Trial of the Sekhemas, other complaints and suggestions

My progress was completely reset for Sekhemas trail (the room before the second boss fight, 30+ minutes in) because I was unable to select a time trial vase after clearing all enemy around it. I am playing on Xbox. I found this to be one of the most frustrating experiences so far. I don’t know if it was a bug or poor game design that lead to such a waste of time but I suspect a combination of both. I find most of the rooms on the trail uninteresting and not that difficult, except for an infuriating honor system. I did not enjoy this league machanic in POE 1. I am currently forced to play it because it is only way to unlock anymore ascendancy points, Lv 73 in maps, I have not received any ultimatum trials that grant the third ascendancy. That being said I do not enjoy the ultimatum ascendancy either. I was instantly kill by that giant bird on the seventh trail. I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to learn boss mechanics with a 30+ minutes for every reset and having to find a token to unlock the trial. I’m not complaining about difficulty but the game design around the difficultly that leads to unnecessary frustration. I think many new players will be unwilling to participate in such punishing game play. I enjoy a lot of your game but not the ascendancy. Sorry, I was pretty pissed when this happened and just had to get it off my chest.

My character, a mercenary with a controller, shots at his feet when not targeting enemies. I would like this to change please, with the traditional shooting straight in the last direction. Also the auto lock system needs work. Maybe a menu setting that allows for closest enemies to be targeted first of or class of monster, such as uniques. Or the ability to turn off auto lock, maybe this exists and I just haven’t found it yet.

I would also like to remove runes from items at the cost of losing the removed rune. I am very hesitant to socket runes into unique armor with it being permanently locked to that piece. I was going to switch out some gloves but rune choices, that seemed good at the time, would not allow for me to keep my resistance levels with new gear.

The campaign was great and I look forward to the remaining three acts! The maps need work however, they feel boring, repetitive, and aimless. I understand this is early access and it will take a lot of time to build this to the level of the previous game. It’s just expectations are high with how much fun I had in the Settlers League. Seriously I was addicted, it was a problem 😜.

Thank you for creating a great game and letting me experience all your love and effort! It just feels like I’m at a S&M club sometimes. Whatever I guess I’ll get used to it if nothing changes, but I know it will continue to get better. Still the best game studio on the planet!

Thanks GGG