diff --git a/benchmarks/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Benchmarks/Program.cs b/benchmarks/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Benchmarks/Program.cs
index c59d9099..f52291fc 100644
--- a/benchmarks/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Benchmarks/Program.cs
+++ b/benchmarks/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Benchmarks/Program.cs
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@
 
 #if DEBUG
 var benchmarks = new EntityContextBenchmarks();
-benchmarks.EventCount = 10000;
-benchmarks.EntityCount = 10;
+benchmarks.EventCount = 100;
+benchmarks.EntityCount = 1000;
 benchmarks.EventStoreType = typeof(RocksDBEventStore<BinaryEventSerializer>);
 benchmarks.Setup();
 
diff --git a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Abstractions/IndexedMultiEntityAttributeDefinition.cs b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Abstractions/IndexedMultiEntityAttributeDefinition.cs
index ad5430e4..1cc1adec 100644
--- a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Abstractions/IndexedMultiEntityAttributeDefinition.cs
+++ b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing.Abstractions/IndexedMultiEntityAttributeDefinition.cs
@@ -107,10 +107,10 @@ public int ReadFrom(ref ReadOnlySpan<byte> input, ISerializationRegistry registr
 
         for (var idx = 0; idx < count; idx++)
         {
-            var written = registry.Deserialize(data, out TKey key);
-            data = data.Slice(written);
-            written = registry.Deserialize(data, out EntityId<TOther> value);
-            data = data.Slice(written);
+            var amountRead = registry.Deserialize(data, out TKey key);
+            data = data.Slice(amountRead);
+            amountRead = registry.Deserialize(data, out EntityId<TOther> value);
+            data = data.Slice(amountRead);
             _values.Add(key, value);
             _keys.Add(value, key);
         }
diff --git a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/AEventStore.cs b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/AEventStore.cs
index fb7cb156..9eb5e7e2 100644
--- a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/AEventStore.cs
+++ b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/AEventStore.cs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using NexusMods.EventSourcing.Abstractions;
 using NexusMods.EventSourcing.Abstractions.Serialization;
+using NexusMods.EventSourcing.Serialization;
 using Reloaded.Memory.Extensions;
 
 namespace NexusMods.EventSourcing;
@@ -12,7 +13,7 @@ namespace NexusMods.EventSourcing;
 /// </summary>
 public abstract class AEventStore : IEventStore
 {
-    private readonly IVariableSizeSerializer<string> _stringSerializer;
+    private readonly StringSerializer _stringSerializer;
     private readonly IFixedSizeSerializer<EntityDefinition> _entityDefinitionSerializer;
     private readonly ISerializationRegistry _serializationRegistry;
     private readonly PooledMemoryBufferWriter _writer;
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ public abstract class AEventStore : IEventStore
     /// <param name="serializationRegistry"></param>
     public AEventStore(ISerializationRegistry serializationRegistry)
     {
-        _stringSerializer = (serializationRegistry.GetSerializer(typeof(string)) as IVariableSizeSerializer<string>)!;
+        _stringSerializer = (StringSerializer)(serializationRegistry.GetSerializer(typeof(string)) as IVariableSizeSerializer<string>)!;
         _entityDefinitionSerializer = (serializationRegistry.GetSerializer(typeof(EntityDefinition)) as IFixedSizeSerializer<EntityDefinition>)!;
         _serializationRegistry = serializationRegistry;
         _writer = new PooledMemoryBufferWriter();
@@ -41,6 +42,9 @@ public AEventStore(ISerializationRegistry serializationRegistry)
     protected bool DeserializeSnapshot(out IAccumulator loadedDefinition,
         out (IAttribute Attribute, IAccumulator Accumulator)[] loadedAttributes, ReadOnlySpan<byte> snapshot)
     {
+
+        var snapshotOld = snapshot;
+
         var entityDefinition = _entityDefinitionSerializer.Deserialize(snapshot.SliceFast(0, 18));
 
         var typeAccumulator = IEntity.TypeAttribute.CreateAccumulator();
@@ -72,7 +76,7 @@ protected bool DeserializeSnapshot(out IAccumulator loadedDefinition,
             snapshot = snapshot.SliceFast(read);
 
