I have a significant issue with strong boxes.

so i understand the design of them and the intent behind it, but what i have found is that it is impossible for me to survive opening some of the boxes, and not for the lack of preparation but due to too much spilling out of the box and freezing my screen completely for 2-4 seconds. i may be able to survive those kind of situations 7/10 times and it by no means happens every time. some boxes very clearly spew out many more mobs than others,

and i notice that some boxes spew out mobs more around the box but not immediately on top of the box. however, when the box spits out this overwhelming amount of mobs and my screen freezes for 2-4 seconds, i cannot survive that. i pop 3 flasks and my armor goes to about 40k and my speed hits about 80% and i can pass through mobs all so that i can open the box and run away to a safe distance before engaging, but i cannot even run when everything is lagged out/frozen due to crap appearing simultaneously on the screen.

i feel certain THAT part of it was not intended.
so does anyone have any idea how to survive this? and if other people have similar experiences is there nothing that can be done to resolve the massive lag issues?

i, as mentioned earlier, can even survive havign my screen freeze for a couple seconds in like 67 or 68 lvl area. but as i got higher and higher into maps even an extra second of lag will be certain death every time.

Got a good computer and my screen freezes as well for about 1-2 seconds which is terrifying especially on maps.

GGG is terrible at optimizing this game.
Better to not take the risk if you run a really mean map.

I usually make preps, lure monsters nearby so I have enduring cry up and my Immortal Call+CWDT saves me since I can't do anything for a second.

To both of you: if you have good computers and this is regularly happening, something is wrong. Strongbox freezing used to be common, but since GGG took steps to ameliorate it even people running PoE on potatoes seem to generally be fine. I would recommend contacting support.

my comp is definitely not bad. it obviously not top of the line anymore since i had it a while, but again the issue is how the mobs spawn. if they spawn around the box and there is not an overwhelming huge number of them it will generally go over fine, but if they all appear essentially on top of the strong box, thats when it happens. this is definitely a game issue because we all notice significant lag spikes when tons of mobs are on screen or during some of the more particularly busy boss battles.

i did the pit map today and the boss room was insane with the amount of mobs but i had no stutter issues at all because they didnt all appear at once but rather came in a large ongoing stream.

so really it is a very large amount of mobs appearing in too small a space that seems to cause these horrible spikes (aside from other obvious lag instances). it is as though because mobs dont have their own "space" to spawn onto it and are stacked on top of one another the game "places" them in that 2+seconds that the screen is in complete freeze mode.
it also may be worse to open these boxes during peak play hours too. but i cannot say that has any influence as i have not paid particular attention to times of the day when these happen more so than other times.

The game doesn't preload anything, so when you open a strongbox it'll load everything that comes out, right on the spot. Heck the game even freezes if too many minions are summoned since apparently they're not loaded either.
Absolutely terrible terrible terrible optimization, no other explanation or excuse. My game doesn't freeze when I play any MMO and summon enemies or open boxes, and I'm pretty sure any MMO in 2015 has 10x the graphics intensity of a 2.5D game like PoE. No I'm not going to buy a $5000 gaming rig just so I don't lag in a game that has the visual output of a 2000 game like D2.

You've got to be careful with boxes. There are mods that I simply wont do... learn from my fails. Ice nova is a no-go in higher levels. Lost characters with full resists to those. Detonate dead... very tricky. Unless you can get rid of corpses, better left unopened. Same with "revives corpses with Onslaught". Nasty in some situations.

If you have trouble loading, "Guarded by a Rogue Exile" is going to freeze you while it loads the assets for the RE.

Running a SSD (about $50... not $5000) will do quite a bit to cut the load times.

the rogue exile guard boxes cause problems very often, this is true, they are also most likely to be fatal with the freeze because the exiles usually hit pretty hard.

it is true what poster above said, for a game with the quality of graphics this game has, it should really run much more smoothly. this is somthing that they could fix if they put their mind to it while still keeping the encounters challenging. there should never be expected/anticipated deaths due to lag or poor loading.
never.

"

viperesque wrote:

To both of you: if you have good computers and this is regularly happening, something is wrong. Strongbox freezing used to be common, but since GGG took steps to ameliorate it even people running PoE on potatoes seem to generally be fine. I would recommend contacting support.

This is a big lie...

Problems with boxes improved only slightly. I'm avoiding the boxes with an Exile since the famous boxes came to light because it is a death 100% guaranteed...

since i made this post, i tried a different approach. i now lay fire traps around the box every time then i take a runnign start at it. i am likely just imagining things but when i would be stationary and click on the box i would freeze but when i take a running start and click on the box which requires me to advance to it , this gives me enough time as i am runnign up to it to have my mouse ready at the edge of the screen to click as soon as the box pops. before in the time that it took me to get my mouse over i would already be getting eaten, so i see the lag spike but i notice my guy half the screen away already. i am goign to keep trying that methods and report my success rate in not dying..... or lack thereof.

Smoke Mine is your best friend for opening strongboxes.
1. Drop down a mine in safe place (make sure it's in line of sight from a strongbox).
2. Pop warding/heat flask if strongbox has "Cast a random curse"/"Freeze" on it.
3. Click the strongbox and immediately detonate the mine - you'll be in a safe place with a movespeed boost.
This method never failed for me even though I get 2-3 second freezes on some of the laggiest strongboxes.

For corpse detonating boxes: they will trigger on your golems/totems/minions/converted monsters (from conversion trap), so put your smoke mine in a corpse free place and use one of those near the strongbox, then watch for the gory explosions.

For reviving strongboxes: devouring totem or detonate dead are usefull for clearing the area before opening.