New Nemesis drops had been restricted out of the Shattered Realm, yes. A handful were put in the loot table by mistake, and that has been corrected after it was pointed out.
Similarly, a bunch of items were Missing from loot pools, and those were added after it was reported. It works both ways.
Yes, that would have been incredibly broken and undermine actually killing monsters for loot, which goes against the spirit of rerolling.
If this is your intentioned game design, I have no right to change anything. I will spend the rest of my life researching the differences in position between new pants and shoulders and old pants and shoulders.
But why? Also raise the question about marked chests in Key dungeons - are new Nemesis drops also restricted out of them?
What a real pity. Previously, the damage-type sacrifice at the altar could influence rerolls. This made it possible to craft items like Intrepid Warboots with the double rare summoner affix, or the Dranghoul Savage Blade carrying the Plaguebearer modifier. The latter could replace gear with the reduced target’s resistances stat. Following this patch fix, rolling such perfectly rolled equipment has become nearly impossible, and I personally feel the variety of viable builds has been somewhat limited.
If the middle altar node modifies the seed of an item to enable off element rolls to be hit with the inventor then you can still roll the item after you drop one with one of the affixes already on it. It’s just going to take longer if that’s the case. Either way I empathize. I’ve rolled thousands of badge of masteries and have yet to see one I wanted.
I’m an independent player and would like to retell this discussion from my personal perspective.
There are several distinct communities in China where this game is discussed. A player by the name of Duskdeep86 is mostly active within the Baidu Tieba circles for the game.
Shortly after the new DLC’s release, a Bilibili content‑creator (with about over 1,000 followers) shared a Runekeeper build. By aggressively stacking Storm Spread chance combined with newly‑released damage‑boosting potions, this build was capable of defeating the Ravager of Minds in 8 seconds. Naturally, it came with significant trade‑offs: notably lacking area‑of‑effect damage and having poor survivability, among other downsides. Even so, it drew plenty of player interest. The content‑creator soon released a revised variant built around regular, accessible gear.
However, while many players were still leveling and progressing through the campaign, players represented by Duskdeep86 quickly created forum threads arguing that this build need a nerf. This sparked widespread dissatisfaction among many Chinese players. In my personal assessment, the frustration mainly stems from two points:
To circle back to the topic of this thread, I am attaching a relevant summoner build for the developers’ reference: Ritualist, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
I had originally wanted to stay out of this matter, but these summoner players have stirred up a great deal of resentment across numerous Chinese gaming communities. For one thing, they purchased traffic to attack content creators who share build guides. For another, they put on a condescending attitude within their own circles, claiming they had no intention of responding or getting involved in the debates.
Nevertheless, they went ahead and posted that the build needed a nerf before most players—including themselves—had even fully tested and verified its performance. Their actions led to a widespread backlash from many Chinese players, especially from creators who specialize in developing and posting build tutorials.
Hello Devs,
I have been a moderator for Grim Dawn’s largest Chinese community on Baidu Tieba since 2013. I stepped down from the position a few days ago and now only participate as an ordinary player and a member of the localization translation team. I also manage several Grim Dawn player groups on the most widely used messaging platform in China.
What I want to convey is that during my tenure, I witnessed numerous large-scale disputes, many of which ended up as unresolved messes. Within the communities under my moderation, I routinely issued bans against players and bystanders engaging in unprovoked verbal abuse. I advocate constructive dialogue, arguments backed by objective data, and restrained communication built on mutual respect.
In the spaces I oversaw, most players showed little interest in discussing this so-called “report-and-nerf incident”. That said, it may also be partly because I consistently removed abusive posts and sanctioned hostile commenters, making people hesitant to voice extreme opinions. Even so, many users lashed out at me with verbal aggression simply because I deleted their abusive threads. They accused me of favouring the two players who submitted feedback to the developers. Worse still, they rallied people from other communities to flood and disrupt the discussion platforms I moderate. I am utterly outraged by such behaviour; I believe those who act this way hardly deserve to be called players.
My sole goal was to maintain a friendly community atmosphere focused on game guides, levelling experiences and knowledge sharing, as well as supporting work such as game localisation and introductory guides. Having endured endless unprovoked attacks, I chose to step down as a moderator to avoid further confrontation with these hostile trolls.