             if (!attributes.TryGetValue(attributeName, out var attribute))
-                throw new Exception("Entity definition does not match the current structure registry.");
+                throw new Exception($"Entity definition does not match the current structure registry. No definition for {attributeName} found, valid options are {string.Join(",", attributes.Keys)}");
 
             var accumulator = attribute.CreateAccumulator();
 
diff --git a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/PooledMemoryBufferWriter.cs b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/PooledMemoryBufferWriter.cs
index 629c6b94..84df04dd 100644
--- a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/PooledMemoryBufferWriter.cs
+++ b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/PooledMemoryBufferWriter.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using System;
 using System.Buffers;
+using System.Diagnostics;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 using Reloaded.Memory.Extensions;
 
@@ -14,6 +15,7 @@ public sealed class PooledMemoryBufferWriter : IBufferWriter<byte>
     private Memory<byte> _data;
     private int _idx;
     private int _size;
+    private readonly bool _isActive;
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Constructs a new pooled memory buffer writer, with the given initial capacity.
diff --git a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/Serialization/ArraySerializer.cs b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/Serialization/ArraySerializer.cs
index 84464576..24ad1327 100644
--- a/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/Serialization/ArraySerializer.cs
+++ b/src/NexusMods.EventSourcing/Serialization/ArraySerializer.cs
@@ -99,11 +99,12 @@ public override int Deserialize(ReadOnlySpan<byte> from, out TItem[] value)
         from = from.SliceFast(lengthSize);
         for (var i = 0; i < length; i++)
         {
-            array[i] = itemSerializer.Deserialize(from.SliceFast(i * itemSize, itemSize));
+            array[i] = itemSerializer.Deserialize(from.SliceFast(0, itemSize));
+            from = from.SliceFast(itemSize);
         }
 
         value = array;
-        return lengthSize + itemSize * length;
+        return lengthSize + (itemSize * length);
     }
 }
 
@@ -113,7 +114,7 @@ public override int Deserialize(ReadOnlySpan<byte> from, out TItem[] value)
 /// <param name="itemSerializer"></param>
 /// <typeparam name="TItem"></typeparam>
 /// <typeparam name="TItemSerializer"></typeparam>
-public class VariableItemSizeSerializer<TItem, TItemSerializer>(TItemSerializer itemSerializer) : IVariableSizeSerializer<TItem[]>
+public class VariableItemSizeSerializer<TItem, TItemSerializer>(TItemSerializer itemSerializer) : AVariableSizeSerializer<TItem[]>
     where TItemSerializer : IVariableSizeSerializer<TItem>
 {
     /// <inheritdoc />
@@ -135,11 +136,9 @@ public bool TryGetFixedSize(Type valueType, out int size)
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public void Serialize<TWriter>(TItem[] value, TWriter output) where TWriter : IBufferWriter<byte>
+    public override void Serialize<TWriter>(TItem[] value, TWriter output)
     {
-        var span = output.GetSpan(sizeof(ushort));
-        BinaryPrimitives.WriteUInt16BigEndian(span, (ushort)value.Length);
-        output.Advance(sizeof(ushort));
+        WriteLength(output, value.Length);
 
         foreach (var item in value)
         {
@@ -148,12 +147,12 @@ public void Serialize<TWriter>(TItem[] value, TWriter output) where TWriter : IB
     }
 
     /// <inheritdoc />
-    public int Deserialize(ReadOnlySpan<byte> from, out TItem[] value)
+    public override int Deserialize(ReadOnlySpan<byte> from, out TItem[] value)
     {
-        var size = BinaryPrimitives.ReadUInt16BigEndian(from);
+        var lengthSize = ReadLength(from, out var size);
         var array = GC.AllocateUninitializedArray<TItem>(size);
 
-        var offset = sizeof(ushort);
+        var offset = lengthSize;
         for (var i = 0; i < size; i++)
         {
             offset += itemSerializer.Deserialize(from.SliceFast(offset), out var item);