Strongboxes are broken.

"

Faddei wrote:

i have yet to find a exile you just can't just face tank

Whuuuuhh?! Xandro?!

Facetaking Igna as a non-rf melee is a feat.

Strongboxes are sloppy coding. What kills players is not the diffixulty of encounter but severe input/output lag caused by terribad resources management

It is the same stuff that makes soul conduit rares dangerous and the same stuff that makes game lag for short time each time new player joins an instance

It can be easily solved with proper coding/gameplay changes. I always wondered why that re-loading of monsters that are ALREADY on the map is required at all?!

To all 'dont play on a potato'. I have more ramdisc than most people have ram. Run poe from it. And you know what? This lag is still noticeable with rw performance of 6gbits+

Clearing shadrr cache helps but only for few moments

Still 0 lag, desync or game freeze after opening any box, i must be lucky

Yet i managed to die to an instance crash, every one his own -.-

"

symban wrote:

Can you please kindly quote a post in this thread where people complain about the combat difficulty of strongboxes?

First let me say that I am not commenting on the playing ability/skill of anyone whose post I include below. Strongboxes are challenging and during the course of ambush a whole lot of experiences were shared and possible solutions compared amongst a lot of players.

That said, here is the first comment of difficulty of strongboxes:

"Almost evrybox almost rips me, unless i use the same mobility skills over and over, lightwarp sometimes fails so its 100% no, smoke mine is your best bet, it has close to no chance of failing"

This is an example of a player who is trying to escape the monsters ambushing him or her, and dying from them frequently.

If you have enough time to use smoke mine before dying, then you have enough time to fight, drink a potion, use a vaal skill etc.

So there's one post complaining about the difficulty.

Next, we have:

"I've tried smoke mine in the past and they also randomly failed. So I don't know what I should do. Alt+f4 everytime after opening?? Will I have to just ignore them? This would be like ignoring a delicious meal when you are starving. I also have an over 3k CAD $ machine. It still lag me for a little fraction of a second, enough to RIP."


The "little fraction of a second" lag is not what is killing the player. It is the sheer amount of damage done during the AMBUSH. Several monsters are moving to and attacking, or attacking the character at once. If GGG could magically eliminate all latency, and instantaneously load the strongbox ambush, the impact and results would be the same. BIG DAMAGE ALL AT ONCE. This is by design, not error. This again, is not a latency issue, but one of how to respond to avoid or minimize the damage.

If your only response is to run away, you will get killed by strongboxes sooner or later.

Let a totem or some minions soak up some of that initial ambush damage.

Hit a quick life flask right after opening the box.

Look where the monsters are positioned so that if you decide you do need to flee, you actually have a clear path.

Use a Quartz flask.

Learn which strongbox mods do what and avoid ones that you know the character you are currently playing struggles with.

OK, one more post with complaints about difficulty:

"click on Rip-box and fast as possible either:
alt-f4
OR
esc, exit path of exile.

This method works much better than any flask, or mobility skill ever will. It's the only safe way if you open a Rip-box. If you don't want to reload the game and go back into the zone with the box opened, just don't open the RIP-boxes."


No mention of latency in this post, just how dangerous the boxes are.

There's no need for Alt+F4. The only safe way to open a strongbox? Hmm, earlier today, while running around with a fairly new character I opened dozens of strongboxes with no deaths from them. I emptied my flasks a few times, and had some close calls, but that is to be expected.

For those that are dying frequently from the strongboxes, try a different approach. (don't do this if you are still in HC, or will lose valuable XP).

Open a couple of strongboxes and just watch what happens. Don't try to escape, run away etc, just stand and watch how the monsters attack. Watch how they move, how the pause. Watch how your life/ES drops and how much time you actually have.

Now, go back to some strongboxes and test out some techniques.

You will discover how quartz flasks help, but aren't fool proof.

You will discover that smoke mine needs a straight unobstructed line of sight from the player back to the mine (if you get too far away, it can fail you too).

You will discover that the silence curse will prevent smoke mine from working. You will discover that you may need to hit 2 flasks, one that is fast acting, and the other normal speed, to keep your life from dropping too fast.

