Could someone please explain the source of this incoming damage?

[Evil_Baka]

Purely anecdote on my part but on the last character I was levelling with Lokarr’s set through Ultimate, those Arkovian boars were chunking me with Physical/Trauma damage almost as badly as the Shamblers were.

I might be misremembering but didn’t the base game enemies/bosses get a buff to bring them up to Ashes of Malmouth/Forgotten Gods level awhile ago?. Around the same time as the Veteran buff. Might be a result of that, they definitely seem scarier than I remember recently.

Edit: Yep, I am remembering right.

Grim Dawn Version 1.1.4.0

[Update to Game Difficulty]
With this patch, the base game has received a substantial balancing overhaul of Normal/Veteran and Elite difficulties, over 1800 database records in all!

We felt that, over time, the base game’s difficulty has waned significantly relative to the power growth of player characters, and even compared to the Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods expansions.

We’ve narrowed the gap between the expansion content and the base game content, meaning that the lower levels should feel more exhilarating to play and the jump between difficulties will be much smoother.

Does this mean the endgame has gotten more difficult? Well, yes and no. No because we focused balancing on the early game (roughly levels 1-60), but yes because we’ve updated old monster and boss encounters to deal damage in line with expansion enemies. All in all, the challenge should feel more consistent!