How Roller Beetle's Functionality Interacts with Maps

So mounts are supposed to allow you to use their unique skills and functionalities to interact with the map in different ways; ie do you jump up the mountain with the Springer and Glide down with the griffon, jump across the gorge with the Raptor or Jackel, or glide across the water with the Skimmer; each mount provides a unique way to travel, allowing you to take paths that others couldn't. But what does the Roller Beetle give you? A extremely hard to use speed boost that you can rarely ever use? Why choose the beetle to get somewhere when all the other mounts could get you there just as effectively? Whats different about it that really gives you the edge, allowing you to choose a different, unique way to explore?

...Well, nothing, actually, it travels straight across the ground, just as all the other mounts can, only, with far less control, making you miss the turns or fall off the cliffs that the other mounts wouldn't have. Sure, it can be controlled, but its not practical. And yet... there is one thing, that could have made the roller beetle excel, one skill they gave it, that could have opened unique routes to travel and truly broaden the types of exploration. One thing that they scarcely(and poorly) made use of in the Roller Beetle's introduction map, but what I would very much like to see going forward.

What I speak of, is the Barrier Smash. There is almost an endless plethora of caves in GW2, caves that COULD be blocked by a barricade, rubble, or debris; requiring you to use barrier smash to be able to get through and traverse them. Now, I don't propose going back to pre-roller-beetle maps and adding blocked tunnels, thereby stopping the progression of players who have not yet received a beetle, in maps where they should not yet require one. Nor do I suggest Gating areas in future maps, that can ONLY be reached via roller beetle, as it is an achievement quest line, and so not every player will have one. Instead, all I ask, is that going forward, future maps treat the roller beetle as they do other mounts; by making it short cuts and/or alternative routes to the same places that other mounts can also reach by a different path/means. This would add more range to the play-ability of all mounts, as ANet originally intended.

As an example, in the most recent map, Domain of Kourna, there is a desert Plateau between the two way points littered with caves. While one of these caves was necessary to the story line, and thus could not be blockaded, least it Gated the story, the rest could have been blocked, as there were alternative routes to go over or around the plateau with other mounts. Had they done this, the Roller Beetle would have been that much more useful.

Thing is, it can be controlled - with practice. Skill. The better you get, the faster you can navigate. Once you start practicing and taking the time to learn the maps, you recognize the various short cuts you can take.

It is not essential - and nor should it be. Its a mount that offers proficient riders a high-speed, fun way to navigate maps and/or.. just have fun with.

@Scud.5067 said:Thing is, it can be controlled - with practice. Skill. The better you get, the faster you can navigate. Once you start practicing and taking the time to learn the maps, you recognize the various short cuts you can take.

It is not essential - and nor should it be. Its a mount that offers proficient riders a high-speed, fun way to navigate maps and/or.. just have fun with.

Even if its speed skill can be controlled and thus useful, its use is extremely niche, and the roller beetle could use more ways to display its ability. Fact is, in the new map there was like only four barricades that you could break through with the beetle. So even if you can say its speed skill is useful, its barrier break is still underwhelming, and i think thats truly a pity, as they could do so much more with it.

@Scud.5067 said:Thing is, it can be controlled - with practice. Skill. The better you get, the faster you can navigate. Once you start practicing and taking the time to learn the maps, you recognize the various short cuts you can take.

It is not essential - and nor should it be. Its a mount that offers proficient riders a high-speed, fun way to navigate maps and/or.. just have fun with.

It seems to me that if you want map completion you do have to get it. That's my only complaint about this roller beetle. It's a pain to get and I just want to get Domain of Kourna's map completed.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Scud.5067 said:Thing is, it can be controlled - with practice. Skill. The better you get, the faster you can navigate. Once you start practicing and taking the time to learn the maps, you recognize the various short cuts you can take.

It is not essential - and nor should it be. Its a mount that offers proficient riders a high-speed, fun way to navigate maps and/or.. just have fun with.

Thats not unique to the Roller Beetle, there are poi and such only the jackel can get to.

