Hi! Please note that I played on Hardcore only.
Grim Dawn is the best ARPG so far, but the problem is significant amount of time in game is spent not on playing, but on preparations to playing. And some things are just inconvenient or annoying. I tried to list the current problems related to quality of life/user-friendliness and suggest possible solutions. This list does not include anything affecting balance in any noticeable way. I highlighted the items which are especially important for me personally.
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Items
1.1. Players have to spend time on updating their gear too often/chaotically.
Solution: let Item level requirements have 5-level steps (with exclusions for the first and the last levels if needed), for example lvl1, lvl 5, lvl 10, lvl 15 etc.
1.2. Need to teleport from faction to faction to check/collect all the needed faction stuff; need to load a session of the accomplished difficulties to have access to all the faction items. Choosing and buying augments takes too much time.
Solution: let every faction merchant sell stuff of all the unlocked factions (including the ones from the previous difficulties). Instead of checking all the augments, let us choose 1 or 2 bonuses and see all the available and unavailable augments fitting the requirements, if any.
[1.3. transferred somewhere to 3) Stash] -
Loot
2.1. Too many clicks to pick all the loot. Also loot on ground makes a mess in some battles.
Solution: make an option to automatically pick the loot in 1 second after closing to it.
2.2. If a player lacks iron bits, he/she has to spend too much time on picking loot and selling it.
Solution: automatically turn unfiltered items (the ones you don’t see due to the filter) into iron bits. Also make a button to sell all the yellow items at once. -
Stash and inventory
3.1. Too much time being spent on arranging components in Stash. Components and resources are constantly turning the inventory into mess.
Solution: make a separate unlimited bag and a separate tab in the stash for components only. Make buttons to transfer all the components and/or resources from the inventory to the stash and unite the components.
3.2. Hard to manage items in stash quickly.
Solution: unite all the slots of stash. Make it possible to sort all the stash and inventory by type, level and/or set with one click. Highlight duplicates in stash. Place the requirements at the first lines of item descriptions.
3.3. Impossible to distinguish a normal item from its empowered and mythical versions at first glance.
Solution: make different frames for empowered and mythical items. -
Crafting
4.1. Hard to find potentially useful recipes quickly.
Solution: arrange recipes by lvl. Enable comparison of recipes and equipped gear in the crafting UI.
4.2. Need to teleport from faction to faction to make all the gear with relevant bonuses. Need to browse bonuses.
Solution: let players choose a bonus of any unlocked blacksmith (including the ones from previous difficulties) whenever crafting with any blacksmith. Display specifics of the bonuses. -
Pets
5.1. Pets teleport to you while in battle. This is especially terrible with ranged pets.
Solution: make pets teleport out of the range of view and then run to you/enemies.
5.2. Need to summon pets again between battles due to low health. In case of skeletons, you even can’t know their health.
Solution: let the pets regenerate quickly out of battle - just like the player character does, but without spending stamina.
5.3. It is not always obvious what are the damage types of your pets.
Solution: to specify damage type for each pet skill and pet type (in case of skeletons) in the skill description. Well, why not to give the full stats of your pets? -
Combat
6.1. On weapon swap, health decreases in flat values, therefore you spend stamina.
Solution: health should change proportionally on weapon swap.
6.2. On weapon swap, component auras are turned off. If you swap back to the weapon with the aura, you need to manually re-activate the aura which takes time due to animations an the necessity to switch to your secondary skill bar and back. This makes either aura components or weapon swap useless, at least very inconvenient.
Solution: automatically re-enabling auras without animations after you swap back to the weapon with the aura skill that had been previously activated; keep the aura enabled if you have the proper component in the both weapons (before and after the swap).
6.3. It is impossible to change only 1 slot on weapon swap: for example, whenever you want to change the weapon but hold the same shield.
Solution: make an option to swap only 1 slot.
6.4. Whenever an aura is disabled due to mana shortage, you need to manually re-enable it.
Solution: let auras be enabled again automatically without animations as soon as the character gets enough mana (unless this inconvenience was made on purpose).
6.5. With spells, you can either cast without moving (if the target is out of range, this leads to throwing spells to the edge of the cast range) or move every time you change target. Both are inconvenient - especially while using channelled spells.
Solution: Whenever you click an enemy to cast a spell, first approach to the max required range and then cast as long as you hold the button.
6.6. To know enemy’s resistances, we need to browse forums, the database or constantly keep damage displayed and remembered.
Show high resistances (50+?) under the enemy’s health bar.
6.7. Word of Renewal and Pneumatic Burst (and maybe some other similar skills) require updates all the time, even out of battle, due to bonus to run speed and their short duration. If they are not activated when you approach a boss, you might need to use it and then wait for recharge.
