Steam vs dedicated client?

So I have ~1k hours in D4 & LE and decided to jump into PoE 2. Already uninstalled D4 hah. I had a few questions re: account creating. With this account, I've created the account directly on the website and I'm planning on buying the Liberator of Wraeclast Supporter Pack to support.

However, I do like how Steam tracks the % of hours played. So a few questions I'm hoping people can help with:

* does PoE track the % of hours you've played if you're not using Steam
* if you do end up using a Steam account, does Challenges and other stats that are available on the website/your account get logged? Or only if you're using the dedicated client?

Basically need some recommendations if it's better using the dedicated client or create a new account that's tied to steam and use that platform to play.

Thanks in advance!

Personally I'm going for the steam client so I don't have to type in my username and password

* if you do end up using a Steam account, does Challenges and other stats that are available on the website/your account get logged? Or only if you're using the dedicated client?

I can confirm that Challenges, achievements, and other stats do sync between Steam and the POE website for POE1.

Personally I like my account being on steam, but they will not offer predownload for steam. My current plan is to use the direct client for the first playtime, then when I log I will download the steam client. If you get any achievements/challenges in either they will carry over.

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ilikebugs#1217 wrote:

So I have ~1k hours in D4 & LE and decided to jump into PoE 2. Already uninstalled D4 hah. I had a few questions re: account creating. With this account, I've created the account directly on the website and I'm planning on buying the Liberator of Wraeclast Supporter Pack to support.

However, I do like how Steam tracks the % of hours played. So a few questions I'm hoping people can help with:

* does PoE track the % of hours you've played if you're not using Steam
* if you do end up using a Steam account, does Challenges and other stats that are available on the website/your account get logged? Or only if you're using the dedicated client?

Basically need some recommendations if it's better using the dedicated client or create a new account that's tied to steam and use that platform to play.

Thanks in advance!

I prefer the dedicated client over steam. You can always type /played and see how long you have on a character, but do not think you can for account. Honestly, do not know if I want to see a tracker for the amount of hours I have in POE 1 lol

As for username and password, you only have to type it once. Then you can save it and just log-in any future log-ins.

awesome, thanks for the info! Much appreciated. I ended up creating another account via linking with Steam and pulled the trigger on the pack. Excited to play! Always wanted to get into PoE but felt I was too behind re: learning curve and with PoE 2 on the horizon, opted into sticking with D4/LE until PoE 2 came out.

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BigJoe1981#4119 wrote:

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ilikebugs#1217 wrote:

So I have ~1k hours in D4 & LE and decided to jump into PoE 2. Already uninstalled D4 hah. I had a few questions re: account creating. With this account, I've created the account directly on the website and I'm planning on buying the Liberator of Wraeclast Supporter Pack to support.

However, I do like how Steam tracks the % of hours played. So a few questions I'm hoping people can help with:

* does PoE track the % of hours you've played if you're not using Steam
* if you do end up using a Steam account, does Challenges and other stats that are available on the website/your account get logged? Or only if you're using the dedicated client?

Basically need some recommendations if it's better using the dedicated client or create a new account that's tied to steam and use that platform to play.

Thanks in advance!

I prefer the dedicated client over steam. You can always type /played and see how long you have on a character, but do not think you can for account. Honestly, do not know if I want to see a tracker for the amount of hours I have in POE 1 lol

As for username and password, you only have to type it once. Then you can save it and just log-in any future log-ins.

I'm confused, steam does all this too. Unless that's what you meant.

Also steam has 2fa where standalone client does not.

I was answering the question the OP asked, can you track hours played on the stand alone client. I said that /played was really the only way I know to see how much time you have, but that is per character.

Someone else made the comment about not wanting to put your username and password every time, but I was pointing out that you can do that in the client as well.

You are correct about 2fa, the client does not have that, but in 8 years of playing POE 1 that has never been an issue for me, or anyone that I know who has played using the client.

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ilikebugs#1217 wrote:

* does PoE track the % of hours you've played if you're not using Steam

No. the standalone client has no overall time tracking, you'd have to do manual math for all of your existing characters and then account for any deleted characters' playtime.

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ilikebugs#1217 wrote:

* if you do end up using a Steam account, does Challenges and other stats that are available on the website/your account get logged? Or only if you're using the dedicated client?

I'm not sure what you mean? But I started with the standalone client before switching to Steam, and I didn't lose any achievables. Nor have I ever been blocked from any league challenges. PoE's system tracks your progress regardless of which client you use, since the information all goes to the same place anyways.

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ilikebugs#1217 wrote:

Basically need some recommendations if it's better using the dedicated client or create a new account that's tied to steam and use that platform to play.

Thanks in advance!

I've never had any issues whatsoever with the game's Steam integration. Some people swear to the moon and back that Steam interferes with the game's performance, and some people just hate giving Valve any credit for anything. However, I've never had to do anything weird to get my account to work properly through Steam, and I make all my MTX purchases directly here on the PoE website just like anyone who uses the standalone launcher. Effectively, I've never noticed any difference between launching PoE through Steam and launching it through standalone, nor any difference in how secondary services work.

I prefer running the game through Steam because I have an extremely limited tolerance for having ten thousand random independent launchers on my machine. I despise that shit and will go well out of my way to avoid giving yet another publisher a Simple, Unintrusive Storefront(C) on my PC. Epic can die, MS Game Store can die, Origin can die, battle.net can die. I will not tolerate having twenty different launchers on my device, and since Steam is kinna far and away the strongest option right now it's the one that wins.

If that's not a concern for you, and I kinda doubt it is as everybody tells me I'm buggy when I inform them how much I hate extraneous launchers, then either way works fine.