The Beetle is faster than any other mount and not very hard to control. The recent buff to its uphill movement speed made it worthwhile to use even on maps where it would have been absolutely trash. The drifting giving you a little endurance back is nice too. It's not as niche as you'd want it to be, it's in a good spot where there are very well defined situations where it's ideal. You need to get from one map to the other without any WPs unlocked and it's not an HoT map? It's the most fun and fastest to use the beetle, period.

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Scud.5067 said:Thing is, it can be controlled - with practice. Skill. The better you get, the faster you can navigate. Once you start practicing and taking the time to learn the maps, you recognize the various short cuts you can take.

It is not essential - and nor should it be. Its a mount that offers proficient riders a high-speed, fun way to navigate maps and/or.. just have fun with.

The Jackal is a lot easier to acquire however.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Scud.5067 said:Thing is, it can be controlled - with practice. Skill. The better you get, the faster you can navigate. Once you start practicing and taking the time to learn the maps, you recognize the various short cuts you can take.

It is not essential - and nor should it be. Its a mount that offers proficient riders a high-speed, fun way to navigate maps and/or.. just have fun with.

And it’s only a one time acquirement for your entire account.

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Scud.5067 said:Thing is, it can be controlled - with practice. Skill. The better you get, the faster you can navigate. Once you start practicing and taking the time to learn the maps, you recognize the various short cuts you can take.

It is not essential - and nor should it be. Its a mount that offers proficient riders a high-speed, fun way to navigate maps and/or.. just have fun with.

Not sure what you mean. All mounts so far are a one-time acquisition for your account.

of all the mounts i think the beetle is the biggest waste of time of all mounts, unlike the core mounts the beetle is unpracticable, useless in any map except flat maps and takes practice to even use properly.i use the jackal for the most part, i can get anywhere without stopping and any and all maps can be used by the jackal, i can also control it with little to no practice at all.

i see the lure behind it but for anything else but mindlessly racing it's useless, i like mounts to have a use beside speed and the beetle surely has none of that.

@Blocki.4931 said:The Beetle is faster than any other mount and not very hard to control. The recent buff to its uphill movement speed made it worthwhile to use even on maps where it would have been absolutely trash. The drifting giving you a little endurance back is nice too. It's not as niche as you'd want it to be, it's in a good spot where there are very well defined situations where it's ideal. You need to get from one map to the other without any WPs unlocked and it's not an HoT map? It's the most fun and fastest to use the beetle, period.

I dont know what youre talking about, the drifitng is extremely hard to use. You're the exception, not the rule. And again, even if that ability is spot on, that doesnt take away from the fact that its other ability is weak. Why even give it a Barrier Break if youre not gonna have us use it? Even if you say the Beetle is good as it is, it could be better.

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:

@Blocki.4931 said:The Beetle is faster than any other mount and not very hard to control. The recent buff to its uphill movement speed made it worthwhile to use even on maps where it would have been absolutely trash. The drifting giving you a little endurance back is nice too. It's not as niche as you'd want it to be, it's in a good spot where there are very well defined situations where it's ideal. You need to get from one map to the other without any WPs unlocked and it's not an HoT map? It's the most fun and fastest to use the beetle, period.

Only if you use the back + opposite direction is it difficult / annoying to use if you enable the option for 'Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input' the drift becomes much easier and you can jump without activating the boost.

On longer runs like going for bounty it easily outrun raptor / jackal + non boosted griffon and regaining endurance or just in general keeping speed seems quite easy and its abilites to climp slopes is awesome if you time the boost right or already have enough speed for it.

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:

@Blocki.4931 said:The Beetle is faster than any other mount and not very hard to control. The recent buff to its uphill movement speed made it worthwhile to use even on maps where it would have been absolutely trash. The drifting giving you a little endurance back is nice too. It's not as niche as you'd want it to be, it's in a good spot where there are very well defined situations where it's ideal. You need to get from one map to the other without any WPs unlocked and it's not an HoT map? It's the most fun and fastest to use the beetle, period.

