Roller Beetle is a misfire

I gather there must have been discussions about it already, however I decided to wait what happens after the hype cools down, so I'm making mine now.

Let's face it, it doesn't really make much difference wether you have it or not.There are several reasons why it's useless:

1) It's nothing but another nod to the original Guild Wars playersPretty self-explanatory, so let's move on.

2) The way we mount it ridicules it on it's ownI mean the "saddle" is a high-tech bike which hovers above the ground and presumably manipulates nuclear forces to remain attached to the beetle.So remove the beetle and instead attach a jet engine at the back and the saddle will become a better mount on it's own.

3) It's not very convenient to rideWhile it can move very fast it all depends on wether you move on a flat surface or downward, but if you are going up a hill it's very inconvenient.It's also very difficult to steer, which is why no one actually uses it in a race as even if the speed boost will make you really fast it's very likely you will go in the wrong direction when you have to turn. You can hardly see anyone riding it in open world too, most players still prefer to ride Raptors, Jackals and Griffons, also Skimmers when they need to cross water.

4) It's "Special Ability" is pretty much force implementedThe ability to break through walls is nothing that the Jackals sand portals couldn't solve. There are many places we can't get in directly in PoF and have to use a sand portal to get in.So swapping sand portals with breakable walls in some places does not make the new skill truely useful. More over the sand portals are much more amusing to use, as they can be used to create fun riddles like in the Sanctum of Nabkha. They can also be "fake" i.e. picking the wrong one kicks you back to the start, also they can be hard to find as both exits can be placed very far from one another. Breaking a wall however hardly gives you any feeling of mystery, you obviously know where will you go with that, you could place a wall that leads nowhere, but it will never be as fun as the portals.

I agree with your arguments.

However, the beetle is fun. It's totally optional, which is important since it's a LW release and won't be as easily available after the epsiode is over. (Even in Kourna it's optional.)So, it's a fun addition that you can take or leave. I like it a lot for Ascalon and the Shiverpeaks.

Beetle is fun and many likes it. I don't use it much but find it very cute. For me, not everything in the game needs to make sense or be useful. I mean, we ride a giant rabbit to hunt carrots: From there, why should a saddle on a beetle be a problem? It's just fun! :3

Just remove the stupid empty stamina bar when you summon the mount and it will be fine. Mobility is the most impprtand thing for a good mount, rest is just gimmicks.

I agree with your arguments, yet I wouldn't call the beetle a misfire. Was it necessary in, filling an open space that no mount filled, or rather, did ANet find a spot that isn't covered by other mounts? No. That's ok if not great, because it's a LS release, not everyone will have it in the future, even if they have PoF, so it's good ANet doesn't make it a requirement.The beetle is still fun to ride in the right terrain, much like a sport bike, you won't have a good time if you take it off the road. It's a gimmick and that's fine. I think the only aspect of it that makes me a bit bitter is that the rest of the release felt only halfway done. I know, that different ppl were working on the beetle than worked on Kourna, so dropping the beetle wouldn't have changed much about Long live the Lich. It's more of a PR desaster and less an actual issue with the beetle, that the thing that has been fully developped before shipping was a gimmicky mount and not, let's say a meta event or Gendara Fortress.

When it comes to Living Story Masteries, it is quite hard to find something "useful." Most of the abilities are locked for the specific map only.

Just have a look at LS 3 for a moment. What have we got?

