OK so i’ve recently started playing Grim Dawn and i absolutely love the game. I’ve had so much fun playing the game at first i played it 8 hours almost straight marathon. My first char is a Nightblade and im at level 43 at the moment. And im sure some are tired to read this over and over again but im gonna rant anyways. The loot in this game is just ridicoulus and almost ruins it for me. I didn’t get anything usable since about 20+ levels now. And im not talking about something specific for my build, straight up no one handed weapons that are better, no nightblade chest armor ( only caster and heavy), a ton of shields, books and rifles you get the idea. Almost all of my gear is from when i was level 15 or 20 except for my Helmet, Rings and shoulder since i straight up didnt get anything half decnet with the stats for my class. i had to somehow scrape by, by buying yellow weapons at the shop just to keep up a little bit with the dps. I’ve read through some forums and even found a guy with some rough statistic who had the same problem and think this is just silly. I know that there are so many classes and its random but it honestly feels like im deliberately not getting anything i can use which is beyond frustrating but im probably just never lucky. Still i believe that this is unforgivable in an ARPG where loot is such a big factor. Im having trouble just clearing the normal mobs and most heroes just gib me and i often die like 5 times to finish one. My skill build also isnt that dog shit as ive used a rough bluprint from other players. As ive said this is beyond frustrating and im not sure how long i wanna put up with that shit before dropping it completely which would be a shame since as ive said i really enjoy this game. My suggestion would be to add some quest reward with a choice of half decent items for the classes every now and then to at least fill in a little bit of the gaps, so that if you are as unlucky as i am in a run you can at least continue to play. And yes i am salty. thx for reading if youve made it this far
IMHO, adding spacing to your post would make it easier to read.
No one likes to read a wall of text. 
not sure what you mean by ‘with the stats for my class’ are you talking bonuses you look for ? Maybe you need to work on what you consider upgrades, because I very much doubt that you really found nothing more suitable for 20 levels for all these slots
Apart from that, vendors sell green items, faction gear also helps bridge the gap
Im having trouble just clearing the normal mobs and most heroes just gib me and i often die like 5 times to finish one. My skill build also isnt that dog shit as ive used a rough bluprint from other players.
if you die several times to most heroes, I am afraid your build actually is shit. Great gear can compensate for that to a degree obviously, but self-found with a decent build does not die to most heroes at all and not that frequently to most bosses even (heck, I do not die to most bosses and to a few maybe once or twice, anything more is me being stupid / reckless… and that is with self-found gear - with very few exceptions for ‘insane’ bosses like Mad Queen and Mogdrogen)
Not sure what guide you follow, but first I would make sure that it is somewhat recent (i.e. for a rather recent release of the game) and second I am not sure how good a guide it is. Does it offer only the final build at level 85 or does it mention what the build should look like e.g. at level 20, 40 and 60 ?
If it does not, then ‘following’ a build does not really mean all that much, as you have a lot of leeway to get things wrong along the way.
One thing I am surprised by is that you are still single-mastery at level 43. That sounds like a big flaw all by itself as you have too little points in the mastery by virtue of having only one, which hurts you when it comes to survivability, a lot…
My rule of thumb is to invest 2/3s of all points into the mastery bars until I get close to where I want to be, then I can slow down (and where I want to be is mostly 50/40 or 50/50, rarely 50/32, never less. I slow down when one is at 50 and the other at least halfway to where it is supposed to end up)
Looting is both the point and the curse of ARPGs.
Being a core feature, it always become soon or later flawed, since it is an addiction for the players and a very easy way for the developers to enhance or revive the game interest at a low cost.
This said, the looting in Grim Dawn seems to me at the moment pretty much OK. It may happen sometimes that for up to 10 or 15 levels you just can’t find anything better for your character, but the items are around:
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Repeat game sessions. Sometimes some game sessions just won’t drop anything, and a simple quit and restart will help getting more relevant drops.
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Clear areas. Find places where the monsters are high enough to have good chances of dropping good items, yet weak enough to not have to spend too much time dealing with them. AKA Farming.
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Focus on uniques and big chests. When you are used with farming, focus on the places with the most unique monsters and big chests.
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Check the vendors. As a last resort, if you have enough iron bits, just regularly check the vendors inventories to see if they have something better than what you currently wear.
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Play multiplayer and trade. Deal with other players. The more players in a game session and the more items will drop, and the more chance you have to find something interesting for you (assuming the other players have different interests).
And if you don’t have much fun with your current build, just start a new one. It is not uncommon in Grim Dawn to screw up builds, and believe me, once you feel that something is wrong with your build, it generally won’t go anywhere better if you don’t know exactly what you are doing and it is way easier to just start a new one than trying to fix it.
Turn off Whites. (Little triangle thingie on the upper left side of the HUD along the bottom of the screen) I only pick up yellows and better, and at lvl 67, I still pick up yellows. Do it. You’ll need the $$$.
And yes, 95% of the stuff you pick up is junk. Just scan it quickly for the stats your looking for as you sell it: Cold, Lightning, Whateva
Pick up ALL crafting items. Just do it, you’ll thank me later.
The best gear you can buy is going to be faction items, so work on your bounties and quests. You can skip bounty quests that are too difficult or require hearts and brains. Instead of accepting it, choose to skip to the next bounty.
And run bosses/areas you know you can beat. Stop running areas that are going to clean your clock.
Clear the map, kill everything that moves.
It’s also worth mentioning crafting is an option for finding gear. Some of the blues or greens you can craft from blueprints can and will last you some time. This includes faction blueprint weapons.
Or you can take the bits from selling those rifles or scepters you don’t use and some scrap and try for some random one-handed swords or something else, rather cheap.