Solution: either make their bonuses very long/permanent or reshape these skills and make their bonuses shorter than the recharge time - like Overguard. -
Info on game mechanics
7.1. Hard to compare damage of skills. At the moment you need to set a skill to your mouse button and see the figures in the character sheet. Aura descriptions is misleading for comparison and for using them for pets as they give modified numbers.
Solution: whenever hovering over a skill icon, let the players see the final average dmg and DPS of the skill as well as the base dmg and DPS. Show base flat dmg for auras too.
7.2. Single attack damage and DPS calculations for DoT are misleading. Damage calculations do not count crits.
Solution: DoT part of the damage of a single attack without a cooldown = damage of the 1st second / № of attacks per second; dot part of DPS of an attack without a cooldown = 1st second of DoT; DoT part of the damage of a skill with a cooldown = damage for the duration of DoT or for the skill recharge time, whatever is shorter; DoT part of DPS of a skill with a cooldown = damage for the duration of DoT or for the skill recharge time, whatever is shorter / skill recharge time. For crits: assign a reference DA value per level; include hit/crit probability vs these values and crit bonuses of skills (and basic bonus) into damage calculations.
7.3. Hard to figure out the sources of your stats at glance. This is especially annoying when you need to max resistances with new augments.
Solution: whenever hovering over a stat in the character sheet, let us see a window with a list of sources popping up.
7.4. Too little information on game mechanics is integrated into the game. People have to browse a lot to find answers how a specific stat or skill works.
Solution: make detailed popping-up windows with all relevant mechanic details whenever hovering over a skill/stat/item.
7.5. Constellation management requires too much calculations.
Solution: allow to make all the changes (both cancellation of stars and selecting new stars) and then spend crystals only after pressing a “confirm” button. -
Visuals
8.1. Visual effects in Grim Dawn are generally very shiny, but Aura/buff visuals are even flashier and shinier. It is sometimes impossible to see your own character behind these effects.
Solution: allow the players to turn off effects of specific auras/buffs.
Solution 2: (this used to be the only solution in the original version of the post, but then I recalled the animations of Spectral Binding) introduce options for aura/buff visual effects: normal/reduced and permanent/in battle only. As I saw some people complaining about pets specifically, it would also be good to make separate settings for the player character and NPC/pets.
8.2. Some melee weapons are unrealistically large; in particular, daggers are sword sized.
Solution: make such weapons smaller.
8.3. While casting spells, weapons, shields and off-hands disappear. No need to tell how immersion-breaking it is.
Solution: not to hide weapons, shields and off-hands while casting.
8.4. Sometimes I want to hide the helm or magical off-hand, but can’t. Not such a problem, but the solution is quite simple so I enlist it.
Solution: make invisible illusions. -
UI
9.1. [deleted]
9.2. Bounty interface is very inconvenient: you need to check one bounty after another, thinking if you should deny the current offer for a potentially better bounty, and teleport from faction to faction to check all the tables and then restart the session if there was no good bounty (or if you skipped the most-not-worst bounties hoping for something better).
Solution: let players have access to the bounties of all the unlocked tables from any table; show all bounties for the current session as a list to choose from in any order.
9.3. Impossible to view specifics of the auras and blessings affecting the player character.
Solution: show effect details upon hovering over the buff icon.
9.4. It is impossible to keep track of your health, cooldowns and enjoy the combat at the same time. I spent many epic battles just watching my health bar. Feeling like an accountant at a supply unit. At the moment there is a solution: to make the UI bigger in the settings, - but this is an ugly solution.
Solution: make an option to see a small health bar and a customizable set of recharge icons above the player character.
9.5. It is impossible to see crits only. Had not such an option been before? It is quite an important feature for a crit-oriented character and for some players in general because it gives an idea of damage and crit frequency without excessive spamming with numbers. -
Wishes and dreams.
10.1.My character does not have a beard.
Solution: seriously, give players at least a few faces to choose from! That would increase replayability twice!
It would be nice to know the opinion of the developers and players alike.
Thank you.
Update: item 7.5.
Update 2: rearranged and specified the items in blocks 1-3.
Update 3: added 6.6. Deleted 9.1: not even sure what I meant when included it in the list 
Update 4: added another solution in 8.1, deleted 8.2.
Update 5: restored 8.2 with a more specific wording after having seen another person complaining about weapon sizes. Expanded and described 7.2 in more details. Expanded 3.1 after having seen a person proposing a separate bag for components. Added 6.7.
Update 6: added 8.3 (!) and 8.4.