The drifting is easy to use once you stop holding the key down for 10 minutes. You tap it lightly BEFORE the turn. Drifting is NOT required to make good use of the mount, just necessary to perfect the use.

And your second point is not an argument at all.

Why give us Sand Portals on the map when they are 99% useless anyway? They are required for 1 Vista in Vabbi and to get to the Abaddon statue in the Desolation. Besides that they are for (((convenience))) that is awfully inconvenient because you're not going to be traversing these places normally on a Jackal, meaning you will have to dismount just to take a portal that will take you a tiny bit closer to where you might want to go. I can argue taking the Jackal for a portal that takes you to the other side of a mountain (north of desert highlands for example, at the Tombs) but even that isn't very necessary. I'd argue the Jackal is even less interesting for most terrain than the raptor because that at least gives you a tiny bit of height as well compared to a normal jump, while giving you a bigger burst of speed right from the start (like jumping from resource nodes in an instant to the next)

;)

You can't beat a lazy person at his own game. I have mastered the art of convenience and the Jackal is not part of it, while the Beetle is ranked 4 on my list.

@Blocki.4931 said:

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:

@Blocki.4931 said:The Beetle is faster than any other mount and not very hard to control. The recent buff to its uphill movement speed made it worthwhile to use even on maps where it would have been absolutely trash. The drifting giving you a little endurance back is nice too. It's not as niche as you'd want it to be, it's in a good spot where there are very well defined situations where it's ideal. You need to get from one map to the other without any WPs unlocked and it's not an HoT map? It's the most fun and fastest to use the beetle, period.

Drifting absolutely is nessisary to make perfect use of the mount. If its best ability is as you say, its speed, and you cant turn while using it ability without drifting, than drifting is vital.

As for the jackal, if you think its useless, than you arnt using it properly. Unlike the rapter who can only jump once, with a full endurance bar, the jackal can jump 3 times, and can even change direction mid air. Also, if the fall is heigh enough for the endurence bar to reload, he can keep jumping, thereby traveling much farther and faster than the rapter. And unlike the raptor, you can time your last jump so you dont dismount from fall damage.

As for the jackals portals being too few or too insignificant, that is hardly true, all PoF maps are full of them. Some are just to get to gated areas that you cant get to otherwise, while others work as short cuts, or just other means of reaching a destination. But even if the portals are mediocre at best, they were used far better and far more often than the beetles Barrier Break. And even if everything i said was wrong, and the portals need serious improvement, that does not mean the barrier break doesnt need improvement as well. One thing being broken doesnt mean its okay for another to be broken as well. So no matter how you look at it, my arguement is still valid.

Dont why why you even argue, if the Roller Beetle is good as you suggest, well, whats wrong with a good thing getting better?

There was nothing in the kourna map blocking story that didn't have an alternate route ie jacket, bunny, or griffin. Why use the beetle on some maps? Cause it's fun to zoom around in places and get map complete faster, and the off the top of a hill is so cool.

I mean in your example ppl could use the glider instead of the griffon too. I dont see any reason to use the griffon.

@zealex.9410 said:I mean in your example ppl could use the glider instead of the griffon too. I dont see any reason to use the griffon.

That's not true, the glider and griffon are in effect both gliding, but they have different abilities, such as how the glider can use updrafts and lay-lines, whereas the griffon can dive down to speed up and rise again. They are mechanically very different. If you are in a HoTs map, gliding is better, but otherwise, griffon is better. They can be interchangeable, but they still have a distinct flair and purpose, with places that favor one or the other.

@Drecien.4508 said:There was nothing in the kourna map blocking story that didn't have an alternate route ie jacket, bunny, or griffin. Why use the beetle on some maps? Cause it's fun to zoom around in places and get map complete faster, and the off the top of a hill is so cool.

I don't know what you mean by that first statement, I didn't say otherwise.

