Mentor System: Increase Commendations to 500

[Kuwagami]

see i havent even done any of that lol

all my runs are of, like, amdapor keep and lowbie dungeons >.<

the early zetas were gotten by farming Cape Westwind non-stop for some 10ish hours or so

Way too insane for me, I opted for the 2 weeks "what's the primal in bonus" way of farming it. Still some 15 hours farming in total, but over 2 weeks rather than straight

[Veritas-Ancora]

As I read it, "commendations are worthless and mean nothing, please make the requirement higher for commendations." That makes little sense to me.

They're not worthless at all. Any player who takes the time to explain to the party how a dungeon work is far more likely to get commendations than anyone else. Sure there might be times where the team is lazy and doesn't bother (there really should be an automatic pop-up for these things), but overall if I explain something to a party, I usually get at least half the commendations from the group.

The fact of the matter is that DPS queues are terrible because we have way, way too many DPS. And the ones who do get the commendations are tanks or healers, because they have instant queues and a good one is hard to come by. If the developers succeed at this endeavor, we just might start seeing more people confident in tanking and healing. And if that happens, all the queues will finally balance out.

[Blitzace]

Can we please stop pretending DPS don't get commendations? I get commendations regardless if i play tank/healer/dps. Sure, Tank/Healer are more likely maybe, but i never struggle to get commendations as a DPS. Hell back when i was leveling my BRD in 2.2? i was getting atleast 1-2 commendations every dungeon i did on it. And even when i leveled my MNK the last month to 15->60 i got about 1-2 commendation every other dungeon, and every now and then even 3.

[bardaboo]

Exactly, which goes straight back to my original point. Commends are a bad metric and don't measure aptitude in any way. Nor does run count (my "Duty finder" comment was mostly a joke on those people you see in there who make you question whether a toddler managed to get onto someone's account while they were AFK, since it shouldn't be possible for someone who has played as long as them with their class that high to be that bad at it). I support more rigorous testing for mentors, not just a random grind.

But my point is, this system isn't MEANT to teach job specifics it's meant to teach dungeon and class basics like healing and tanking in general, which is very easy to grasp. So increasing the requirements is pointless. If they ever introduce job mentoring then yes it makes sense to have higher requirements.

[Kaurie]

They're not worthless at all. Any player who takes the time to explain to the party how a dungeon work is far more likely to get commendations than anyone else. Sure there might be times where the team is lazy and doesn't bother (there really should be an automatic pop-up for these things), but overall if I explain something to a party, I usually get at least half the commendations from the group.

The fact of the matter is that DPS queues are terrible because we have way, way too many DPS. And the ones who do get the commendations are tanks or healers, because they have instant queues and a good one is hard to come by. If the developers succeed at this endeavor, we just might start seeing more people confident in tanking and healing. And if that happens, all the queues will finally balance out.

First off, I did not say they are worthless, I said the OP said they are worthless and followed it up by saying they should increase the number required. The conclusion doesn't follow the reasoning.

Second, you are not more likely to get a commendation if you explain the dungeon, as i have previously mentioned in this thread. I am about 5x more likely to get a commendation if I don't explain things, than if I am. I am not sure why, but this is merely from my experience.

Third, I often receive commendations on my DPS.

Finally, I am not sure why you think the mentor system may result in more healers and tanks in duty finder, but I doubt that will be the result of this.

Personally, I think the result of all of this will be:
1. People signing up to be mentors, only to be frustrated at the lack of gratitude received
2. People who are helped by mentors will get angry that they are being told what to do, and they just want to play the way they want
3. Neither of the above happen, but only a very small select few opt to have a mentor help them
3b. The few that opt to have a mentor would have learned to play anyway through FC mates, asking questions and searching online
4. There will be no noticeable difference in the quality or skill level of the average player
5. The system will be largely forgotten in a couple of months

[Callback]

But my point is, this system isn't MEANT to teach job specifics it's meant to teach dungeon and class basics like healing and tanking in general, which is very easy to grasp. So increasing the requirements is pointless. If they ever introduce job mentoring then yes it makes sense to have higher requirements.

um...

The mentor system seesm to be more about the ins and outs of the actual jobs/roles themselves than about tactics on a specific boss or dungeon. So in this context, knowing the break points for single target vs aoe dps on your job/role while being able to efficiently maximize output would be more valuable than knowing to bait the fire to the side of the ring on the second boss of Keeper or to turn away from petrifaction so you don't turn to stone. Dungeons strats are pretty self evident in most cases and easily explained. The goal of the mentor system is to have experienced players help newer players learn the ins and outs of their job/roles. Knowing a boss strat and knowing which drg OGCDS can be double weaved without clipping are two very separate things.

So yeah. Nobody even knows what the point of this thing is. All we know is that commends are a useless metric

[Veritas-Ancora]

First off, I did not say they are worthless, I said the OP said they are worthless and followed it up by saying they should increase the number required. The conclusion doesn't follow the reasoning.

Actually, I am the OP, and if you re-read that, I didn't say that at all.

[Veritas-Ancora]

Finally, I am not sure why you think the mentor system may result in more healers and tanks in duty finder, but I doubt that will be the result of this.

Because players don't realize how good they are at something until they try it. Players frequently have a preconceived notion of how tanks function in SWTOR, or WoW, or countless other games using the party trinity.

I played melee DPS in WoW, I was terrible at it. I vowed not to try that in this game. I joined a raid group, our DPS was bad but my heals were good. So we gave a swap a shot and my raid leader asked me to be a MNK. I begrudgingly agreed, and within one week of playing it to L50 I was outperforming our entire DPS team.

There's unlocked potential in all of these jobs, and not everyone realizes what they're really good at until they give it a shot and see for themselves. The mentor system is heavily encouraging trying other jobs.

[Lambdafish]

Second, you are not more likely to get a commendation if you explain the dungeon, as i have previously mentioned in this thread. I am about 5x more likely to get a commendation if I don't explain things, than if I am. I am not sure why, but this is merely from my experience.

I read your example and I can guarantee that all the comms went to the tank who was new, rather than you who helped them.

[GenericMagus]

I think the real question we should be asking is not on the commendations, or of the any other requirements, but rather on the quality of the mentor itself. The requirements are extremely easy to obtain just by simply playing the game. It doesn't show effort, motivation, personality, teaching style, fashion sense, what they eat, their political and religious views, etc.

Anyone can teach, but that doesn't mean you're a good teacher. But, I hear good things about how Valve does it with Team Fortress 2 and coaching, so I would be looking forward to it (and of course, wanting to be a mentor myself).