Ascendancy Trials Feedback: Understanding Player Concerns

IMO endgame-ish content, like the trials, should not gate character skill progression, in the first place. Let hem be the content for meta-chaser to get meta gear/map modificators/ gems, instead.

A bit late perhaps but totally agree with OP.

One of my biggest frustrations with the current system is the lack of checkpoints in the Ascendancy trials. I spent around 40 minutes slogging through three trials to unlock my third set of ascendancy points, only to reach the final boss and die relatively early in the fight. Since I had never faced that boss before, I had no idea what its mechanics were. Sure, I could watch guide videos beforehand, but I still need firsthand practice to learn boss fights effectively.

That one death meant I had to redo everything—all three trials—just to get another shot at the boss. It feels so punishing. Why can't I start again from the third trial with the first two already completed? Losing 15% of my experience is already painful enough, but forcing players to redo all of those trials just adds insult to injury. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that I lost all motivation to continue playing. I haven’t even logged back in since.

I understand the intent behind making Ascendancy classes something your character has to earn and unlock—it’s a cool concept—but I think the current implementation is unnecessarily hardcore, especially for something that unlocks so much of the game’s class fantasy and build potential. The third and fourth sets of ascendancy points feel particularly brutal to acquire.

In my opinion, this system needs to be more forgiving. While some level of challenge is fine, the current setup feels like it caters only to the most hardcore players, leaving mid-core players like myself frustrated and burned out. At the very least, adding checkpoints would go a long way in making the experience more enjoyable and accessible.

Sanctum will never be good, and neither will Ultimatum. Gating character progression behind RNG-fest roguelite systems is lame.

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Rucent#4202 wrote:

Sanctum will never be good, and neither will Ultimatum. Gating character progression behind RNG-fest roguelite systems is lame.

True, it's fine as a side activity, not a mandatory progression gate thought. I would never touch Sanctum or Ultimatum in its current form if it weren't necessary for ascendancy.

Please get rid of these trials to gain basic skills for my character. It's awful and not enjoyable at all.

We should get ascendancy as we progress through the acts, not from seperate spin-off ideas from a DEV who is obviously a higher rank in the development by now and pushing his own design into the game for his own agenda of making more money and have a better CV.

Good post, agree alot

I want to add. Not only is Sanctum given early in Acts, it's also dropped earlier in maps. I got my first 3 level Sanctum at the end of the campaign but I started getting high enough ilvl ultimatums starting yellow maps. We really are funneled into doing Sanctum unless you want to wait a long while

+1

Im new to PoE and this sounded kinda cool on paper. Well it isn't..its actually super unfun, and I'm on my "first" try so I can keep getting keys and trying again. I cant imagine what its like when you use a key and get one chance to clear.

To begin with I'm not even able to complete the A2 trial because of a bug that completely freezes my character in place. Or maybe its lag but all my menus work, I just cant move and its happened multiple times now. But aside from that the trial just feels bad anyways..constantly. Why does almost EVERY room have to give some retarded negative affliction? Where are the exciting boons? Lol, I think I've found maybe like one? Nothing about this design is exciting right now, its just a drag. Its legit punishment, on top of punishment, on top of punishment.. its baffling.

WHY is there a "don't take damage" mechanic thrown into a game mode that's already filling your character with debuffs? I picked a warrior to play a certain playstyle, and FYI, it wasn't to run away and leave rare monsters behind because it isn't worth trying to kill them. I just cant understand the logic.. GGG you say you want to make the games you like to play? So seriously, you actually enjoy this game mode so much that the unanimous decision was to tie it to a class changing upgrade? Think about that, anyone at GGG if you read this...just think about that.

I duno man, its pretty crazy to me. Im just trying to picture in my head all the creators sitting around brainstorming this idea and it not just being a troll, sarcastic kinda "have a laugh" conversation. "Ouuu and what if we also did THIS and then THAT in the trial to make it even harder! hahahah" Thats honestly what it seems like lol. You can have some punishing mechanics that's fine, I'm down! But they need to be backed up by some feel good ones too at least. Its not fun to have my already slow warrior slowed even more, and then have him recieve more damage, and deal less damage, etc. All the while having to avoid combat and walk on eggshells around harder monsters cause I lose if I take to much cumulative damage. An ascendancy is expected and required in this game. It's not the feel good thing players want after having to deal with such a chore, and if that's what you were going for maybe I kinda get it. But in practice it just ends up feeling really shitty and being a frustrating time sink. My ascendancy is RIGHT THERE but this is not what I want to play like to get to it. Then possibly doing it again and again for skill points? Nope.

At the very least the Honor needs to be majorly reworked or removed from this trial otherwise its likely a very small percentage of players are actually going to even make use of it. Considering the time put into developing it id imagine that's not GGG's intent. Instead of having it end the trial just make it give you something or do something else, I duno. Players are crying for a rework so I dont see them having any other choice, I really hope they consider it.

Ascendancy is the worst mechanic in the game, especially when the honour calculation doesnt even make sense. Get hit by a boss, doesn't even break my overflow much less touch my life, took out almost my entire bar of honour instantly. ?? I just want want my ascendancy this system is cancer