah

mate do chaos trials instead, its way easier. fight is mechanically the same as sekhema but you dont die due to bugs in sekhema sanctum

also im not gonna read all that.

"

Trushdale#2268 wrote:

>I hated the trial of sekemah

mate do chaos trials instead, its way easier. fight is mechanically the same as sekhema but you dont die due to bugs in sekhema sanctum

also im not gonna read all that.

Chaos trials aren't any better, they're just less rolls of the dice. You roll the dice in every room on Sekhema, you roll the dice on every trial in Chaos. Just as much bullshit, fewer rolls for it to screw you over.

I have absolutely no desire to make a new character because of this. I agree.

People are paying a considerable amount to allow another person with a more appropriate gear/spec/level to skip the content. That’s proof of how much people hate the current system.

Given inflation, new players won’t be able to access the cost of the skip so that they will turn to RMT.

It’s a horrible system and needs to be significantly changed.

The trials are not fun at all. It's ruthless RNG.

I am close to getting all ascendancies to lvl 85+ or 90, completed all content, and done trials including 4th floor on all characters so far on my own.

I love the trials, I love failing and trying again and again and again.

But I believe GGG should just add a ruthless mode for people like me and let everyone else ascend for free or something. Or just release a PoE1 league so people can go play that.