Materials composed of d5 magnetic atoms in a strong octahedral crystal field and large spin-orbit coupling host Heisenberg and pseudo-dipolar interactions, but also unconventional spatially anisotropic magnetic interactions. Of particular interest are Ir 4+ with a network of edge-sharing IrO_6 octahedra arranged in a honeycomb lattice, for example, α-Li_2IrO_3 and NaIrO_3, in which strong Kitaev interactions are present. Recently, aiming to modify the magnetic interactions in these compounds towards the Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquid limit, new honeycomb iridates Ag_3LiIr_2O_6 and H_3LiIr_2O_6, have been synthesized by introducing alternative atomic species between the IrO layers. I will present resonant x-ray spectroscopy measurements in these two new-generation honeycomb iridates. Motivated by recent proposals of using coherent light-matter interaction to nudge these materials towards the Kitaev QSL, I will also discuss time-resolved optical polarimetry and time-resolved resonant techniques as probes for competing magnetic phases far from equilibrium.