Ever since this controversy blew up, every time the developers roll out nerfs or balance adjustments, we can see certain players lashing out angrily. Fixes for bugs that alter the established power landscape are also dragged into these abusive rants.
I am not saying people cannot discuss whether official changes are good or share how they feel about them. The problem lies in the lack of rational language. Whenever overtly overpowered mechanics get nerfed, every single balance adjustment is arbitrarily linked back to the two so-called “reporters”. This results in many posts casually hurling insults at those two players, as if every perceived unfair change stems solely from their reports. The whole situation is rather frustrating.
I would like to appeal to the influential figures representing this group — well-known content creators on Bilibili and their respective followers — to engage in calm, rational communication and put an end to the mutual hostility and abusive arguments splitting the player community.
The reason I am making this post is that I do not want to discuss this topic within my usual community anymore. I know for certain that any related comment I make will attract mockery and verbal harassment from certain people, with many openly insulting me in discussion threads. That is why I thought long and hard before choosing to voice my thoughts on this forum.
Considering that they have already tried to prove their support through video views, I don’t mind providing evidence for the traffic purchasing phenomenon mentioned by flw. The rocket Icon just means traffic purchasing on Bilibili.
BTW in DD86’s screenshots, people can notice that their video received far-far less “coins”(the round Icon next to “thumb”, which is more indicative of support than the “thumb”).
Well, I was being kinda neutral right until now when he straight up lied to change the narrative in this thread. And it’s not that anybody gives a flying fk here anyway. I was wondering who would PAY real money to promote their response video to a rather stupid video game beef a few days ago. Now I can’t help but wonder how far people would go to lie about even the most mundane stuff of all. Some people just take themselves way too seriously, I guess…
Interesting perspective. To be honest, I’m only ashamed by what you’ve said.
Back in the day, Baidu Tieba was practically the only major domestic platform in CN, amassing a huge user base and a massive library of guides and builds. But due to the problematic moderation practices you alluded to, a large number of players grew frustrated with Tieba. They set up alternative communities such as Darktemplar or shared their work on forums like 3DM, which marked the start of fragmented, divided discussions around this game in China. Even to this day, there are two or three separate unofficial localized translation versions circulating among players. I find the whole situation rather embarrassing, and I wouldn’t blame the official team for finding it absurd too.
In recent years, with the rise of short-video platforms like Bilibili, many content creators have chosen to publish their guides and build breakdowns there. For a moment, discussions around the game were finally moving toward a healthy, unified state — until this whole incident blew up.
It’s curious that you mentioned players failed to have rational conversations with those summoner-focused players, while completely overlooking the root cause of the conflict. I believe most players fully understand and agree with the developers’ balance adjustments. Here’s what a healthy ecosystem looks like: a guide creator devises a powerful build, grinds relentlessly to farm the required gear, enjoys its strength for a period, the devs step in to nerf it for balance, and then everyone farms for the next viable setup. This cycle is what keeps many of players invested in Grim Dawn.
The core issue lies in the behavior of those self-appointed “reporters”. As I explained in my previous reply, most community members were still leveling their characters and hadn’t even gotten around to testing that controversial build. In fact, those summoner players hadn’t properly vetted the build’s actual performance themselves either. Their petition for a nerf came off like a child tattling to a teacher:“This build is hurting the exposure of my summoner builds. The developers need to nerf it so players can’t have too much fun with it.”
Viable, what does that mean? I think you confused it with “competative”
The root causes of the community’s division are beside the point. If there were serious flaws in community management, it could not have continued to attract so many players. Everyone has their own preferences. Whether it comes to sharing builds or other practices, I have no wish to pass excessive judgment — all matters should be handled in accordance with community rules. Some who were dissatisfied with the former administration are now among those launching attacks, and everyone can see how each side has acted and draw their own conclusions. Having stepped down as a moderator, I will not discuss such topics further.
I agree with this viewpoint: most players were still leveling at the time and had no opportunity to test this controversial build thoroughly. Furthermore, the summoner players themselves had not rigorously verified the build’s actual strength. This strikes me as a fair observation. A newly released build that has not been fully validated and remains unfamiliar to the playerbase hardly merits an immediate nerf.
That said, the development team has already issued a response. Objectively speaking, this whole controversy has yet to settle. While the tester was acting within the scope of their duties when submitting feedback, fulfilling one’s role does not guarantee that every action taken was entirely appropriate. The developers also need ample time to conduct a full assessment.
