Problem: The Mentor requirements cater to players who have no business being Mentors.

[Elazu]

Namely, the people who speedrun dungeons without a word all day without ever caring about newcomers. The kind of people who sour the experience for said newcomers by not letting them watch cutscenes, not explaining anything, and complaining when they can't keep up. The commendations requirement means nothing since these people rake in commendations from other speedrunners just for being fast and efficient.

The requirements are a joke, but not for the reasons you listed. They are a joke because they only require you to be good at grinding. You don't have to know anything about this game or your class to be good at grinding. There are tons of level 60s who have no idea how to play and those are the people who can be mentors, just for being carried through every dungeon.

[SaitoHikari]

Get rid of the crown. Everyone who only wanted mentor status for the gold crown without actually helping will immediately jump off the ship. It'll probably de-clog the mentor channels too.

And I say this as a mentor myself.

[Alberel]

What do newbies know about good mentoring? They only thing they can rate is "niceness", which isn't the sole factor in determining a good mentor.

You mean to say a newbie won't be able to tell if they've had questions answered, problems solved and advice given? You seem to be under the impression that most newbies are brain dead...

[Whiteroom]

Get rid of the crown. Everyone who only wanted mentor status for the gold crown without actually helping will immediately jump off the ship. It'll probably de-clog the mentor channels too.

And I say this as a mentor myself.

Or make it something not as appealing as a crown. In a game where people will grind stupid amounts for titles that iust clutter up a screen, giving them the option of a crown was a little short sighted.

[TaleraRistain]

Tbh, it seems every other person on Jenova has the crown. At this point I don't even see much point in getting it. It will be rare enough to get into the chat channel, and then you have such a huge ratio of mentors to leafs, that it's just clutter. Probably more efficent to help outside the channel.

Yeah I'm on the same server and holy crap, they're everywhere.

[Telanne]

You mean to say a newbie won't be able to tell if they've had questions answered, problems solved and advice given? You seem to be under the impression that most newbies are brain dead...

I think they're referring to newbies being given very inaccurate or bad advice in a nice/polite way. I've ran with DPS who chose not to use any DoT's "because they're a potency loss" and had some of their own math to back it up. A mentor like that can give very bad advice that sounds correct to a newbie.

[M0xie]

I've seen some jerk mentors in roulettes. If you don't want to mentor 24/7, don't wear the crown 24/7.

You can't turn it off when you want. The only way to get rid of it is to talk to the Smith and leave the system, after which you must wait 30 days to rejoin.

I really think the people who are enabling Mentoring and just "wearing the crown" will tire of it and turn it off; just give it time, people. Once the sparkly newness of it has worn off, you'll have more players with good intentions of helping others as the remainder.

[Sicno]

Honestly I think the mentor system wasn't needed at all and it may be doing more damage than good. What it tried to achieve is already covered by free companies. Think about it. Formerly, what did the new players get to see in their early hours? When other people approached them in cities or on the field it was usually to help them with something and/or to offer them a FC invite. The kind of FC who invites random new players has at least some helpful people, including the recruiters. The people and FCs who don't care about teaching and who are rude or elitists won't bother with them, won't invite them and they'll usually be busy raiding or in late game areas or in their housing wards so they're invisible to new players. And if new players get invited to a FC that makes them feel uncomfortable they can leave at any moment and seek for a nice environment with people who are willing to help.

But now with the mentor system and the misuse of the novice network all that toxicity that was invisible to them gets slapped on their faces early in the game and may give a terrible impression about the game itself and its community.

[Maero]

The mentor system is not at all meant as a source to teach new players end game rotations per say but to help them in general with tips and advice and so forth.
Like newcomers to tanking for example, like when to use flash, shield lob, etc..
The requirements to become Mentor is too easy, when i first heard about it i thought a player needed 1 of each class and with experience, this however is not the case.
Granted i have almost every class at 60, but i do feel they should of had higher guidelines in order to join.
From what i have heard the network itself people are using as a talk trash sort of deal. Myself i had been a mentor for almost a full week and never once was able to get on, always got the network is full.... :/

[Alberel]

I think they're referring to newbies being given very inaccurate or bad advice in a nice/polite way. I've ran with DPS who chose not to use any DoT's "because they're a potency loss" and had some of their own math to back it up. A mentor like that can give very bad advice that sounds correct to a newbie.

Well this is something you'll get either way. At least a system like this would ensure you only have people that are TRYING to help as opposed to the current horde of people that have no intention of actually helping anyone. The point is we need a system that prioritizes helpful players in the channel. I'd rather a couple of players giving poor advice slipped through the net than have all the sprouts abandon the channel because it's entirely unhelpful to them.

What if you were required to clear certain tiers of the SSS dps checks before becoming a mentor?