I’m wondering if this situation is the hardest in alternate picking, where one has to hit the strings in order, 1, 2, then 3? The hardest one definitely seems to be 2. (Note that it’s much easier if one flips the direction, but that’s cheating, it has to work in every case.)
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Looks like a spread out forward roll - well actually only the second half of a forward roll!
I think the difficulty will be affected by what comes before / after
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Oh, this is fascinating, I have convinced myself that alternate picking doesn’t care what comes before or after a stroke, and that a particular stroke, by itself, can be hard or easy! 
This was my reasoning, that might be flawed: So we know that the pick is stopped at both (a) the start and (b) the stop of a given stroke, and that it is forbidden to change directions. So, any stroke is really this: start stopped, move around without changing direction, and end up stopped. I’m probably missing something… this is why I think the 2 stroke is the painful case, as it has to rise up, hit the appropriate string, rise up, overshoot, and come down, to finally stop, and prepare for the next direction.
Which string is meant to be the low E?
You choose! One is likely harder than the other, but which one?
Yeah, this is just a spread out crosspicking roll - I don’t think this is objectively any more difficult than a bunch of other possible string skipping lines, it’s just one you’re not very comfortable/familiar with.
But that above opinion does start with the assumption that you’re comfortable with a double escape motion, which not all players are.
Double escape is just the start for strokes like 2.
I don’t agree. I think that if you gave this to someone who’s comfortable with bluegrass style crosspicking it wouldn’t be particularly difficult for them.
There are no multiple fingers here; it’s just a single pick, as usual, with strict alternate picking. This has nothing to do with Bluegrass or rolls.
You don’t typically use fingerpicking/hybrid picking in Bluegrass, that’s why they call it flatpicking. David Grier does wide rolls which can look similar to what you’re depicting:
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Strict alternate picking? Do you know what his metronome speed might be? (Sorry, I’m unfamiliar with him.)
I mean, kind of an odd question… but I think it’s not hard to think of ways to make this harder. Play it on a seven or 8 string to increase the gap further, for one, or maybe follow 3 with a note on the A string, and repeat that as a four note motif.
Yeah I was gonna mention that doing it on 3 adjacent strings would be “easiest” and further increasing distance will just slow you down.
Play it harder, I know you both can, so play it.
I think the most difficult thing would be “simpler” - just 2 notes, constantly reversing direction. Say, outside picking between D and G over and over without any swiping.
Nah. This is honestly easier than one of my warmup “patterns”, which is inside picking low E to high E.
Of course, but for this case I just consider 6 strings.
That stroke should be easier than stroke 2. I want to draw attention to stroke 2 because it is, I believe, the most complex stroke possible in fully alternate picking.
This is just “inside” or “outside” picking, most people can do it really fast. But 2, that’s another story.
Stroke 2 is like that, from E2 to E4, except it also has to hit a string on the way over, so it’s harder because it needs to do more.
Gotta pick one, I’m afraid.
I don’t think most people can do the example I laid out really fast at all, unless they swipe.