Here is the core of my stance: had both sides engaged in restrained, objective discussions from the very start, rather than launching widespread, premeditated coordinated attacks against the community I once moderated, I would have had no grounds to prevent players from voicing their legitimate demands and sharing relevant opinions.
Not to mention those players who habitually replied to me with sarcasm, personal jabs and insults. Such conduct feels deeply disrespectful and discourteous. Matters later escalated into full-scale harassment. To list but a few examples: people spread hostile remarks across various communities, hurling abuse at official staff, moderators and the so-called “reporters”. Even casual onlookers who barely played the game joined in the vitriol. They vented long-standing frustration toward the developers, claiming every balance nerf is targeted persecution. Their extremely offensive language is reprehensible.
Setting aside all these hostile messages, I can understand the reasoning and grievances from both camps. Even so, I am powerless to alter what has already transpired. Instead of endlessly debating who was right or wrong — an exercise with little practical value — we ought to focus on formulating reasonable, necessary proposals for the official team that can benefit the long-term development of the game. Let us shift our energy toward that.
I can even picture it already: the moment I post these words here, those people will immediately jump in and say I’m reeking of moderator bias.
not trying to butt in on the whole chinese community internal controversy
this however might be a small part of the issue, as it’s kinda misguided at its core
This only works in a couple of scenarios, the build is hidden/unknown to the devs, or it doesn’t fall egregously outside the set tolerances.
Time has never been a factor for applying balancing, only awareness was.
If part of the chinese community chooses to live in the “semi” obscure realm that is outside the forum (access issues etc there might be), then that’s more a collateral or “accidental” outcome/interaction.
It has not ever been the official/unofficial handshake deal for anyone posting on forum or YT etc, stuff didn’t even have to wait for official PTRs to get cracked down if it was balance upsetting enough, it could get smacked down “asap”.
Devs have always had their sense of what the game should be/own view of balancing metrics, regardless of player pov vs timeframe/“how long we had to play with the toys”, all that was necessary was for it to be break the performance boundaries +awareness, and it could happen quick or compiled for later.
Whether or not this encourages or discourages people to post builds probably has varied, “trying to get longer time to play with the toys”, but as far as i’ve observed devs are appreciative of/if and when players acknowledge and engage with their shared sense of balancing instead of hiding it away, for the greater playing field of all builds/variety, instead of just a handful of OP builds.
That’s to say the idea might not be to play “catch on mouse” from the dev side/PTR balancing, nerf one build let community find the new broken thing and let it run a lil before fixing and then round and round “catching up”. But instead evening things out, so it’s not just the over-performing that gets enjoyed, but the underdogs that get buffed, to be more equal to a (slight) toned down version of over-performing BDs.
And that process can’t happen as easily if people insist on the catch and mouse chase, contra participating voluntarily, openly, and understanding their stance of buffs/nerfs - that things dont’ get nerfed out of “malice” or spite but just to share the playing field better/broader.
In that sense “self-reports” can be overall better, and also makes it simpler for people on what to expect and deal with, contra getting feeling slighted/defeated and having to move on finding the next “exploit” build when the previous got discovered. The sooner its “out” to be balanced, the sooner the same build will be the same to everyone, and not just 1-2 weeks to a select few people racing against borrowed time, hoping that the obscurity/cover lasts.
I totally agree.
We all hope such a healthy process, but sadly nerfing is so much easier than buffing. At least I haven’t seen EoR builds shine brightly or receive any significant enhancements, but rather the nerfing of the powerful builds can come too quickly to be concealed.
BTW I don’t know why GD’s EoR has been turned into one of the worst whirlwind slash among all Dlikes. Even the slash used by BloodBound enemies looks more like what players should use in a Dlike game.
ofc it’s easier, both numbers wise since you can take specific build and dial down, vs buffing an unknown that might have cascade of effects or unintended potentials
But also metric wise, seeing a celestial die 11 seconds if max tolerance is X(unknown), it’s immediately visible there is in outlier in action that can be dialed down, than “how much” the underdog might need. - also underdogs aren’t exactly brought to light as often as people tend to ignore them more 
likewise harder to buff what you’re not aware of needing buffs 
it’s more a comment of, if the community lives in this zone of limited time expectation, it might not be the most ideal mindset to begin with, causing extra frustration (needlesly) when balancing then happens. Instead of thinking of the cycle as “find exploit, enjoy while lasts, get nerf, move on”, perhaps more like/(bit over idealistic perhaps) “find exploit, report immediately, get balance, enjoy BD forever”, - players levelling wont have anything to rush to or miss out on from being 3-6weeks behind on acquisition. Instead they get the intended version of the build, not the “bugged”/unintended version living on borrowed time.
