Hi everyone, just wanted to start a thread about the new rollerbeetle mount and my take on it.

The Good

• The speed is incredible and momentum feels right. Once you get going, it feels like a legitimate racing mount. I definitely want to see race courses everywhere.
• Some of the effects are well thought out. Being able to skip on deep water is greatly appreciated.
• The animations are incredibly smooth, and I love the idle animation for the beetle.
• I love the iridescent effect on dyes.

The Bad

• When you mount up, you really have to wait 10 seconds before you can go anywhere.
• Imperfections in terrain can cause weird bounces and losses of speed. Many maps are clearly not designed to handle this kind of speed.
• Drifting can be really difficult to get right.
• No real opportunity to set up guild hall race courses with limited assets we have now.

The Ugly

• Unlike some of the other mounts, physics behaves extremely wonky with the rollerbeetle. Going down hills barely boosts your speed, but going up them sure slows it down.
• Trying to turn falling motion into forward motion doesn't work. Jumping off a cliff onto a hill doesn't affect anything, nor does bouncing off a rock.
• Not enough places to really get the hang of riding the rollerbeetle. The dunes in Kourna are pretty good, but elsewhere feels inappropriate by and large, and there are very few natural ramps in the game.

Suggestions

• Have the endurance bar set at halfway when you mount up, so you don't have to wait forever to get going. Make it regenerate faster if you're standing still.
• Give the rollerbeetle a bit more cushion against bumps in the road.
• Make going down hills have a greater effect on speed. Likewise, add horizontal speed for vertical descent. Maybe pretend some kind of Bernoulli effect?
• Add some racetracks in other parts of the world.

the beetle is pretty much a situational mount for large open spaces, which unfortunately isnt that common in the world. And all too easy to hit snags that causes you to lose your momentum in other maps. So pretty much tailormade for Kourna mainly.

If you in a rush to get to somewhere close by, use the Rappy/Jackal. If you need to cover a greater distance - 10 second for glorious high-speed travel.

When I was first learning how to control this beast I noticed the devs did a good job of giving it "weight". I started thinking of it like a cue ball in pool or a bowling ball, like the way it smashes into things or bounces off things or carries momentum. With this in mind I found it easier to predict and control it's motion and started having a lot of fun!

Oh yes, its also not a terribly useful mount in areas with lots of mobs you try to bypass. You have no easy spammable mountskill to evade with. Like how you evade with all mounts with all travel specials due to the jackal passive.

A roller beetle would get blown to pieces trying to pass an awakened or forged camp. Wereas a jackal or skimmer would breeze through with impunity.

What's the situational use of this?