#scarlet keep strike

[marvogue]

do you ever just wanna yeet a gunslinger

(comic requested by Haze because he loves when it happens)

[whiskeyworen]

Got hugged in Destiny 2 today

I think I like the new culture that’s rising in D2. The more friendly, happy, supportive culture. I was so used to highly-toxic, ‘Gjallarhorn or GTFO’, join-strike-only-to-drop-because-someone-misstepped, hatemail sending asshats that today caught me by surprise. I was running my Warlock through Shadowkeep, to get her caught up to my Hunter who just finished the campaign, and one of the requirements is to do the Scarlet Keep strike. I’m kinda on edge about running with people I don’t know, but I really wanted to advance the story, and not get stuck like I did in Destiny 1, behind the wall of group-content. I no longer have a strike team since all my friends have moved on from or refused to come back to Destiny. So PUGging is the only way I can go.

When I loaded in, no one else had popped in yet. I’d seen a note about one person having joined, but they hadn’t ported in yet, so I sat and waited. While I did, that first person finally arrived, while a second was noted to be on their way. So... we waited patiently. Sometimes people’s connections keep them from arriving quickly. Bad ping and all that. So I’m plenty patient. Third person arrives, and we clear the first room. At that point, this third person starts using an Emote I’ve never seen. It looks like their character is calling mine over. So I walk up to them, and see ‘Hug’ pop up. So I do so. They do the same to the other person, who responds just as well, and we proceed into the strike proper. I tend to over-level, so I was already 900 light with this character when I went in. I don’t know if the others were the same, or if they had just started the strike when their Light hit the bare minimum. But that’s not a problem with me; I’m more than happy to help someone who’s beleaguered in the level. Which happened a few times, actually. Near the end, I spent most of my time in the boss fight jumping from person to person, dropping healing rifts and rezzing the downed, and more than once got that dreaded “Last Guardian Standing” alert... the whole while I’m popping rockets and Supers to either clear the room or damage the boss. We won, of course. But that’s the first time I really experienced player-positive behavior outside Open-World fights. It was... refreshing. Talking to a few people on FB, in a Destiny thread, some people even tried to win me over to PvP, and have half convinced me I should give it a shot. That it’s not the poisonous hellhole it once was, and that people are more playing for fun now than to maintain a K/D ratio. Again, this was all positive behavior. Something I woefully never get to experience often enough. It was really nice. Just wanted to share that. And I’m glad I got that hug.