@"OtakuModeEngage.8679" said:So mounts are supposed to allow you to use their unique skills and functionalities to interact with the map in different ways; ie do you jump up the mountain with the Springer and Glide down with the griffon, jump across the gorge with the Raptor or Jackel, or glide across the water with the Skimmer; each mount provides a unique way to travel, allowing you to take paths that others couldn't. But what does the Roller Beetle give you? A extremely hard to use speed boost that you can rarely ever use? Why choose the beetle to get somewhere when all the other mounts could get you there just as effectively? Whats different about it that really gives you the edge, allowing you to choose a different, unique way to explore?

...Well, nothing, actually, it travels straight across the ground, just as all the other mounts can, only, with far less control, making you miss the turns or fall off the cliffs that the other mounts wouldn't have. Sure, it can be controlled, but its not practical. And yet... there is one thing, that could have made the roller beetle excel, one skill they gave it, that could have opened unique routes to travel and truly broaden the types of exploration. One thing that they scarcely(and poorly) made use of in the Roller Beetle's introduction map, but what I would very much like to see going forward.

What I speak of, is the Barrier Smash. There is almost an endless plethora of caves in GW2, caves that COULD be blocked by a barricade, rubble, or debris; requiring you to use barrier smash to be able to get through and traverse them. Now, I don't propose going back to pre-roller-beetle maps and adding blocked tunnels, thereby stopping the progression of players who have not yet received a beetle, in maps where they should not yet require one. Nor do I suggest Gating areas in future maps, that can ONLY be reached via roller beetle, as it is an achievement quest line, and so not every player will have one. Instead, all I ask, is that going forward, future maps treat the roller beetle as they do other mounts; by making it short cuts and/or alternative routes to the same places that other mounts can also reach by a different path/means. This would add more range to the play-ability of all mounts, as ANet originally intended.

I honestly.... don't really see the point of this post. I mean, I guess "Don't forget the rollerbeetle mechanics when desinging future maps"? That's valid I suppose, but it's also pretty pessimistic to assume since... we haven't actually GOTTEN any new maps yet, and though we got a slight re-design on an old one it was NEVER a map that would have lent itself well to Rollerbeetle in any way, simply for the sheer verticality and lack of wide open spaces to run it on. Hard to accuse them of forgetting the mechanic when we haven't yet moved on from the map it was introduced.

@OtakuModeEngage.8679 said:

@zealex.9410 said:I mean in your example ppl could use the glider instead of the griffon too. I dont see any reason to use the griffon.

The only reason you would want to use the griffon would be to fly at high speeds around the map from a high point which takes experience. Same aplies to the beetle

@"Sojourner.4621" said:

I honestly.... don't really see the point of this post. I mean, I guess "Don't forget the rollerbeetle mechanics when desinging future maps"? That's valid I suppose, but it's also pretty pessimistic to assume since... we haven't actually GOTTEN any new maps yet, and though we got a slight re-design on an old one it was NEVER a map that would have lent itself well to Rollerbeetle in any way, simply for the sheer verticality and lack of wide open spaces to run it on. Hard to accuse them of forgetting the mechanic when we haven't yet moved on from the map it was introduced.

The problem is that masteries from living season maps have never been used outside their respective maps. So Kourna will remain the only map with smashable walls.

Still, imo the beetle is a very useful mount for its speed alone.

@BunjiKugashira.9754 said:

@"Sojourner.4621" said:

I honestly.... don't really see the point of this post. I mean, I guess "Don't forget the rollerbeetle mechanics when desinging future maps"? That's valid I suppose, but it's also pretty pessimistic to assume since... we haven't actually GOTTEN any new maps yet, and though we got a slight re-design on an old one it was NEVER a map that would have lent itself well to Rollerbeetle in any way, simply for the sheer verticality and lack of wide open spaces to run it on. Hard to accuse them of forgetting the mechanic when we haven't yet moved on from the map it was introduced.

That's technically not true since the counter-magic mastery was used on every map of season 3 and was the mastery for Bloodstone Fen (The gliding skills were actually purchased from the vendor, not masteries).

