Some Trial of the Sekhemas relics feel too mandatory.

After playing extensively with the Warrior, Mercenary, Sorceress, and Monk (the latter being my most played, reaching level 91), I’ve grown to enjoy the Trial of the Sekhemas, even though I initially disliked the Honour system. My favorite part of PoE1 was the Labyrinth, and I can see that Trial of the Sekhemas is trying to emulate it, but I think there’s plenty of room for improvement—especially because having 75% Honour Resistance feels almost mandatory to fully enjoy the experience.

The main issue is that there’s little room for personalizing your runs in the trial. First, I have to focus on reaching 75% Honour Resistance, and then I can think about what benefits I can take. In this regard, some bonuses are clearly better than others. I also feel that Increased Maximum Honour, Increased Life, and Increased Defences are top-tier stats that don’t add much variety to runs.

Because of this, I believe the system should be redesigned in two ways:

A) Rework the Honour system so it doesn’t scale so strictly with equipped relics—mainly by adjusting enemy damage to Honour and outright removing relics that grant Honour Resistance, Increased Life/Honour/Defenses. This way, it would be more enjoyable to seek out bonuses that personally appeal to you (like dealing extra boss damage if you lack DPS, finding more Sacred Water, or increasing restored Honour).

B) Remove the Honour system entirely. What I enjoy most about the trial is seeing which Boons and Afflictions I get, what rooms lie ahead, and what challenges each Trial presents. Honour is my least favorite part. If it were removed and rooms were adjusted instead (e.g., featuring enemies that deal more damage or are more resilient), I think the system would be more enjoyable for everyone. I never really worry about my health or damage in the trial (even when playing Hardcore!), so it feels strange to be "playing a different game" while running it.

Not sure if it's a popular idea, but they should make honour resist scale to average elemental resist not including chaos, we all get 75% at some point when getting to maps it's basically a requirement, if honour resist just scaled to the average by the time people got to endgame they would have their max honour resist for 3rd and 4th ascendency

either B or rework the honor entirely in a way where it's not tied to player stats and not a finite resource.

slogging through 2 sets of trials just for the honor to get demolished by poison on 2nd boss because I didn't take the mandatory resistance relics is not experience I'd repeat.

alternatively, add more relic slots at the start of a trial or develop a fusion/upgrade system for relics that allows you to combine more effects into that rigid space

Sekhemas could drop a unique currency that functions as a Regal/Exalted orb for relics.