Noob Questions. Launcher Steam or PoE, Supporter packs etc

Hello everyone I played PoE many years ago don't even have the launcher on this PC anymore but just bought the supporter pack and am excited to play PoE 2 like everyone else.

I got the steam key to unlock in librabry. Should I just download it on steam? Should I be using the actual PoE launcher? Is one really better than the other or can I do both if one is having a problem and switch seemlessly between them?

I do play many games on steam and also always like the hours tracked mod and have no issues. Been playing a lot of Last Epoch through there.

Thanks for any suggestions

Just trying to be ready for launch and put in my vacation to play :)

If you're playing on PC, I don't think it matters which client you use - they should all connect to your PC account. Just be sure to link your Steam account with your PoE account: https://www.pathofexile.com/my-account/connections.

Weirdness does apply when crossing over with the consoles - if you want to play PoE2 on PlayStation or XBox at the start of Early Access, then you'll need to buy a key on the relevant console, and those don't cross over to PC.

I'll be playing on Steam; I switched to Linux years ago, and Proton is the simplest way to get PoE running on Linux.

Thanks for your help just linked my accounts. Used the code to get PoE 2 into library but I guess nothing to download yet? I hope they let us download ahead of time.