How to Get 3rd Ascendancy in PoE 2

Ben Author

Created - 10.03.2025 Updated - 10.03.2025

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Ascendancy classes in Path of Exile 2 are crucial to your progress in the game. They enable certain builds to function, especially because they have nodes that enhance utility, amplify damage, or bolster defense.

That said, you need to complete several Trials of Ascension in order to get the full eight points, which you can use to allocate four major ascendancy nodes. If you are looking for a guide on how to get the 3rd Ascendancy, then you are in the right place! This is our 3rd Ascendancy Guide in PoE 2!

The road ahead is dangerous for any build that is not equipped with the right gear. Thus, we invite you to go to our PoE 2 store and acquire rare items to make your journey to completing the third ascension trial easy!

Why is the 3rd Ascendancy Important?

To understand why it’s crucial that you complete all Trials of Ascension in Path of Exile 2, you must know what you are getting in exchange for your efforts. Basically, doing a Trial of Ascendancy from start to finish rewards you with two points that you can use to take different ascendancy nodes. You can read our PoE 2 ascendancy nodes guide if you want to learn more.

That said, the 3rd Ascendancy is important because it rewards you with your fifth and sixth points. If you are playing a Monk, for example, finishing the third ascendancy trial enables you to take “Lead Me Through Grace” or "Sunder My Enemies."

How to Get the 3rd Ascendancy

To actually get your third set of ascendancy points, you have to finish either Trial of the Sekhemas or Trial of Chaos.

For the Trial of the Sekhemas, you need to use a Djinn Barya that explicitly says “Number of Trials: 3.” This means that you have to complete the first three floors of the sanctum, which culminates in a rather difficult boss for those who are not prepared.

If you don’t want to do the Trial of the Sekhemas for some reason, you can go for the Trial of Chaos instead. Take note that the 3rd Ascendancy requires you to use a 10-trial Inscribed Ultimatum. Yes, as you may have surmised, that means that you have to defeat the final boss with 10 different debuffs that could make the encounter incredibly hard.

After successfully defeating the third boss, you can interact with the Altar of Ascendancy at the end just like you did during your initial ascension.

Now that you know where you can get your 3rd Ascendancy in PoE 2, we will provide you with some useful tips on how to accomplish it in the next sections of this guide.

Trial of the Sekhemas Tips

Cap Your Honour Resistance

When you are inside the Trial of the Sekhemas in Path of Exile 2, you will have a new resource called Honour. Treat this as your life force in that when it gets fully depleted, you will fail the ascension trial, thus forcing you to have another go.

Every time you receive damage, may it be from traps or from monsters, your Honour value is diminished. You can mitigate how much Honour you lose by having a relatively high Honour Resistance.

Similar to elemental and chaos resistance, Honour Resistance is capped at 75%. You can get Honour Resistance from certain relics. We highly recommend that you put at least a couple of these relics in the Relic Altar at the start of your Trial of the Sekhemas run. You can purchase some amazing relics from our PoE 2 Store as well.

Avoid Certain Afflictions

Afflictions are debuffs that you obtain in the Trial of the Sekhemas. The thing that you have to remember is that you will always have afflictions every time you try to complete this ascension trial. Don’t worry because, for the most part, you can choose what affliction you will take.

Here are the afflictions that you have to avoid as much as you can:

• Orb of Negation
• Non-unique relics have no effect
• Deadly Snare
• Traps deal triple damage
• Corrosive Concoction
• You have no defenses
• Veiled Sight
• Rooms are unknown on the Trial Map
• Blunt Sword
• You and your minions deal 40% less damage
• Deceptive Mirror
• You are not always taken to the room you select
• Worn Sandals
• 25% Reduced movement speed
• Branded Balbalakh
• Cannot restore Honour
• Fiendish Wings
• Monsters have 25% increased attack, cast, and movement speed
• Honed Claws
• Monsters deal 30% more damage
• Red Smoke
• Room types are unknown on the Trial Map
• Dark Pit
• Traps deal 100% increased damage
• Tradition’s Demand
• The Merchant only offers one choice
• Trade Tariff
• 50% increased Merchant prices

You have to be aware of these afflictions because they persist throughout all three floors. For example, if you have chosen Trade Tariff by mistake, then you will have a hard time getting boons to help make your run easier.