You will discover that a flask of heat or dousing may be necessary for certain strongboxes, or that a quicksilver flask of adrenaline is what you need to be able to move away from the attackers and then quickly back to engage them.

You will discover that sometimes just fighting them is the best option.

You will discover that not clearing the area around the strong box before opening them is a big mistake.

You will discover that standing on monsters bodies (from clearing the area) can be a big mistake if the box explodes corpses.

You will discover which Vaal skills might be exactly what that character needs. A level 1 Vaal summon skeletons cast just before opening the box will give you fourteen additional targets. Take the initial attack damage and divide by 15. Even if those skeletons only last one hit, that's well over a 90% damage reduction. Vaal Storm Call, Vaal Ice Nova, Vaal Arc can all deal a huge chunk of damage to the Strongbox attackers and give you the time you need to deal with them safely.

You will discover that Vaal Discipline can give you a healthy chunk of extra life for that brief moment when you need it.

You will discover most of all, that the strongboxes can be survived. Your character may need to go back to town and change a few potions or pop in a vaal skill to be ready.

Please don't bring insults or insinuations into the thread. I read what was posted and interpreted it based on what the poster said and on wide spread experiences of many players during the last four months. When the Children's Charity race was on, it was very simple to predict that many Invasion only players would die from the strongboxes of Ambuvasion. The same would be true of an Ambush only character experiencing invasion bosses for the first time.

Now, having said all that, it may be that for some computers the simultaneous loading of the monsters is causing more of a delay than is intended by GGG. A good way to show if that is possibly happening is to hit F1 and take some screenshots as the box opens. Video might be good too, for those who are able.

GGG can then look at it, and say - why yes, that is an unacceptable amount of delay. Or they could say, it's working as intended.


If something I have said isn't clear to you, or you disagree with it, feel free to say so. My opinions are not sacrosanct. This is a forum for exchanging ideas and hopefully help GGG make this a better game.

When someone disagrees with what you said, it doesn't mean they didn't hear you.

"

Mahesys wrote:

Still 0 lag, desync or game freeze after opening any box, i must be lucky

Yet i managed to die to an instance crash, every one his own -.-

What resolution do you play?

"

sidtherat wrote:

"

Mahesys wrote:

Still 0 lag, desync or game freeze after opening any box, i must be lucky

Yet i managed to die to an instance crash, every one his own -.-

What resolution do you play?

I have 0.1-0.5 lag at MOST when opening. Most don't even freeze at all, it's just 1-2 frames that is stale when the monsters pop out, but that's fine since they don't attack until their animations start.

I'm on Window fullscreen 1920x1080, High, Highm High, 16x with post processing checked in. Screen shake removed.

"

sidtherat wrote:

"

Mahesys wrote:

Still 0 lag, desync or game freeze after opening any box, i must be lucky

Yet i managed to die to an instance crash, every one his own -.-

What resolution do you play?

fullscreen 1980X1080 iirc

Funny thing is that even with my 4+ years old PC i never noticed any sort of freeze or lag, with my new one it's just zero

2600×1400 here so it might be the differentiating factor

Anyway. This is a very sloppy coding on ggg side that in short makes these encounters trivial for people with good hw (where good is arbitrary term) and insta death for people with hw not aligned with what ggg developer had planned for :/ coupling that with how bad shader cache got implemented (it works best when empty!!!) One understands..

And to that great wall of obvious advices poster above - if one cant click for 4 seconds nothing helps

"

sidtherat wrote:

And to that great wall of obvious advices poster above - if one cant click for 4 seconds nothing helps

Aye, if it's 3-4 seconds, or even 2 full seconds of lock up while loading, then the encounter will go south. That's why I suggested people take some screenshots with F1 so they can show GGG if that is happening.

If enough people are severely suffering from the latency while loading aspect of it, maybe GGG could add a mechanism for a player to intentionally lock in in the mods. The game could have a brief timer while the server generate the monsters, and has the client preload some art assets. When the timer expires, the player can then click the strongbox to open it.