• Bloodstone Fen: Magic Gathering required to loot Unbound Magic in all LS 3 maps = useful for LS 3 only
• Bloodstone Fen: Aerial ley-powered gliding skills which work only in Bloodstone Fen and Lake Doric. In Lake Doric they only work if you interact with a Ley-Line which somehow does make sense. But in all other maps you touch a Ley-Line and nothing happens (except from the gliding if you mastered the Glider on highest tier). = useful for those maps
• Ember Bay: Thermal Tubes to ease traveling on maps it is implemented. Those are Ember Bay, Draconis Mons and Bitterfrost Frontier = useful for those maps
• Bitterfrost Frontier: Koda's Flame is used mostly to loot the frozen treasure boxes on the map = useful only in Bitterfrost Frontier
• Lake Doric: Spectral Aid, the 5th downed skill = can be used almost everywhere, very useful
• Draconis Mons: Oakheart's Reach = useful in Draconis Mons and Guildhalls
• Siren's Landing: Siren of Orr = useful only in Siren's Landing

Looking on that list, most of these masteries serve one purpose which is in most cases just locked to a single map. The only useful mastery I see is the Spectral Aid, because it can be used in all Tyria and made the fight for survival significantly easier.

With the Roller Beetle, we have a mount with its own mastery-line (which is really nice). It can be used in all Tyria and adds a little to mobility. Its appearance is quite entertaining, but the usefulness is limited. When I take a look on the other LS 4 masteries so far:

• Istan: Magic Gathering required to loot Volatile Maigc in all LS 4 maps = useful for LS 4 only
• Sandswept Isles: Bond of Life. I do not want to go through that discussion again. I know a lot of people do not like it. I found a few uses over the time and for the fact that it can be used in all Tyria with all mounts, I would even call it useful.

In the end, I think the LS 4 masteries are by design improved. Two out of three can be used in all Tyria, which does not apply to the LS 3 masteries - except for the Spectral Aid. The usefulness might be debatable. But I do not think the Roller Beetle was a mistake. Again I am really happy it is not tied to the Crystal Champion Mastery-Line.

I'm looking forward to the next masteries.

"Breaking a wall hardly gives you any feeling of mystery"? Really? Maybe not you, with your x-ray eyes, but to me it's pretty much a mystery what I'll find on the other side of that wall.

Other than that, what everyone else said. It's a niche mount but a lot of people find fun in using it on specific occasions. Just look at all the YouTube videos of mount races people created in all kinds of maps. Yes, it doesn't navigate like the other mounts, but it's not supposed to. It's a high speed mount, and high speed by definition eliminates maneuverability. It would make no sense to make hairpin turns on a Roller Beetle, for instance. I get you don't like it, but just leave it at that. I'm pretty unimpressed by most Living World masteries, not in the least because of their extremely limited use, but they're fun additions when they matter. The Roller Beetle is no different in that regard.

It’s like owning a race car. You don’t use it to go grocery shopping or off road adventuring. In game, for day to day use, the other mounts are more useful. I think it’s very likely race track/s for it will be in the future. They already have races for the other mounts.

@"Rikimaru.7890" said:I gather there must have been discussions about it already, however I decided to wait what happens after the hype cools down, so I'm making mine now.

Let's face it, it doesn't really make much difference wether you have it or not.There are several reasons why it's useless:

1) It's nothing but another nod to the original Guild Wars playersPretty self-explanatory, so let's move on.So what? I don't see why that would be a problem as long as it brings something to the game2) The way we mount it ridicules it on it's ownI mean the "saddle" is a high-tech bike which hovers above the ground and presumably manipulates nuclear forces to remain attached to the beetle.So remove the beetle and instead attach a jet engine at the back and the saddle will become a better mount on it's own.Almost nothing in this game uses magic or energy to move at high speed. This would probably be too unstable to use. However, a lot of things levitate, which is exactly what the saddle does.3) It's not very convenient to rideWhile it can move very fast it all depends on wether you move on a flat surface or downward, but if you are going up a hill it's very inconvenient.Well it needs some drawbacks or else it would simply be better than the others mounts, which we don't want it to be.It's also very difficult to steer, which is why no one actually uses it in a race as even if the speed boost will make you really fast it's very likely you will go in the wrong direction when you have to turn. You can hardly see anyone riding it in open world too, most players still prefer to ride Raptors, Jackals and Griffons, also Skimmers when they need to cross water.Races are meant to be more than just "the one who goes faster wins". You need some agility. So while a race with jumps and all to do is interesting, a race revolving around who presses their dodge key more often has nothing appealing.4) It's "Special Ability" is pretty much force implementedThe ability to break through walls is nothing that the Jackals sand portals couldn't solve. There are many places we can't get in directly in PoF and have to use a sand portal to get in.So swapping sand portals with breakable walls in some places does not make the new skill truely useful. More over the sand portals are much more amusing to use, as they can be used to create fun riddles like in the Sanctum of Nabkha. They can also be "fake" i.e. picking the wrong one kicks you back to the start, also they can be hard to find as both exits can be placed very far from one another. Breaking a wall however hardly gives you any feeling of mystery, you obviously know where will you go with that, you could place a wall that leads nowhere, but it will never be as fun as the portals.That, I agree on. It's a fun gimmick I suppose, but I've never been fund of things that were placed in the world just to make an ability useful. That was a big problem with HoT: The only thing most masteries did was allowing you to use specific items in the world. On the other side, mounts bring you a new way to move, which can be used everywhere. I like sand portals and I think it would make more sense if you could like, place a portal with your jackal to which you could teleport back for a while. But it's true that walls aren't very interesting...

Can we not have a different thread about how bad the beetle is every week

It's great at what it does, it doesn't need to be better or worse than any other mounts. It's easy to control and the recent buffs to how its endurance bar works have made it a very nice addition to the mount roster.

I'm sorry that the OP hasn't figured out how to have fun with the Beetle. For me, it's so much fun that, even though I am terrible about steering, I use it whenever possible.

@Fenella.2634 said:I agree with your arguments.

However, the beetle is fun. It's totally optional, which is important since it's a LW release and won't be as easily available after the epsiode is over. (Even in Kourna it's optional.)So, it's a fun addition that you can take or leave. I like it a lot for Ascalon and the Shiverpeaks.

You can't leave it if you want to get map completion though, so I don't consider it entirely optional.

I like that It reminds me of Wildstar.

I hardly ever use it, hardly see anyone else using it in the open world outside of Kourna, and do think it is poorly implemented. However HnRkLnXqZ.1870 above makes some very good points about what it is essentially: A living story mastery. So whilst those three facts I just wrote remain, I guess I'm okay with the functionality it provides as it's largely comparable to other Living World Masteries we have, and that is: useful only in a particular living story map/s. I wish this wasn't the case, but Anet have set their standard with the living story masteries and I guess they're sticking to it (for better or worse, but that's another conversation entirely perhaps).

I think it's still a shame it's not more widely appealing and useful.

While I agree with the OP statements about the beetle not being adopted as a mainstream mount, this is a good thing. If it were superior to the Jackal or Raptor for general use then people without the LS release would feel compelled to purchase it solely for access to the beetle. Players should feel they want to buy content for the whole package and not for one mechanic that it introduced because it is a "must have". At absolute best the beetle should be equal to the Raptor but I cannot see how you could do that without losing its unique flare, the Jackal is already samey enough.

@"Remus Darkblight.1673" said:While I agree with the OP statements about the beetle not being adopted as a mainstream mount, this is a good thing. If it were superior to the Jackal or Raptor for general use then people without the LS release would feel compelled to purchase it solely for access to the beetle. Players should feel they want to buy content for the whole package and not for one mechanic that it introduced because it is a "must have". At absolute best the beetle should be equal to the Raptor but I cannot see how you could do that without losing its unique flare, the Jackal is already samey enough.

I dunno. I felt compelled to get the LS, including the old ones because that's where they daily areas are where you can make the money and get a LOT of extra mastery points as well. It's strange to me to buy the game and expansions and then still not have access to all the areas in the game.

@Gehenna.3625 said:

I dunno. I felt compelled to get the LS, including the old ones because that's where they daily areas are where you can make the money and get a LOT of extra mastery points as well. It's strange to me to buy the game and expansions and then still not have access to all the areas in the game.

