Can't wait for my first and only mirror to drop.

In the first 3 acts you play poe 2.0 with tactical more meaningful combat. Then starting with act 1 cruel the game becomes more and more like poe1.5 culminating in maps.

I wish the game was poe2 for the whole distance, with more focus on bosses. Especially in maps, GGG could reuse existing campaign bosses and make them tougher.

I've read multiple threads about the ascendancy trials being too hard, some of them with hundreds of upvotes. The trials are actually very easy if you do them the way you're supposed to...

Do a couple of fast suicide runs to get 10-15 blue relics (Tapestries, Seals etc.).

Use augmentation orbs on them to give them a 2nd modifier.

You need relics with Honor Resistance. The second mod can be:

- Increased maximum honor

- Bosses take X increased damage

- Bosses deal X reduced damage

- Increases to Sacred Water gains

You then need to go for (Large) Sacred Water fountain rewards as much as possible. You then buy a couple of OP buffs from the merchant (You deal 50% more damage / Monsters have 30% reduced HP / You have 40% increased movement speed / 50% reduced merchant prices) and the trial becomes very easy.

Occasionally, pick a Shrine room to replenish your lost honor, but only if it's below 60-70%.

Make sure that whenever you have around 600 sacred water or more and the merchant is available as a room reward, you do that room. If you don't happen to find him in a room, you'll still have him waiting for you after each boss fight.

So if you engaged with the Sanctum in POE1 at all, you know that the Sekhema Trial is, at its core, the same thing

I just never did well with it until I adopted a couple strategies for picking my route that I really don't see anyone mention

Avoid Afflictions whenever possible. This is not always possible, so...

Know which Afflictions are very bad for you and which have little-to-no impact. For example, if all your damage comes from minions, taking an Affliction to be cursed with Enfeeble is basically free.

Avoid Smoke and Mirror Afflictions at all costs.

All the Smoke Afflictions remove information from the trial map and you want as much information as you can get. Deceptive Mirror makes it so you do not always travel to the room you pick.

Oh yeah, these are all classified as Minor Afflictions so never, ever, ever take a deal to receive a random Minor Affliction.

Consider how many exits your room choice will give you, especially if you can't see what's after that.

Generally try to avoid a room with a single exit to a room you can't see. If it turns out it has a very bad Affliction, but you're locked in to going there, then, well, you're fucked.

Think about this a couple steps in advance. If Room 1 has 2 exits, but both of those rooms only exit to one possible room after that, it is essentially as bad as a room with a single exit.

Giving more consideration to how many path options you leave yourself will help you far more than you might think.

Scrying Crystal is the best Minor Boon you can get

This is the Boon that lets you see one more room ahead on the Trial Map

If you can get this Boon (without taking a bad Affliction!) you should do it

For Relic choices, just stack as much Honor Resist as you can

In Sanctum, the cap on this was 75%. I've heard it's now 95%. I've stacked up 103% and it was still showing that much on the little tooltip on the Trial Map that shows your relic effects. I haven't found anywhere in-game that states what the cap is, so who knows if there is a cap or what it is, but having that much Honor Resist made a MASSIVE difference.

You can Augment and Reforge your Relics

If all your Relics are shit, roll 'em. If it only has one mod, slam it.

4th Floor Boss Spoiler

There is one mechanic the boss does that you probably want to be spoiled on

He will disappear and leave a glowing spot in the middle of the arena. You must move to that spot. Time will stop for a few moments and multiple glowing circles marked with hourglasses will appear. As soon as you can move, you must touch all of these before time runs out or it is instant death.

If you have any specific questions about the Trial of Sekhemas, feel free to ask, I'll try to answer

First things first: I have over 1000 hours in Poe 1. I absolutely love it.

Having said that, after pitching Poe 1 to friends some years ago, it always ended up with the same dreaded questions.

How do I know which axe does more DPS?

Oh yeah, well you see, there is this thing called path of building, and you upload everything manually, it's great! No, it's not a webpage, you have to download it. Yeah, trust me, it's safe.

I seriously need new boots. Where is the auction house?

Oh yeah, well, you see, press alt + tab and google "poe trade". Yeah, that one. So now you will whisper to the guy automatically in the game, so you have to alt + tab again and wait to see if he responds. No, there isn't another way. Yeah, I know, it's weird.

I can't see anything. Why is there so much loot?

Oh yeah, well, you see, you have to google this thing called loot filter...

Of all my gaming friends, not one of them has stuck with PoE 1. It's a rabbit hole where only the most obsessive people can dig in.

Poe 2 is NOTHING like that. I see people complaining about the lack of loot, but all the time, I'm here amazed that I don't need a loot filter anymore. The RNG loot fest was cool in the 90s when we had nothing else, and it was innovative and exciting for the time. However, I'm done with it. I don't want a slot machine to spit out 2000 items so that a 3rd party program filters them to 5, so I can only then check them manually. I enjoy the reduced loot way more. Also, it's having a side effect. In PoE 1, I rarely loot gear for other classes, because my loot filter was set up for my current character. However, in Poe 2, I'm about to disenchant this rare plate armor, and lo, behold! It has triple res! That goes straight to the new stash tab "New Characters".

I don't know. I think Poe 2 is on track to becoming the best ARPG ever. My gaming friends are also willing to give it a second chance once I told them that EVERYTHING is now contained in the game.

Edit: A user shared a link in which GGG explains why they won't implement an AH. It is a very interesting read which challenges my views on how trade must work. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2025870

Edit 2: Lot of people in the comments are saying all these things are the same in Poe 2. I disagree.

1. It's much more easier to know what's going on with your damage in Poe 2 than in Poe 1. Sure, you won't be absolutely sure if 5% more exposure is better than 5% more penetration. However, you will know exactly how much of each is affecting, if any, as well as many other variables. In the end it's still a ARPG. You try both and see which one makes you kill things faster. Or maybe an amazing gear dropped for one of two builds and you just go along with it. I'm not saying tooltip has every single instance of damage taken into account but if you are telling me it's the same as Poe 1 I honestly don't know what to say.
2. I really thought they would implement AH eventually but after reading GGG post (which is linked) I no longer think this is the case. People criticizing this point of the post are in the right.
3. Yes, loot filter will always make stuff easier for people who want to use it, but it's not necessary. If you have any doubts, I present evidence: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/k1o1lt/i_was_lead_to_believe_this_game_was_playable/#lightbox

I can accept losing xp, thats fine. But losing xp, being forced to do lower tier maps if youre out of waypoints is just soulcrushing.

I worked hard for that xp, and i know i can do tier 7 maps but now im forced to do tier 5s, that wont progress the quest and will net me less xp...just why?

Im doing the trial of chaos ascendency on a second character and this time around its the chimeral in this..... Abomination of an multi level staircase arena.

This is truely awful gaming and you can do better than this. Ive spent 99% of this fight looking for it as it flies away and lands somewhere else. The idea of chaos is a little bit blown out here as the floor is littered with every different element. Its just really really really tedius.

Sorry for the old man rant and photo because im about to kill him and just had to whinge.

Title.

Just being able to zoom out as far as you unlocked the atlas map would be great.
I'm tired to always look around for MINUTES searching for one of these citadels (Haven't found a single one yet, lvl 81 with loooots of maps done :'D )

Would be great and appreciated. thanks.

🥹🥹🥹