Well as far as looking for stats goes: I really looked for basic shit like cold/piercing damage, cunning , physique, AS, armor, ( and damge for weapons) that kinda stuff. And i shit you not for chest, pants, hands, weapons and belt i didnt find anything for like 20 levels. Thats why im so frustrated. Pants, weapons and boots i managed to upgrade with something mediocre from the shop but i still have the same blue chest with requ level 15. I only can show pride in my helmet. I get so many goddamn yellow/green/rare shields i feel like i’ve angered a shieldsmith and now hes just throwing his craftsmanship at me in fury.
And yeah whites have been turned off and ive always picked up and sold all the yellows since the beginning, seemed like the sensible thing. by crafting things you mean scrap and recipes i suppose? Already doing that too.
The build thing might be true though ive just googled some beginners guide to see what skills are worth investing and which should be ignored my build looks about like this at this point : grimcalc.com/build/Mjxdo5 : but with much less in the soldier tree only about 5 points. Maybe thats where i went wrong…? Didnt know nvesting in the mastery was that big of a dealbreaker.
And i think i can safely say i havent ever found anything useful in a chest. Is that something that usually happens? Sometimes i even ignore them because i thought they might just not be any good in this game.
Anyways thanks for all the helpful responses. 
This many quick heplful answers really exceeded my expectations lol. Will definetely follow up on the advice given.
I don’t remember having such issues in my first playthrough (also played BM as my first char).
At level 35 you can start buying Faction Gear, the Armor items can be pretty nice and accompany you up until level 50.
You should bring Veil Of Shadows down to 1 and start putting points into the Cadence line. Try to wear Rings and Weapons with ADCTH, this will make your life easier. You also might ask for help in the build section of the forum.
Consider crafting.
Another thing is, I think you undervalue many rare green items you find. Usually, you will find decent rares and some epics, which will enable you to finish Normal with ease.
Wearing level 20 gear at level 43 is a no go, if the stats are not super good and superior to gear you find right now.
I’d love to see what your resists are all at.
Regardless of your build strategy, if your resists are low, then that might explain where all the damage you’re taking is coming from.
Health pool is also important. If you’re running a glass cannon build, then don’t be surprised if you get splattered by either a 1-shot from a strong enemy hero, or ground to dust by a group of enemies too numerous for your current build to handle. Don’t be afraid to stick and move!
You might be doing these things already, but I thought I’d mention them anyways in case you might have overlooked one or two.
so Nightblade almost complete, Soldier barely begun ?
Since you cannot refund mastery points (and to limit what you have to refund), I would probably go for something more like this
http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-rshpay
and start getting more skills on the Soldier side, like Field Command + Squad Tactics (plus the ones I invested in already)
And i think i can safely say i havent ever found anything useful in a chest. Is that something that usually happens?
yes it happens, esp. since some chests guarantee a unique item…
Couple of things:
- You don’t really need high level gears. I’m using level 50 gears at level 80, and they work fine
- Resistances > damage
- You can buy really good gears from various vendor, just need to check them regularly
Are you hitting up the one shot chests? I actually turned off the yellows as well, as one green will sell sometimes for 5 or 6 or more times what a yellow will and I was spending more time looking at loot than smashing face and that wasn’t working for me.
My experience with the nightblade is that it needs another class to go with it. I see you chose soldier but what AoE skill are you using for fast clearing? What devotions did you choose? Are you all damage glass cannon? Or are you going with heals and more tankiness? Where have you invested your attribute points? Bet your clear rate is really slow right? What damage type/s are you concentrating on? Can’t believe whoever made this build ignored some of the best soldier skills in my opinion. Also two movement skills? Shadow strike and blitz? Did he explain his reasoning behind using both of them?
You can take everything I say with a grain of salt as my understanding of the game mechanics is still very new myself even though I have numerous characters and have finished veteran and normal with a couple of them. Had no issue with getting gear even with only seeing rare loot and above. Lots of greens are dropping but my clear speed is excellent, as is my movement speed. Are you getting all the devotion shrines? As they drop greens as well fairly often. Sorry for all the questions, last one for now. Are you doing any reputation farming? I find that rep farming especially for devils crossing is very fast and very lucrative in terms of crafting materials and less often rare crafting materials.
Learn what enemies drop and farm them if all else fails.
The spectral ghosts for example have a tonne of MI weapons that suit Nightblade. Farm Spined Cove and voila you’ll be rained upon with spectral longswords, spectral bludgeons, spectral battle axes etc.
If you went piercing farm the dermapteran’s for “dermapteran slicer’s”.
You can also try and see if you get a good roll on “Olman’s Axe” one of the many free MI’s you just have to find and pick up on Act 1.
Personally though, if you’re already past level 35 just buy all your shit from Faction Vendors like everybody else.
Not opening chests? 
I open every chest, shoot every pot and urn, even shoot the book cases and night stands since they drop books (EXP!) and loot as well.
Stumps and rocks, piles of bones, garbage heaps… crack them all open!
It’s a hold over from when I played D2:LoD and busted every breakable object I encountered.
You had low but decent chances of getting something out of the smallest drop things in D2. You don’t have them in Grim Dawn. Anything around the level of the small wooden chest is pure waste of time, unless you are in dire need of potions and iron bits.
I have had a few legendaries drop from rocks and urns … if i see it i break it/open it.
Indeed Grimdawn_Betatest’s assessment is simply false. You can also get legendary’s from breaking furniture.
One of the first legs I ever got was from a breakable.
and a 100% drop rate from a certain urn in ultimate! :rolleyes:
I can’t remember ever having had anything else but potions, iron bits and components out of small drop items, which is why I no longer see any point into bothering with them once I have reached level 10-20.