Ascendancy Trials Feedback: Understanding Player Concerns

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MarsAstro#7928 wrote:

It was me, Bumpo!!

Bumpo strikes again

Tried as a Solo Merc to get my LAST Ascendancy Points, so I run 5 Sanctums today, no chance, failed 2 times at the last boss and 3 times because of some crazy unlucky mods like "You and Your Minions deal 40 less damage" and so on. And yes, I use Relics with Maximum Honour and Honour resistance.. I have 49% Armour and 56% Evasion. My Resis are capped at Fire 79, Cold 78 and lightning 78, chaos at 69.

So often I just have 3 incredibly tough afflictions to choose from, I would love to go out right away - and I am a PoE 1 Sanctum Enjoyer :D I really don't know what you guys were thinking when creating this. Your approach for T17 sucks also with these crazy mods. You want to make the game hard, I get it, but having mods and afflictions like this (Trial, Ultimatum, T17) is not fun x)

Edit: Visual Clarity is also a huge problem, because of my poison cloud I can't see shit! In Ultimatum the circles are almost not visible and I even can't see the scorpion boss in Sanctum. Then I detonate with my explosives, and I am completely blind LOL but you want my to dodge every shit of the boss I don't see.

Also your Feedback is well written! GGG needs to see this.

+1

One suggestion for now to at least make it bearable until something serious is done about it is to add the tablet for your third trial to the shop for 5000 gold or something. I mean it is your basic end of campaign, start of white maps ascendancy and should not be gated behind double walls of RNG in you needing to find one and you having to be lucky enough to not get a random modifier that bricks the run completely.

At least if you can rerun it like the quest version then you can get your third ascendancy and only have to deal with RNG walls for the "uber lab" equivalent.

+1 on honor removal. The game is stressful enough as it is, I didn't design my character to walk on eggshells. I am built for war. Let me kick some ass instead of trying hard as hell to keep mine safe.

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Maldosam#3663 wrote:

Great, well thought out feedback.
Especially the ideas for improvement, both good!

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dreamstate42#3955 wrote:

Why not create trials that are build-agnostic and enhance what players already enjoy?
- A boss rush mode that pits you against three or more campaign bosses you've encountered so far, plus one of the current Sekhema/Chaos bosses? The bosses are fantastic; give us more opportunities to fight them. During trials, this would be an excellent way to face them, as they would have additional stakes and meaning!

Yup, probably the easiest approach for developers, a boss gauntlet of increasing difficulty. The bosses are indead great, let us fight them more (and/or add in specific bosses!)

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dreamstate42#3955 wrote:

- Alternative suggestion: Remove the trials completely. Make them a class quest. Sometimes the traditional approach is actually ideal. The classic "Build-up - Climax - Resolution" structure for stories or I-IV-vi-V chord progression in music are used because they work universally well.

In my opinion the best option for players. I'm thinking class quests in FFXIV, which serve exactly this purpose, and a great way to expand on the ascendancies' personality and flavour for lore enjoyers!

+millions

Ascendancy class quest with lore/flavor would be infinitely better than these terrible trials.

Fantastic breakdown and writeup.
Make me ask myself "was it true for me?" and I ended up agreed.
You understand me better than myself.
+1

I agree on some points, but completely gutting the trial mechanics like removing honor from sekhema is not the answer. it just kills the mechanic completely for those who enjoy it.

I think just making all trial types available at the same time is the way, no?

Add another trial for 4 total like you say, perhaps a boss gauntlet, but when you can ascend, you gain access to all the trials available and pick one.

Dont just gut the mechanics and make them less engaging. Sekhema without honor is just like the rest of the game and the point of other mechanics, to me at least, is to take a break from normal gameplay and do something unique or different.

The trial of Sekhemas is not good for melee players, why i cant do the third one ascencion at chaos at same level of sekhemas? i want to play with full melee skills, and im beeing punished for that

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dontstayrunaway#1023 wrote:

I agree on some points, but completely gutting the trial mechanics like removing honor from sekhema is not the answer. it just kills the mechanic completely for those who enjoy it.

I think just making all trial types available at the same time is the way, no?

Add another trial for 4 total like you say, perhaps a boss gauntlet, but when you can ascend, you gain access to all the trials available and pick one.

Dont just gut the mechanics and make them less engaging. Sekhema without honor is just like the rest of the game and the point of other mechanics, to me at least, is to take a break from normal gameplay and do something unique or different.

Thank you for sharing your perspective.

While I understand why you would like to preserve these mechanics, I have major concerns about keeping them tied to ascendancy progression.

The core issue, as mentioned in my original post, is that ascendancy is fundamental to character progression and class identity. By requiring players to engage with specialized gameplay mechanics that differ significantly from the core gameplay loop to access their ascendancy, there's still a barrier to progression that feels disconnected from the main game.

I agree that Sekhema and Chaos should stay in the game - the art direction is excellent, and some players genuinely enjoy these challenge modes. However, I believe these would work better as optional content again, rather than mandatory trials for accessing core character progression features.

Your point about wanting varied gameplay and breaks from the standard loop is entirely valid. However, ascendancy trials might not be the best place to do this, given how critical those are for character progression.