Another "why the new trials are bad" post

In PoE 1, if you were doing lab, you knew what you're getting into. You knew there'd be traps galore, you knew there'd be Izaro three times (and Argus) and you could chose to rush it with the help of poelab.com if you didn't like it.

You also had the opportunity to get darkshrines to make your way through the lab easier and the whole thing was doable with any somewhat viable build.

Yes, it was a drag for some people and the one death only policy could really suck, but for the most part it was a reasonable return of investment to get the ascendandy nodes.

Now with the Sekhema and Chaos trials it's pretty much the opposite. There is very little you can do to make your run easier on the way (unless you're lucky in the Sekhemas), instead you can only prepare in advance but then you get punished almost every step, which can add up to be so severe that it practically breaks your build and screws up the trial.
It's an all-around bad feeling to go through the trials as it's just getting perpetually worse with every step.

Also, you essentially have to start from the beginning each time. It's like if you had to run through all previous labs in addition to the current one you needed in PoE 1 every damn time.

With the Sekhemas it's also very much build dependent if you can do it at all and how hard it is because of this insanely stupid "honour" mechanic that heavily favors ranged and evasion characters.

To add insult to injury, I think the ascendancy nodes for the most part aren't even remotely worth the effort of doing the 3rd and 4th trials.

I really don't get how GGG managed to create such a great (imho) campaign but couldn't come up with anything better than this absolutely miserable *BEEP*.

There is way too much random luck involved with trials. The first three trials aren't as bad generally, but the 4th is cancer. I literally had to respec my Sorceress away from Lightning Warp because the only-semi-controllable movement was getting me killed on all the narrow-as-heck corridors on the 4th trial. So, I respecced to a Shock build, less boss damage by a good margin but hey, at least now I can control my movement all the time. I start another trial, get to two rooms before Zarokh, and I can't see more than one room ahead and it turns out the very last room before Zarokh, the only room I can select, gives me the -25% movement speed affliction. FANTASTIC, now I'm slow. I attempt the boss, barely make it past the first pick up the hourglasses spawn, and on the second I die, and it wasn't even very close.

Let me be very clear on something, GGG: you absolutely cannot under any circumstances put mechanics in a trial that result in guaranteeing you being unable to complete a boss before you even get to him. I wasn't recording this boss fight, but I promise you beyond a shadow of a doubt, nobody on planet Earth could have picked up all the hourglasses in time on the one I died on with the movement speed debuff. When that phase starts each time on Zarokh, you need to force 100% movement speed (but still include boot movement speed buff) or just change the mechanic in some fashion. Maybe only two groupings of hourglasses to pick up if player = has movement speed debuff present. There are like four different ways I can think of to easily solve this, but right now IT IS CANCER and making me want to gouge the eyes out of developers IRL. Also, to hell with forcing movement speed debuff right before the final boss, and the merchant not offering me any way to remove it. It should not be possible for bad luck to make finishing literally completely impossible. Harder is one thing; impossible another.

Yeah cause in a ARPG

Make choosing the "Right Character" mandatory.
Say you want skill and then make it 100% random.
Take a character that was researched and then assembled over hours of game play.
And then change them into a GGG character by making them slow, hit for less have less stats , not even use their hit point or defense pools , i get a jank GGG honor stat.

Im not even playing my character anymore, Im playing some shit character in a lopsided event that doesnt even use the core game mechanics.


Im sitting here right now typing in a forum .
I could be playing PoE.
I could be playing my monk .
But im at the trials , I have the coin in my bag .
I have the Chaos invitation ..

The thought of playing the game immediately turned me off.
Why .. cause I know that if i start its at least an hour off dogshit game play
with a high chance of failure to circumstances I can't control .. .
But i can choose not to engage ... empowerment.

The trials are not a barrier to character advancement.
They are a barrier to launching the game.

I empathize deeply with Jitter's stance on this and I agree. Makes me not even want to play the game right now. I hate this feeling, because I WANT to play the game, and I've loved 97% of my time in it thus far (~300 hours since launch!), but the randomness of trials screwing me and the time investment to blow past the first three just to get to the 4th is cancer.

You can very easily brick your run if you choose paths that only give you one choice. It's not entirely random, and it's entirely on you to weigh the choices and risks of going down a path. Some of the mods are far too debilitating, like 25% reduced movement speed, but Sanctum is by far more superior to Ultimatum, which is a literal slot machine. If you take greedy routes in Sanctum and are forced to take an affliction because you had only one choice, that's on you.

Try Sanctum again and think about your pathing more. If you mindlessly take rooms without thinking about the whole path, you'll think it's random garbage. At worst, the story Sanctum and Ultimatum are both easily overcome by sheer levels. The 3 floor Sanctum is cleared by understanding the mechanic to it's fullest and making the safest/most optimal choice every room.

I dont mind bricking runs due to RNG but I do mind having to run all floors again.


If it was just the 1 floor you care about, Id be fine with it

There is literally zero reason why the trials should RNG block you out of progressing.

Ultimatum is also terrible. It's basically entirely designed around becoming immune to certain things like corrupted blood or crits, but those are all PoE1 mechanics and speccing immunity is not really a thing in PoE2.