Mentor needs to mean something again

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Originally Posted by frijole

Well, that explains everything quite nicely. My friends begged me to play for a long time and I've enjoyed playing. We have a nice FC. It's not exactly competitive or seeking to have cleared Ex content, but it's fun. Guess I'll just rely on friends.

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Enjoy the game and welcome to it! Not all mentors are bad - they really aren't. But as you've read through this thread, it isn't what it could, or should, be. But if you are willing to learn and have questions and ask them, there are many people in the game willing to help.

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Originally Posted by frijole

Well, that explains everything quite nicely. My friends begged me to play for a long time and I've enjoyed playing.

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FFXIV is a great game at both the casual and hardcore levels. Where I feel it struggles is in the 'midcore'. There's a massive gap between the casual and hardcore ends. If you're trying to get across that gap things can get very frustrating.

That gap is where we could use a newly redesigned mentor system. One that attracted the kinds of people that like making guides and like teaching, and looked like a horrible nightmare to anyone else. Make it so that it actually stayed a mentor thing and not a 'gotta get it perk collection system'.

Mentor never meant anything and never will, it should requires you to beat a current savage fourth floor or an ultimate, but they will never do that because 99.9% of them would disappear and astrope would become even more unobtainable, I don't actually believe you that should need to be that competent to teach on a basic level, but the majority of current mentors play worse than bots, it is the way I could think of to filter them.
Your idea of the icon becoming a watering can would probably make me become one.

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Originally Posted by Fourbestintoner

it should requires you to beat a current savage fourth floor or an ultimate,.

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Ability to clear difficult content really shouldn't be a gate for being an educational resource. Mentors mainly need to be accessible, knowledgeable about basic gameplay, patient, and capable of relaying information over text.

All things newer players need. If people want runthroughs of top tier, bleeding edge content, they aren't the supposed targets of the mentor system.

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Originally Posted by Fourbestintoner

Mentor never meant anything and never will, it should requires you to beat a current savage fourth floor or an ultimate, but they will never do that because 99.9% of them would disappear and astrope would become even more unobtainable, I don't actually believe you that should need to be that competent to teach on a basic level, but the majority of current mentors play worse than bots, it is the way I could think of to filter them.
Your idea of the icon becoming a watering can would probably make me become one.

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Those mentors would be pretty much useless since they could only answer questions which nobody asks.

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Originally Posted by RyuSaarva

Those mentors would be pretty much useless since they could only answer questions which nobody asks.

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Yeah! What kind of new player would ask questions like when to use a certain skill or what's the most optimal rotation for a class, or what to meld, or real tips for a fight? Real players like us free style samurai and play ice mage! If it's good enough to go carry is through trusts, good enough for everyone else!

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Originally Posted by Fourbestintoner

Mentor never meant anything and never will, it should requires you to beat a current savage fourth floor or an ultimate, but they will never do that because 99.9% of them would disappear and astrope would become even more unobtainable, I don't actually believe you that should need to be that competent to teach on a basic level, but the majority of current mentors play worse than bots, it is the way I could think of to filter them.
Your idea of the icon becoming a watering can would probably make me become one.

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Demanding some kind of a content being cleared for becoming a mentor openly implies that you should be able to teach people how to clear said content. And it's all included in Mentor Roulette. Savages aren't part of it, because it's a high end content that, let's be honest, shouldn't be teached by mentors - their task is to help new players on their first steps, not to lead them through the entire game holding their hand. If anything, even Ex Trials already shouldn't be there, but since they are - so be it. The system isn't perfect (very far from it), but making Savages part of requirement for becoming a mentor wouldn't save it either.

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Originally Posted by MPK

Yeah! What kind of new player would ask questions like when to use a certain skill or what's the most optimal rotation for a class, or what to meld, or real tips for a fight? Real players like us free style samurai and play ice mage! If it's good enough to go carry is through trusts, good enough for everyone else!

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Anyone can help with those, you don't need to be part of the small minority who try to do ultimate stuff.

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Originally Posted by RyuSaarva

Anyone can help with those, you don't need to be part of the small minority who try to do ultimate stuff.

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Yeah you're completely right! A pure healer in dungeons surely knows as much about optimizing their rotation than someone who does thing like savage where your dps actually matters where you have to use your entire kit!

Honestly what gets me is that the most helpful players I've encountered almost never have the Mentor status. I think out of every time I see people offering helpful tips in party or alliance chat, one in ten are mentors. The rest are just average players who want to help for the sake of helping - while many a mentor in the party just stay silent or actively fubar the attempt because they're impatient. Honestly I think the best changes they could make to the mentor system would be to get rid of the rewards, introduce a review system so that mentors have to periodically prove they're actually mentoring to keep the status, and actually provide moderation to each server's NN. Or, and this might make some people mad, get rid of the NN entirely. If it's being treated as just another chat then it's failed on a fundamental level.