I think a patch is in the works for it.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3602541

Lots of people are having issues with the trials; how bad is it? I've yet to get to that point in the game myself. The Honor system is getting mercilessly killed on Reddit - it sounds like a pretty dumb mechanic from what I understand of it, or of its implementation at least.

It's very hard, you go through 8 rooms (I think) and pick different branches. You also get permanent debuffs, on top of having to start from the beginning if you die.

You get around 500 from the start of the trial and use this across all the rooms till the boss at the end. Each time you get hit honor goes down. Rooms between the bosses may grant you more honor depending on which one you choose

Its basically sanctum league all over again.
Its unfair towards melee characters, that need to get close to hit targets.  GGG tried to balance it abit, but it was mostly a "theres a system in place, that makes it easy for any class to do, once you have said upgrades ect".  Meanwhile trappers/miners, Spellcasters, minion builds just walked right though all that without issue..... easily getting access to the same upgrades, while enjoying much easier time and quicker/further runs and more loot.

I'm not sure if its in yet, but someone said armour rating on characters should massive boost the amount of honor you start with, so melee characters have a higher starting point to account for how much more difficult running it is on melee.  However all that happens, is you'll see spellcasters start wearing heavy armor too then.

The first trial isn't so bad... but I heard it gets worse and worse, the more accendancy points you need to unlock.

Ooof, I'm a Warrior, not looking forward to this. I'm going to roll a Mercenary as well, people say it's great fun, and a lot less frustrating. I've also seen some Monk Frost builds tear it up, despite Monk being universally put down in forums.

From my understanding melee (like warrior, and monk) basically depend on status effects to a much higher degree than others to make it through combat. Like you need freeze/stun buildup nodes, like your life depends on it (from the passive tree), and need to run supports that allow for that to happend faster. While on ranged characters that's a little less needed, you can focus more on just damage.

I see rangers do crazy stuff too (probably more powerful than merc/crossbows atm imo)..... 
my run with monk was bad because I focused on passives that were evasion/energy shield, instead of going for like damage/freeze build up, and picking bad support gems.  There are high level warriors that have done these trails and gotten multiple ascendancy points, so its not like its impossible by any means.

With warrior I repeated that mistake. You cannot damage soak effectively in this game, compared to poe1 (thats basically what ruined my monk and warrior). (instead of farming new support gem drops, and respeccing with gold, I just restarted as a mercinary)

I've gone hard on Stun buildup in my tree, it's more or less my strongest point on the character. Mob clearing is pretty quick, and I haven't died to regular mobs in hours now, mostly due to them being whacked into stunned right away so I can finish them while they're immobilized. Bosses are a different story, especially the ones with high tolerance/defense against Stun. With the Giant's Blood skill, I can use a shield and still wield a 2-hander, which allows for even more Stun effects since they give a better wallop overall. I wanted to increase my AoE as well, but I couldn't afford the nodes yet, I had to focus on more damage and Stun.

From what I hear, Leeching is also less efficient in PoE2, to the point where it's not a viable route in and on itself. I haven't tested it though. Leech res is a considerable issue later on, or so they say.

Which again is crazy.... leech is super big in poe1.
Its why people love the slayer so much.  Melee for me in poe1 was basically.... okay do I go juggernaut or slayer this time? (regen or leech).

Then in POE2 its not really that viable.... and theres anti-melee mechanics like the honor system in it.

Feels like a stepback, when even in POE1 melee = bad, was always the meme.

I rolled a Mercenary today, at the end of Act I now. I've died four times in total for the entirety of Act I, of which twice was failed attempts on the Act I boss. It's like a different game, I must have died at least 30-40 times with the Warrior in Act I. I've killed all the other main bosses on the first attempt, without fail.

I made it through act1 without any deaths on Mercenary.
Even the act1 boss, I took it down 1st try (no deaths to get to act2).
Meanwhile my monk took like 15 times (on that 1 boss at end of act1 alone).

This isn't because mercenary is super OP.... the same is probably true if I played ranger, sorc, witch ect.
Its just melee (monk and warrior) need a little boost before POE2 ends early release.
It needs a small tweak at the very least, making it abit stronger in act1 (early % damage of skills).
maybe a slight boost to the passive nodes near the warrior and monk.... something.

This is my big take away as well.
It was like I was playing on easy mode ("it's like a different game"), compared to monk and warrior.
Which kinda sucks... I like to roll play the big muscle guys normally, and In poe1 most of my characters were melee characters.