Steam Client vs PoE Client?

Is there any reason to use the Steam Client vs the PoE default client when playing the game?

Some people just like Steam. Keeps their games updated and all in the same place.

Some people hate it... like HATE it.

I'm kind of in the middle.

I use Steam because it works. If it works, don't mess with it.

Having used both, I will say that Steam definitely updates slower when there is a big patch.

Steam lets you put your account behind multi-factor authentication (Steam Guard), which is much more secure than the pure password authentication PoE's own site uses.

I have tested PoE on Steam.
It updates (for me) substantially faster as a stand-alone client.

Only difference I'm aware of is that you can preload updates earlier with the POE client which is useful if you have slow internet.

The good:
- Steam tracks your overall playtime
- It's STEAM after all so you can keep all your games in a single, neat library on one platform
- Better security due to additional phone authentication
- Not 100% sure about this, but I think shop points cost a bit less via Steam wallet - at least this was the case for me when I got gifted a Steam Card a year ago, and bought some PoE tabs via Steam.

The bad:
- There are posts with people reporting a better performance with the standalone clients. I had absolutely horrendous freezes when playing through Steam. When I switched to a standalone client the performance was miles better - not ideal, but a lot better.
- Standalone client downloads patches faster for me. I don't know what the hell is Steam doing (it applies to other games too), but even before the actual download begins there's a progress bar for something else, and often it takes even longer than the actual download. Standalone client on the other hand swiftly checks for the updates and then does the actual downloading.

I would personally go for a Steam version if you have no performance issues running the game there.

I use steam mostly because I've used it for a long time, and I have lots of games on it.

Other then being able to show to your Steam friends that you're playing PoE and how many achievements/hours played you have, I don't see other advantages.

Steam is just an extra layer of mostly DRM ***.
I hate how you can't just launch a steam game directly.
You have to go through a layer of steam *** to get to the game.

"

GreyLensman wrote:

Having used both, I will say that Steam definitely updates slower when there is a big patch.

Same here, but quite the opposite. Steam is really fast for me, it typically takes a minute at most. I guess like with most things internet, it depends where you're at and how good your connection is.

What I like with the Steam client is that you can set it to high priority updates, so it'll always be up to date via background patching. The stand-alone client updates only when you launch it, so if unlucky you can sit down and watch your client updating itself for a long time.

Other than that, no differences. It's the same game, after all, only the launcher infrastructure is different.