Grim Dawn

Why is the aetherial vanguard nemesis only marginally worse than vanilla, while the new Cthon and beast guys will rape all but the most optimized builds clean in half?

It actually goes back to aetherials being the main villains after the main game went full ch'ton for no reason. It changes your loading screen from some W40K faggot to a sexy slut you'll never be able to play. It makes dual pistols viable with the inquisitor class and introduces a necromancer. The new areas are both brutal and pretty.

The bitch in the dress with the titties never shows up in the game.
That's it.

Hope you enjoy running into Kupacabra the ass rapist in the middle of elite because beast rep gain is fucked. However, if you're not playing hardcore, it's been a straight upgrade in my experience. Apparently they're also dropping beast rep gain, so that might not be a problem with the next patch.

Two areas filled with acid-spewing plant monsters.

No, really, don't go there as a melee character without maxed out poison resists.
This is not a joke.

How bad is it when you don't have a warder?

It's not so much the raw poison damage as the fact that enemies either shotgun you with it or have speed reduction on their attacks. Better have some way of doing damage that's CD based.

Lucky me, I won't have to worry about that.

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