How will Crate accomplish this and what will make Grim Dawn 2 enjoyable?
If it’s not fun, why bother?
I like a lot of whats been done with Grim Dawn 1 already. For me personally, a big part would be keeping to the traditional loot as drops with the option to craft as supplementary. I played a lot of POE2 recently, and although it is definitely a fun and high quality game, I do not care for the whole player economy + largely worthless loot drops thing they have going on there.
One thing I would like for Grim Dawn 2 to take from for example Borderlands 4 though is the ability to pay to respawn bosses without needing to exit the game/session.
I’m also extremely fond of Grim Dawn’s cosmetic/illusion system being accountwide and added on pickup with not much if at all any limitations besides weapon type.
I also really love pet and shapeshift type classes, so those are things I would hope remain. A big downfall with pet classes though I have seen repeatedly in other games, is poor or lacking methods of scaling the pets vs pure gear oriented classes.
Good idea man. Would also be a great addition to Grim Dawn!
Titan Quest 2 already have such system built in their game and it’s a blueprint for them to look at and improve with their own innovations too.
This and visually too
I don’t understand why in this type of games they always give good looking visuals to mobs, but for the most part their summon pets look absolutely terrible leaving the player in the twilight zone lol
For example:
I personally would not mind having these models replace the raise skeleton melee ones that looks bare naked in terms of their visuals.

Blacksmithing specialization in weapons or armor, especially if GD2 keeps the tradition of different factions. More blueprints. Different blacksmiths in different cities and/or strongholds. Honestly, I think being a Gunsmith would be great. Specialize in pistols, shotguns, or rifles? Yes please.