I'm not sure if you remember an outlander shifter called Hoysepis (player unknown).
That guy's gorilla form was brutal. I was playing Altariel at the time, a decked War Master dark-elf sword spec with 19 str (reward) and 24 dex and STSF/Cry. If he attacked and I was not prepped (with >20% reduction), I would definitely lose, STSF charges or no. Also his smashes reliably lagged 2 rounds through heavy headwear, unlike the gorillas you fought.
Drissa seemed to easily cruise through the silverback gorilla's melee: even before STSF was charged up, the gorilla was no match for Drissa. Was this the case before you got strange bracers? Or was this due to laying down maledicts on a shifter who didn't cover his stats?
I'm curious because there seem to be particular characters with better-than-normal skills / forms / spells, and the player(s) behind them almost always never publicly claim the character. Examples:
Forodaugh (later turns out it was Nep) champion storm paladin with perma-lag Fend
Flaaayin poisoner with irresistible poisons, also got Quaggoth (publicly) nerfed while he was still playing
Hoysepis outlander svirf shapeshifter with gorilla form
Beureunus arial Scion water/air shifter with super-buff electric eel compared to weak present version
Hexugar d-elf dagger/pole village Scout had abnormally high damage reduction
Note in all these examples, I think it was never mentioned that those skills were nerfed.
Whereas with other characters played by known players, we do get announcements of nerfs:
Kostyan Beront's Emperor STSF/Soul dark-elf dagger/hand: STSF nerfed afterwards
Ravon Tony's Scion Chancellor dark-elf AP along with Victoria daurwyn's Scion Chancellor dark-elf AP got lashes nerfed
Cainasir Rhyaldrin's throw assassin got Nage Waza edge nerfed
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I'm not surprised a free game with voluntary oversight might occasionally have some insider-players with tweaked advantages the rest of us don't know about. In terms of programming subtle boosts for your friends are trivial to implement.