That doesn't put you at a notable disadvantage in other areas of the game though. You can farm money everywhere, farming it faster in a specific map doesn't stop you or make you any less competitive at content in other game zones. Same goes for Mastery points, there are sufficient elsewhere to max everything. Having purchased a full expansion for access to mounts and then having them become obsolete in a Living World release would be bad, especially when you consider that a player active at the time of release got it for free.

@Remus Darkblight.1673 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

I dunno. I felt compelled to get the LS, including the old ones because that's where they daily areas are where you can make the money and get a LOT of extra mastery points as well. It's strange to me to buy the game and expansions and then still not have access to all the areas in the game.

HoT is terrible for Mastery Points especially if you don't have LS. Tons of Mastery Points come from there. I'm about as far as I'm going to get with HoT Mastery Points and I'm still about 30 short and that's including using the LS areas and story. You see, I'm not a hardcore player but HoT is pretty much geared towards that but the masteries there are quite needed for many things. Right now the issue is that in HoT I no longer gain any XP because I simply can't complete the masteries. I think that's not really cool at it will keep me out of HoT maps more. So in PoF it seems they did a better job at that. But I still don't care for actual zones not being part of the expansion deal and so if you take a break and come back you have to pay for them.

I get the feeling you are a more hardcore player here because you speak in terms of disadvantage. I find that the LS zones are the best way to get ascended trinkets for example and I just like to not have closed areas on my map that I cannot access. Gating that behind a paywall because you weren't there at a time is something I just don't really like but oh well, I bit the bullet and bought them. Now that I have them I see how much of an advantage they are.

It gives me the feeling that you underestimate the value of these areas because to me having these daily areas was a huge boost because it allows me to farm for better gear in a more acceptable way. And map completion is a thing I like to do. So when I got to the Domain of Kourna and found out that the roller beetle I didn't care much about was required to complete the map and then was a pain to acquire, I wasn't amused at all. Again I bit the bullet but it wasn't fun. And now that I have it, it just seems underwhelming compared to what you had to do for it, so it doesn't feel like an accomplishment much to me.

That's just my views of course but I really think the added areas from LS are very useful. So useful that although I had to pay for them, I am glad to have them.

It's a gimmick mount true..So long as Anet maintain it's presence i'm cool with it though.

For example I do not want to see the Beetle become obsolete like the Oakvine hookshot was after Draconis Mons..I'll be extremely annoyed if that happens and actively peeved off every time I RNG unlock a beetle skin in the future since it will be for a mount I'd consider worthless.

I'd much rather Anet bite the bullet and ensure to design future content for the Beetle regardless of the possibility some players won't be able to access it due to not having the living world that unlocks it.

@Teratus.2859 said:It's a gimmick mount true..So long as Anet maintain it's presence i'm cool with it though.

For example I do not want to see the Beetle become obsolete like the Oakvine hookshot was after Draconis Mons..I'll be extremely annoyed if that happens and actively peeved off every time I RNG unlock a beetle skin in the future since it will be for a mount I'd consider worthless.

I'd much rather Anet bite the bullet and ensure to design future content for the Beetle regardless of the possibility some players won't be able to access it due to not having the living world that unlocks it.

To be honest the Skimmer and Jackal are gimmicks too.

I'm just glad it didn't cost gold like the griffon.I haven't use the roller beetle for much of anything. The raptor gives me enough speed and accuracy to mount, dismount, jump, and maneuver.

@Dreamy Lu.3865 said:Beetle is fun and many likes it. I don't use it much but find it very cute. For me, not everything in the game needs to make sense or be useful. I mean, we ride a giant rabbit to hunt carrots: From there, why should a saddle on a beetle be a problem? It's just fun! :3

But you just said why: Rabbits do hop, and they eat carrots. A beetle however does not roll like that. You are contradiciting your own question.

