Ascendancy trials

I love thorns as a build. But you simply cannot be thorns build and complete the trials. I have not played too much PoE2 but to have a heath bar and an "honor" bar that goes down when you get hit that is like a fast track to death is weird. How is a build that is meant to be hit meant to do this trial? what am I missing here?

You are missing the possibility to do Trials of Chaos later for your ascendancy. If you skip Sekhemas in A2 then you can do Chaos in A3 and get 4 points at once. Not ideal but works.

Is it the same honor mechanic?

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Pandaros#3247 wrote:

Is it the same honor mechanic?

Nope. Trials of Chaos are based on rounds after you fight a boss (which may be overtuned asshole if you are unlucky, but first token is unlimited you you can try until you success). Before each round you pick one random modifier which makes the rest of trial harder so sometimes you can be screwed over RNG. But you can rely on your standard defenses here, no honor or similar mechanic.

You're missing nothing; it's not a build type that would normally make it through Sekhemas.

It may be possible if you get specific relics.
+% maximum honor
+% honor resist
+% honor restored
monsters/rares/bosses deal less damage
restore # honor on room completion
restore # honor on venerating a Maraketh shrine
restore # honor on killing a boss

For boons, look for anything that restores honor, increases your damage, or lowers enemy damage. If you get lucky and find just the right ones, you may be able to thorn-tank your way through.

Personally, I'd go with Trials of Chaos, though I have no idea how hard it would be to fight the chimera boss as a thorn build. Sekhemas is the main reason I haven't played melee in PoE2.

Honor has been a big complaint for a long time, as it is obviously a drag for melee builds but hardly noticeable to a decent ranged build. A built-in buff such as "you lose 40% less honor when hit if you are wielding a melee weapon" could fix it, or maybe something like degrading honor loss based on closeness to the enemy.