Bungie revealed its massive Arc 3.0 rework of Destiny 2’s lightning abilities today, and while the rundown includes a number of changes that are sure to make fans happy, one of its biggest surprises calls back to one of the game’s darker community moments earlier this year. Fortunately, the developer on the receiving end is getting the last laugh.
At the end of May, Destiny 2 sandbox design lead Kevin Yanes wrote on Twitter that Twilight Garrison would not be coming back to the game. The fan-favorite Titan Exotic chest piece from Destiny 1 let players dodge in mid-air, adding more mobility to the lumbering tank class. “Titans will never get air dodge back my guy, it’s part of the warlock identity,” he responded to one player. “Sorry but I want to rip that bandaid off.”
Being honest and open with fans ended up igniting a firestorm of vitriol among some of them, resulting in Yanes getting harassed off Twitter. By the time he finally came back, it was only to retweet posts completely unrelated to the game. And it wasn’t just Yanes; other Destiny developers took a step back from the community as well, with court cases later revealing just how serious some of the fan threats were getting. There were angry voicemails, slur-filled text messages, and even death threats, according to Bungie’s lawsuits.
As it turns out, Twilight Garrison is coming back to Destiny 2 after all, or at least a close spiritual successor. On Wednesday Bungie revealed that Titans’ new Arc 3.0 arsenal would include an on-the-ground dodge. “One of the biggest changes coming to the Arc Titan is the new Thruster class ability,” the development team wrote. “By double-tapping a button while on the ground, the Titan bursts in their throttle direction at speed, performing a quick first-person evade, comparable in distance to a Hunter’s dodge.”
It’s not quite Twilight Garrison, but it’s close, and Titan fans are already getting hyped about combining it with an improved Shoulder Charge and Knockout melee to hulk out with.
Yanes simply responded on Twitter with a famous meme featuring Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai: “never ask me for anything ever again.”
Of course, the fact that Twilight Garrison is actually coming back in some way is ultimately still beside the point. People were shitty and there aren’t any excuses. As one player explained on Reddit,
Now the top reddit thread later today is going to be “We owe Kevin Yanes an apology” or some bullshit. That’s not how it works. You don’t owe someone an apology because you get your way later on. He is owed an apology because people were miserable fucking shitheads to him over an insignificant perk that has been gone longer than it ever existed.
The rest of the Arc 3.0 notes go into the reworked abilities in detail. Arc has long been one of the most fun subclass groups in Destiny, and the new version sounds like it will build on what already worked. Hunters get Blink back, Warlocks get a sliding teleport called Lightning Surge, and a new buff called Amplified will let everyone move a lot faster. Hopefully this means a renaissance in mobility-led builds. Warlocks are already starting to grumble about some of the changes, but as Forbes’ Paul Tassi points out, players won’t really know how things shakeout until Arc 3.0 is tested in the wild when season 18 hits on August 23.