Edit: Also the Thermal Tubes were on the two maps that had volcanoes. The down signet is useful in every part of pve and has saved my life any number of times. The heal on mounts, while situational, has been useful in more places than just the map it was introduced as well and has kept me from being dismounted a few times where it would have likely been fatal. It is unfortunate that the only other place the Druid mastery applies is guild halls, but it also at the same time wouldn't really make any sense anywhere else that has been introduced... same with the Siren's mastery. The only places it would make any sense are core Orr maps, and the druid one doesn't even have a core map it would make sense in. Koda's flame, lorewise, is just as situational. There is zero reason lorewise, however, that the beetle mastery would have to be, and they've shown that in cases where it makes sense to transfer them from a lore standpoint they will.

@Sojourner.4621 said:

@"OtakuModeEngage.8679" said:So mounts are supposed to allow you to use their unique skills and functionalities to interact with the map in different ways; ie do you jump up the mountain with the Springer and Glide down with the griffon, jump across the gorge with the Raptor or Jackel, or glide across the water with the Skimmer; each mount provides a unique way to travel, allowing you to take paths that others couldn't. But what does the Roller Beetle give you? A extremely hard to use speed boost that you can rarely ever use? Why choose the beetle to get somewhere when all the other mounts could get you there just as effectively? Whats different about it that really gives you the edge, allowing you to choose a different, unique way to explore?

...Well, nothing, actually, it travels straight across the ground, just as all the other mounts can, only, with far less control, making you miss the turns or fall off the cliffs that the other mounts wouldn't have. Sure, it can be controlled, but its not practical. And yet... there is one thing, that could have made the roller beetle excel, one skill they gave it, that could have opened unique routes to travel and truly broaden the types of exploration. One thing that they scarcely(and poorly) made use of in the Roller Beetle's introduction map, but what I would very much like to see going forward.

What I speak of, is the Barrier Smash. There is almost an endless plethora of caves in GW2, caves that COULD be blocked by a barricade, rubble, or debris; requiring you to use barrier smash to be able to get through and traverse them. Now, I don't propose going back to pre-roller-beetle maps and adding blocked tunnels, thereby stopping the progression of players who have not yet received a beetle, in maps where they should not yet require one. Nor do I suggest Gating areas in future maps, that can ONLY be reached via roller beetle, as it is an achievement quest line, and so not every player will have one. Instead, all I ask, is that going forward, future maps treat the roller beetle as they do other mounts; by making it short cuts and/or alternative routes to the same places that other mounts can also reach by a different path/means. This would add more range to the play-ability of all mounts, as ANet originally intended.

Not hard at all. They forgot to use it efficiently in the very map it was initially introduced in, so why would we think they would use it in other maps? They have a habbit of introducing one trick ponies, masteries used for only one map and never again. And i feel that would especially be true for the roller beetle, since it requires extra work to get it. Also, im not sure why you think i was accusing or complaining to begin with, I was suggesting a future use of its ability to make it even better. That was the point of my initial post. Its just a concept idea im suggesting, no need to get your panties in a twist.

@Sojourner.4621 said:

@BunjiKugashira.9754 said:

@Sojourner.4621 said:

I honestly.... don't really see the point of this post. I mean, I guess "Don't forget the rollerbeetle mechanics when desinging future maps"? That's valid I suppose, but it's also pretty pessimistic to assume since... we haven't actually GOTTEN any new maps yet, and though we got a slight re-design on an old one it was NEVER a map that would have lent itself well to Rollerbeetle in any way, simply for the sheer verticality and lack of wide open spaces to run it on. Hard to accuse them of forgetting the mechanic when we haven't yet moved on from the map it was introduced.

There are core and HoT maps that have heavy druid influence... dont know how you can say that one map is the only place it makes sense. Also, orr was not the only place that worshipped the gods, surely Kryta and Elona would have minstals that passed on the ancient music. More to the point, why would you only be able to sing a song you know in one place? If you know it you know it. If it requires the influence of the gods to give the song power, there are pleanty of places all over the world. Such an excuse is just the developers being lazy.