Take the Best Boons

If afflictions are debuffs, boons are beneficial buffs that also retain their power until you are finished with the Trial of the Sekhemas.

Having said that, there are a number of boons that you should get immediately once the option to take them becomes available. They are:

• Enchanted Urn
• 30% Increased effect of your non-unique relics
• Fright Mask
• Monsters deal 20% less damage
• Hare Foot
• 40% Increased Movement Speed
• Glowing Orb
• Restore 50% Honour when your life goes below 20%
• Ornate Dagger
• You and your minions deal 50% more damage
• Sanguine Vial
• Monsters have 30% less maximum life
• Silver Chalice
• The next minor boon you gain is converted into a random major boon
• Silver Tongue
• 50% Reduced Merchant prices
• Imperial Seal
• Traps are disabled
• Earned Honour
• Restore a portion of Honour on room completion
• Dekhara’s Necklace
• You cannot receive any more minor afflictions
• All-Seeing Eye
• The Trial Map is fully revealed

Boons can be obtained through the Merchant, Pledges, and certain rooms.

Keep Away from Gauntlet Trials

There are several types of trials in the Trial of the Sekhemas and the Gauntlet Trial is one of them. Whenever you see it on the Trial Map, it is best that you avoid it as much as you can. Why is that, you ask?

The objective here is that you find the exit before you can proceed to the next room. Sounds simple, right? However, you have to go through a number of traps and monsters that could kill you if you are not careful.

You want to have at least 80% of your total Honour before you fight the third boss so that you have a relatively comfortable amount, thus improving your chances of success.

If it cannot be helped because the other trial rooms have nasty afflictions or whatnot, then that is the only time that taking the Gauntlet Trial is acceptable. Otherwise, avoid it like the plague!

Have a High Chaos Resistance

The boss of the third floor in the Trial of the Sekhemas is Ashar, the Sand Mother. She is a gigantic scorpion that can burrow, do a dive bomb, and hit you with poison projectiles. What’s more, there are square tiles found in the room that can emit a gas cloud that deals considerable amounts of damage.

That is why it is important to have a relatively high chaos resistance to mitigate poison damage as much as possible. If you are struggling to cap your chaos resistance, you can equip an Antidote Charm, which makes you immune to poison damage for a few seconds.

Additionally, if you are playing a build that can take the Chaos Inoculation keystone passive, then you might want to allocate that passive skill prior to this fight. Refer to our PoE 2 best keystone passives guide to find out more about Chaos Inoculation.

Trial of Chaos Tips

Be Mindful of the Modifiers You Take

The main difference between the Trial of the Sekhemas and the Trial of Chaos is that the former provides you with some buffs (despite the afflictions), while the latter is all about accumulating modifiers that negatively impact your run.

That said, you have to pay close attention to the modifiers that you take per round because they will persist until you are finished with this ascension trial or if you are killed when trying to do so.

Here is a list of the modifiers that you should avoid at all costs:

