Let's talk about Good Mentors

Ultima's Ballad. More than half the players were new. I was ready to start explaining mechanics when the other mentor stepped up and gave a quick breakdown of all the most important points. He then walked everyone through during the fight, telling tanks when to swap, reminding people to grab orbs. We wiped, he gave pointers for the end of the fight, we ran it again. He told the tank exactly when to LB for the biggest group of orbs, and we successfully mopped that up in two runs. He did the title proud that day.

More recently, joined an in progress that turned out to be Ifrit Extreme about 20 min in. All the dps who joined in progress were mentors. Although we didn't clear, we stayed until time was up and got consistently close to the end of the fight with each run. Everyone was patient, giving tanks tips about what to do with chains, when to tank swaps, telling healers about searing wind, etc.

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Originally Posted by Seig345

I've already tooted my own horn on a recent WoD run where I feel like I did my crown proud, but in response to what makes a mentor "good" being subjective, I feel like a decent metric would simply be whether their advice made an improvement on what they were giving advice for, or at the very least if they remained polite and positive in the face of the challenge and never lost their cool.

When silence is so common in PUGs, I feel like the bar for being a good mentor objectively hasn't been set terribly high for anyone capable of speaking up to help while keeping their cool regardless of the response.

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Even as someone who is not a mentor but is willing to teach what I can, I can agree with about silent people who are new.

And congrats on a successful World of Darkness run that you are able to toot your own horn about!

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Originally Posted by bounddreamer

Stories

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These are some pretty awesome stories also! It's great to hear that people are learning in older content, even if it's not getting cleared.

A lot of these stories I'm noticing is from before the mentor system and novice network were put in place, these are the true mentors.

I had a mentor back when I had started that had taught me some of the ins and outs of the game, he helped me with lving by taking me out and doing fates with me this was back around patch 2.5. When I started to lv a tank he had also taught me how to hold aggro and the proper combos to be doing.

I think they should adjust the mentor system so that the mentor crown only shows in the novice network chat and logs. This could weed out those mentors that only became one to have the crown as a status symbol while running around and in dungeons.

Mentors invite new and returning players to the novice network so really they don't need something beside their name showing they're a mentor while running around.

Sorry my first proper post and all. I hear loads of bad stories about mentors. I met ones not into teaching but the icon. But the stranger mentors I met randomly (duty or not) were either super silent or... well super nice. I started my first mmo game (ffxiv) as whm (a mistake if you ask me)... I was doing sass a few times just to get used to the way it worked. On that run I was not a new player already but still tank (mentor) asked me as whm if I am cool with pulling large. First and the last time tank did that. I puffed up and we did it ! It actually went great and I loved the run. Him doing it gave me confidence I can do it for some reason.

Other time was when I was levelling my bard and I freshly hit 50. I simply had no mind of buying the weapon at that point (I was still at 50 msq and the weapon for me was ridiculously expensive) ... so yeah I stopped at market at 3 am ST. Went slightly afk but then noticed that sb is /waving at me. It happened to be a player with mentor status, obviously I waved back. He hit trade where I found level 50 weapon (I think 120 ilevel as I have been using it for long while afterwards), I gave him all fire crystals I harvested the day before (as I felt bad to be just handed over stuff) - and he said that it is not how it works. Apparently when he has hit level 50 himself other mentor player handed him the weapon like he did to me. To help and celebrate. I still gave him the fire crystals and promised to do the same when I \\'grow up\\'. I felt a bit ashamed as I already had whm at level 56 at that point (just levelling second job) but telling him that would break the magic so I just replied how I could and I truly intend to do that when I hit level 50 and am able to craft that (hopefully soon).

I remember when I was new, there was a mentor who hosted a trivia event for sprouts. Only sprouts could participate.

She even gave out prizes to the top three scorers. I thought that was neat.

I was fortunate to receive guidance from a good friend who also played, he was very patient and happy to teach an unabashed newcomer the ins and outs of the game. I have follow his example for mentoring people and try not be rude or condescending when people ask for assistance or info. Taking this approach to mentoring has led to a lot of good online interactions with people which makes the game more enjoyable for me anyway.

I'm one of those "roulette runners" and I try to always stay kind and calm. I do my best to be helpful, but sometimes my shyness and fear gets in the way of giving pointers on rotations/skills. I've gotten a lot of hate trying to give such pointers.

I love getting primals for my roulettes. I always stay until we clear, or when the others decide to give up. Had a ton of new people in shiva ex once. It took a while and a lot of explaining/practice, but we finally cleared and my group was so proud. I couldn't help but giggle a bit. It was quite fun :3

To me a good mentor says hello and, ask new players what they want to do :
- Explain everything to have a quick run
- Let them discover the strat the hard way while being patient and giving some hints

No a mentor myself (not enought dungeons....i hate farming....) althought I see myself as one and always ask them what they want to do, usually, they are pretty happy to have a discover run, even if it take an hour to clean the dungeon, rather than getting everything on a silver plate :D