Trail of Sekhemas

I so really hate and despise the trail of sekhema i don't even know where to start and make me wanne quit the game completely. I know they want to add difficulty to the game but from the 3rd level it's just insanity. The honour bar is vanishing like crazy, even with a lot of honour resistance, there is basically no way to refill it as in the 3rd level there are a few restore points and they restore for only a tiny bit and the afflictions are just horrible making things impossible. Seriously, a forced no ES shield on a ES build? My honour bar went from 6000 to around a 1000 with just 1 affliction. How can one come up with it and did they even play the mechanic themselves? To me it seems they didn't. A game should be fun to play and in general the game is fun to play even with all the issues and nerfs but that one part, those trails are just too frustrating and in no way even close, even in a totally different universe, than the difficulty level of the rest of the game. It takes a lot of time to get past the first 2 floors and in the 3rd floor a 6000 honour bar vanishes in minutes in just 1 trail and if you get a restore point it resores a whopping 400 honour. A drop in a bucket and it's gone in 1 or 2 hits in the next trail. It just wants me to smash the keyboard out of frustration and i can't imagin people actually like to do those trails past the 3rd level on a lvl 65 or 70 character.

Or is it actually the intention we pay high level and geared players to complete the trails for us. If so, i refuse to do that and if i'm fed up with it and i can't progress further in the game because of that too bad and i just stop the madness and walk away from this game as there are plenty of other games that are fun to play and don't want me to smash things!!

I understand your frustration.

I still remember the insanity of trying with melee before they slightly modified the mechanics to not punish you as much meanwhile spark toons nuking entire screens without taking damage at all.

Never paid for a single carry in POE1 or in POE2 and never will.

I don't necessarily mind "buying a carry" if part of player progression is gated behind something your build isn't good at AND if it involves unique mechanics that's not part of the normal gameplay loop --- Think something like killing Maven to get a 4th voidstone or something in PoE1. I've hired multiple carries for just that specific reason.


ON THE OTHER HAND -- caps intended -- I don't like that gating preventing people from getting their first three ascensions during the campaign with the 4th ascension occurring in "white to yellow" maps.

If you agree that "real power" in PoE2 is gated behind gear then I see no reason why ascensions should be gated behind mechanics that do not appear to be part of what I'd consider the "normal gameplay loop".


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Feedback:

1. GGG should offer two more mechanics of their choosing to allow players to ascend.

2. If a player has completed their basic atlas points (40/40) AND has beaten any of the endgame bosses then GGG should just give them their full ascension as the player has obviously "earned their power" by completing this piece of the puzzle.

Not many people know this but Sekhemas is Oregon's little, lesser known brother.

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KingAlamar#4071 wrote:

I don't necessarily mind "buying a carry" if part of player progression is gated behind something your build isn't good at AND if it involves unique mechanics that's not part of the normal gameplay loop --- Think something like killing Maven to get a 4th voidstone or something in PoE1. I've hired multiple carries for just that specific reason.


ON THE OTHER HAND -- caps intended -- I don't like that gating preventing people from getting their first three ascensions during the campaign with the 4th ascension occurring in "white to yellow" maps.

If you agree that "real power" in PoE2 is gated behind gear then I see no reason why ascensions should be gated behind mechanics that do not appear to be part of what I'd consider the "normal gameplay loop".


**************************************

Feedback:

1. GGG should offer two more mechanics of their choosing to allow players to ascend.

2. If a player has completed their basic atlas points (40/40) AND has beaten any of the endgame bosses then GGG should just give them their full ascension as the player has obviously "earned their power" by completing this piece of the puzzle.

My build is a lich essence drain lvl 66 and so far the campaign has gone quite nicely. Sure it had some challanges occasionally like the viper boss but overall it's quite doable. I'm smoothly walking through the maps and the bosses takes a bit of time but are fun and i'm not dying aside a occasional boss when i mess up the mechanics. I'm sure i will complete the campaign soon with a bit of effort but that 3rd trail level and ascendency is just impossible at lvl 66 with okay campaign gear and even a market bought piece( unique helmet).

Casual players, like me, find the djinn at lvl 60 and 62 and i even waited till i was lvl 65 thinking okay now it's time to get the 3rd ascendency to get a damage boost as things are getting more difficult and i'm noticably doing less damage as gear drops sucks and i'm still using some lvl 30 gear as in all those acts nothing better has dropped to replace that lvl 30 gear. But then with doing the trail i'm like why do those djinn even drop at lvl 60 in the campaign. If they want to gate that ascendency so much why not let players try that kind of difficulty when they are past the campaign and further in the maps with higher lvl gear? Then there is no need to gate things like this. Now it is just terribly discouraging gameplay and i need to delay the ascendency anyway till i'm maybe further in the maps with hopefully higher better gear, probably even market bought.

Gear is only part of the "real power" in PoE2. Sure it is a big contribution but you can have the best gear if your passives choices are bad your build doesn't have the power so it's the mix of all, gear, passives and ascendency that gives the real power in the end.

I really don't mind a challange, i actually prefer that like the viper boss, and it's okay to be out of the normal gameplay loop but imo this is just too much. Better to just not make it available at all at lvl 60 in the campaign imo and wait till further in the gameplay and corresponding gameplay difficulty.

literally just got forced into bricking my run after spending an hour again on this character (also lich ES/Cont), randomly got the stupid deceptive mirror and still got to last screen for the 5/6 points tier, and of course it locks me into shattered shield room path by randomly going to different room selections just enough to make it a non-starter for an ES build.

very satisfying gameplay this is...