Crazy. Maybe two kinds of people would never understand each other.
Fun Fact: If you post on the official forum of Grim Dawn, you’ll get swarmed by a toxic little clique.
Here’s how it all started:
After the new DLC dropped, I made a post on the official forum to imply that a few builds had large DPS—two to three times higher than normal builds—and that they deserved a nerf. This was a perfectly normal piece of feedback. But then, certain people started losing their minds.
Led by a few Bilibili (B-site) content creators—Kj, Lu, and Zhongshan Wolf—they started a coordinated campaign to dogpile on me and another creator. They smeared us, slapped us with the label of “standing against the players,” and painted us as bootlicking snitches who were just jealous and ran to the officials to tattle.
Why do I call these guys a toxic clique? Just look at the receipts.
Before they launched their last harassment attack against “Master Yu”(Another Cn creator) on CN community, the leader of their little group—actually DM’d me to smugly show off their “progress” in organizing the attack. I honestly couldn’t hold back my laughter :
Their hit piece had to be peer-reviewed within their group. They gave each other editing suggestions and specifically chose to release it on a Friday to maximize traffic. When there wasn’t getting enough traction, someone was actually super salty about it, complaining that “the follower count is just too low.”
Looking back at this drama, it’s exactly the same as their past behavior. So far, their actions include: posting hate videos on Bilibili, doxxing/harassing people in the comment sections, using alt accounts to join Discord/QQ groups to hurl abuse, spamming hate comments on (Baidu)Tieba, posting hate threads on crate forum, and even inciting people to review bomb the game on Steam.
This is not the first time they have done this.
Regarding the incident itself:
First, my feedback post didn’t offend anyone. Game will be balanced anyway, and I just gave an opinion. Second, the official updates for this game are slow—usually taking at least 2 to 3 months, with some patches taking over a year. There’s no such thing as a “lightning-fast nerf” ruining players’ fun. Third, I also play other builds, not just pet builds. This isn’t a case of “pet players getting jealous and running to the officials.”
Furthermore, I was the only one who made the forum post.
Yet, their main attacked targets also included another creator, “DuskDeep86”, who merely expressed support for the post in his own personal group chat.
“DuskDeep86” has over 12,000 hours in the game and is the only veteran Chinese player who participated in the new DLC beta test. He has made tons of builds. The only thing he did “wrong” in this situation was saying in his personal group chat—after I had already made my first post—that he agreed and suggested posting more. A lapdog lurking in that group immediately screenshotted it, forwarded it to the “Creator Group,” and they used it as ammunition to start a hate campaign. Their narrative? “Pet class big shots got so jealous they ran to the officials to snitch and stand against the players.”
Seriously, what kind of logic is that? Just because a veteran player expressed an opinion in his private group chat, he deserves to be doxxed, harassed, and dogpiled by these clowns?
I have 4,200+ hours in the game myself. In the days following the DLC release, I was busy making a polished Chinese localization patch for the domestic players. While I’m working my ass off here, these toxic clowns from that group are busy to attack and label me as a “traitor, bootlicker of the officials, white devil worshipper, and a comprador.”
The real reason? This toxic clique has held a long-standing grudge against the Tieba community ,DuskDeep86 and crate forum, and they just used this as an excuse to strike. If you have even the slightest connection to the event, they will sling mud at you. The core logic of this toxic clique is like: if they don’t like you, they organize a harassment campaign and dogpile you.
Related video link, my response to these stuff , title: Why community toxic clique run rampant?
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1QTGu6kEFk .
I don’t know what grievance you’re pretending to be, Navlord. When it comes to the evil done in the Chinese community, whether it’s forcing build author 雨摸鱼 to quit the community, maliciously making things difficult for 再见Libra who launchs a lot of levelling strategies, or hiding a knife behind a smile in the group all day long, Dustdeep is like an innocent little baby compared to you. We have already been very polite to you.