I use the beetle all the time when I'm map hopping with a toon that hasn't unlocked WPs to where I'm headed. The griffin is great for mountainous maps, it's the flat open maps the beetle is super fun on. Yes the steering is a bit different compared to other mounts, basically dismount to stop immediately at any speed. My guess is that many use the beetle but with it's crazy speed the chances of you seeing them is more rare.

@"Rikimaru.7890" said:I gather there must have been discussions about it already, however I decided to wait what happens after the hype cools down, so I'm making mine now.

Let's face it, it doesn't really make much difference wether you have it or not.There are several reasons why it's useless:

1) It's nothing but another nod to the original Guild Wars playersPretty self-explanatory, so let's move on.

2) The way we mount it ridicules it on it's ownI mean the "saddle" is a high-tech bike which hovers above the ground and presumably manipulates nuclear forces to remain attached to the beetle.So remove the beetle and instead attach a jet engine at the back and the saddle will become a better mount on it's own.

3) It's not very convenient to rideWhile it can move very fast it all depends on wether you move on a flat surface or downward, but if you are going up a hill it's very inconvenient.It's also very difficult to steer, which is why no one actually uses it in a race as even if the speed boost will make you really fast it's very likely you will go in the wrong direction when you have to turn. You can hardly see anyone riding it in open world too, most players still prefer to ride Raptors, Jackals and Griffons, also Skimmers when they need to cross water.

4) It's "Special Ability" is pretty much force implementedThe ability to break through walls is nothing that the Jackals sand portals couldn't solve. There are many places we can't get in directly in PoF and have to use a sand portal to get in.So swapping sand portals with breakable walls in some places does not make the new skill truely useful. More over the sand portals are much more amusing to use, as they can be used to create fun riddles like in the Sanctum of Nabkha. They can also be "fake" i.e. picking the wrong one kicks you back to the start, also they can be hard to find as both exits can be placed very far from one another. Breaking a wall however hardly gives you any feeling of mystery, you obviously know where will you go with that, you could place a wall that leads nowhere, but it will never be as fun as the portals.

Much I agree with tbh..1 - Hmmm2 - Hmm, whatever3 - true .. I find it laborious unless moving in a straight line or a flat surface, the slightest nick of a branch and your back to snail pace waiting for the tortoise to catch back up. Turning is frustrating as I find the slide to be kind of buggy a lot of the time and there just isn't enough map terrain for it to be useful (yet). Going backwards is simply keyboard smashing imo.4 - breaking walls is fun for the first couple perhaps, after that it does get kind of old fast, but then again have you ever seen Takeshi's Castle.. breaking doors down can be made more fun if there some random happenings , good and bad.. just needs some creativity.

As for the tricks... really, I cant believe that's all ANET could come up with, a few half baked tricks.

Seems to me it was rushed through for the wow factor and the chance to flesh out content by way of the collection as long as they could.Could be good for some interesting skins though .. time will tell if this beasty gathers in pace (no pun intended) in the popularity stakes, my guess it won't but we shall see.

All in all not a bad mount, looks cool, can be cool in certain environments, can be improved a lot and maybe some additional skills might be useful.I rate it 6/10 and for now defo wont be choice mode of transport.

@Blocki.4931 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:It's a gimmick mount true..So long as Anet maintain it's presence i'm cool with it though.

For example I do not want to see the Beetle become obsolete like the Oakvine hookshot was after Draconis Mons..I'll be extremely annoyed if that happens and actively peeved off every time I RNG unlock a beetle skin in the future since it will be for a mount I'd consider worthless.

I'd much rather Anet bite the bullet and ensure to design future content for the Beetle regardless of the possibility some players won't be able to access it due to not having the living world that unlocks it.

Maybe the Jackal is although you do need it in the regular maps of Elona to get mastery points so it is definitely more useful. The Skimmer is something more to me since it allows you to move faster across water without aggroing underwater maps AND I recently discovered that you can mount the Skimmer from the water as well. Those two elements are useful for all my alts all across the world so I do not agree the Skimmer is just a gimmick.