Trial of Piercing Truth is fucking bullshit.

I never played trials or lab again after got my ascendancy points (and hated every second of it)

This post is as relevant today as it was when it was posted. Just died ten times doing this trial specifically today. Turned off my computer after completion out of frustration.

There are many parts in Path of Exile where one feels this frustration, and it is borne out of a sense of unfairness. It is as if GGG intentionally makes it a pain to gather information about certain parts of their game in order to confuse, surprise, and aggravate the player. And this concealment applies to the little things as much as to the big things in the game. At the risk of lengthening this post too much, I will not go into too much detail. But I think most people know what I am talking about.

I am no game designer, but I think there is a distinction between a difficult game and an unfair game that only appears to be difficult. And the only reason why I truly like POE and support GGG is because of my belief in their capacity to still continue to evolve, respectively as a game and as developers.

Things that make it feel unfair: muted colors, darkness, lack of warning (that is, being unable to see further and being surprised after the fact). This also applies to other things in the game, like powerful mobs that are difficult to distinguish in a pack, boss abilities that have muted colors and are difficult to see, etc...
I know that the intention is to force players to pay close attention and be well-informed. Sometimes it really borders on sadism, though. :D

Some elements of poe can be annoying and frustrating yes. Some could use improvements yes.

However if you know your char needs all ascendency points you better plan your build around it.

Being required to plan your char to some extent is a core mechanic of poe.

That particular trial is a pain but it is doable without taking trap damage.

Like anything, practice makes perfect and with labs/trials, a bit of patience also does wonders.

The spike traps have a pattern which you will pick up on with some practice and if you sit back and watch an area, you can spot the different types of spike traps.

- The ones that do not spring out of the floor on their own are triggered by running over them.
- There are the checkerboard layout ones that alternate between "squares" and,
- There are the traps that cascade through an area

The tricky part is when you get a combination of these in the same area that form a gauntlet but if you watch the pattern, you can pick the best time to run through. There are often safe spots in these gauntlets as well that have one of the regenerating monoliths.

All I can really do to help you is advise you to be patient and watch for patterns. You get faster and faster at getting through these with practice.

Good luck.

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Villalobooze wrote:

Things that make it feel unfair: muted colors, darkness, lack of warning (that is, being unable to see further and being surprised after the fact). This also applies to other things in the game, like powerful mobs that are difficult to distinguish in a pack, boss abilities that have muted colors and are difficult to see, etc...
I know that the intention is to force players to pay close attention and be well-informed. Sometimes it really borders on sadism, though. :D

Excellent points! GGG has really improved the inset map. It would be great if they could make it more useful in the Labyirnth.

Not a fan of this trial at all.
If you want to do a timed run puzzle, the whole thing should be visible at once.

I also think that the ability to trivialise the puzzles with some decent flasks is stopping the puzzles being made good.

This is gotta be the worst ever design in the history of the game take this stupid gate out to ascendancy.

I’ve tried really hard to accept them, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t like traps. The way PoE controls has always made them incredibly frustrating to navigate. Yes, like with any game you can play so much that you finally used to clunky controls, but oh boy is it torture until that point.

Stinging Doubt is another irritating trial that often kills me if I’m not an armor/hp character. There are so few places for an ES character to safely wait to recharge, it’s just ridiculous. Leech-based characters also suffer, needing to mash potions every time a mistake is made. The way traps (and lab as a whole) so heavily favor certain builds for rewards every build needs is just silly.

I don’t hate lab nor am I demanding traps be removed from the game or anything, I’m just going on record saying they’re not fun and I always just want the experience to be over.