• Stalking Shade
• This modifier creates an invulnerable shade that attacks you. When it hits you successfully, you will gain a stackable debuff called Ruin. Accruing seven stacks results in a failed run.
• Petrification Statues
• Creates several statues that can petrify you if you stand in their area of effect for a brief period. These statues become very annoying, especially if you are fighting the different bosses.
• Damaged Defenses
• At level 2, your defenses are significantly reduced, making you much more vulnerable to the enemy's attacks. Unless you are confident in your ability to not get hit even once, avoid this for sure.
• Enraged Bosses
• There are a few bosses that you have to tackle in the Trial of Chaos to get your 3rd Ascendancy. This particular modifier makes them take less damage, while they do more damage to you. Couple that with the other modifiers you have accumulated in the previous rounds, and you are going to have a hell of a time during the boss fights with Enraged Bosses.
• Occasional Impotence
• When this trial modifier is active, you will be unable to deal damage for a couple of seconds. This occurs every eight seconds, which is why it’s quite problematic when you are trying to defeat the final boss in the Trial of Chaos.
• Heart Tethers
• Even though you can visibly see the hearts, going near them (either deliberately or by accident) slows you down by a substantial amount. What’s worse is that if this modifier is upgraded, breaking the tether will not only stun you but also make you take more damage as a result.
• Impending Doom
• While not dangerous in normal trials, Impending Doom is more cumbersome to deal with in boss fights, particularly when you are trying to evade boss slams.
• Reduced Recovery
• If there is one modifier that you absolutely must avoid, it is this one. Reduced Recovery does what it says on the tin. It reduces your life, mana, and energy shield recovery rate substantially, to the point that they will not be recovered in time.

Teleport to Town

After a grueling session that forced you to use up all of your flask charges, you can teleport to town and replenish them. Sure, there is a well in Trial of Chaos but it only spawns prior to a boss fight. If you already lost all your flask charges in, say, round two, you can safely port to the Ziggurat Encampment before proceeding to the third round.

Get Properly Geared

The first few rounds of Trial of Chaos are a test of your character’s capability to finish all 10 trials. If you are already struggling in round three, then completing the remaining rounds is close to impossible.

Fortunately, you can teleport to town and get some much-needed upgrades before you continue. Be sure to have some PoE 2 Exalted Orbs in stock by heading to our PoE 2 Store.

Make Sure Your Resistances Are in Check

If you are new to Path of Exile 2, resistance modifiers are quite helpful because they can significantly reduce the damage you take. For example, if you took Stormcaller Runes as one of the trial modifiers, you have to brace yourself because you will take lightning damage from time to time.

Aside from that, Toxic Monsters is a modifier that gives enemies inside the ToC the ability to inflict poison, which is a type of chaos damage. That is why having a relatively high amount of chaos resistance is desired.

Although chaos resistance is hard to cap in Path of Exile 2, you must have 75% fire, cold, and lightning resistance no matter what.

Escort Safely

In one of the rounds in the Trial of Chaos, you will be required to escort a statue to the finish line. Of course, you are going to encounter monsters along the way. To make your journey to the end smooth and seamless, you can actually go on ahead and eliminate the monsters before escorting the statue!

Do It at a Higher Level

The 10-trial ToC is hard because of the negative modifiers that accumulate until round 10. Although you can enter the Trial of Chaos so long as you have the right Inscribed Ultimatum, we still recommend that you do this ascension trial at a higher level.

If you can wait, progress your character until you reach level 65 to 70. This is so that you will have access to “Expert” gear, which provides more damage (for weapons) or defense (for armor pieces).

For instance, the Expert Pathfinder Coat reduces the slowing potency of debuffs on you by up to 30%. This particular body armor can be equipped at level 65.

Try Minions

This only applies to PoE 2 minion builds. In the Trial of Chaos, minions are surprisingly powerful, especially if you are using the right ones. The Skeletal Frost Mages are awesome here because they not only deal cold damage (which can slow enemies down as a result of the “Chill” elemental ailment) but also can be commanded to freeze enemies with their icy explosions.

Final Thoughts

Getting the 3rd Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2 is not that hard assuming that you know what to do. If you are to choose between the Trial of the Sekhemas and the Trial of Chaos, you will have a much easier time doing the former than the latter. The reason is simple, really, in that you can get powerful boons in the Trial of the Sekhemas.

Whatever the case may be, you should always have your character equipped with the right gear. What, you don’t have any Divines? Don’t worry, just go to our store to purchase PoE 2 Divine Orbs for a cheap price!

Now that you know how to get the 3rd Ascendancy in PoE 2, which ascension trial are you going for? Will you choose the Trial of the Sekhemas and complete three floors? Do you find the 10 trials in Trial of the Chaos more apt for your style of play? Share your thoughts in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!