Trial of the Sekhemas Discussion and Feedback

Wanted to encourage people to provide feedback on Trial of the Sekhemas. I am currently a level 76 stormweaver around 75+ hours played. I have over 400+ hours on POE 1.

My current experience on the trial of the sekhemas has been negative. I've run around 4 trials for my 3rd ascendency at this point. Failed three times on the second floor bosses, over leveled returned beat them and then failed my last run on the 3rd boss. I have only lost by losing all Honour.

1 Life:
I have no issue with having 1 life in the trial. Just like with lab in POE 1
having only one life was challenging and rewarding when you overcame it. After a few labs you can run them pretty quick with some challenge, it felt a little like a chore but not too bad.

Honour:

Simply put Honour feels terrible to me. Below are my 3 biggest issues with the trial.

1. Honour feels like it is punishing strictly for not dodging properly. There are so many defensive options in POE 2, Honour feels like it devalues the thought and planning for my build. My build can be set up to tank, block, evade, or even take damage to deal damage (thorns). The only way to ensure I don't lose Honour is to dodge roll all attacks.

2. Honour is not a fun mechanic to play around. I don't I have any choice or control over how defenses in the trial. Relics add some layer to it, but I only get relics by running and then failing trials when I get hit and lose all my Honour. This is frustrating and not rewarding content as I cant use these relics for anything other then the trial.

3. Boons, Afflictions, and RNG
The boons and afflictions system feels very RNG heavy. I had a run where I got a +50% damage bonus which felt great but then all other runs I got lots of afflictions with non impactful boons. This system does not feel fun to play, it's just punishing when even with 50% damage increase I still lose to losing all Honour.

Critical feedback and possible improvements:

1. Step one remove the Honour system as a pass or fail. Instead incentives honour by adding more rewards for the more honour you have at the end of the trial. For example, more hounour = increased rarity/drops or unlocking additional keys or chests at the end of the run. Could even add in an Honour enchanting alter that requires Honour to enchant items. Alternately Honour and Sacred Water could be used to Juice rooms/bosses.

2. Bosses, bosses, and more bosses. GGG does such a fantastic job with the boss fights. I think focusing more on the boss fights as a way to prepare players for end game bosses through this system would be great. The bosses I have fought so far are great, I would like to be able to fight them when they are a challenge rather than be over leveled and over geared so I can blast them down to avoid losing my honour when i miss a dodge that then takes most of my honour.

3. Some explanation regarding chests at the end of each floor. Can I open them and continue on with the trial? After i open the doors it says i can't open the chests. If it is confusing to me its going to be very confusing to new players.

Please share your experiences and feedback on my points. I know GGG take feedback seriously if they see it.

In poe this mechanic was loved by the players, and I believe, this is why they made it the ascendency mechanic. Players who loved this mechanic, made a character to play this content and this is the reason why it does not work here.
This mandatory content is not made for all builds. To take an extreme exemple, you cannot pass it with a thorn build.
The hounour system as a mandatory mechanic is flawed.

They should make you choose between librairy or ultimatum, or remove hounour completly in my opinion