Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent.

[YitharV2]

So I used the BL feature on a PC for the first time. This cocky SAM WHO WAS A MENTOR! He pulled everything and got pissy when he died and did it again. Then started bossing people around. He was on another server so I'll never see him again. But yeah, over three years and I've used it on RMTs.

Hmm, there was a thread on reddit specifically about mentors. I'm not entirely sure being a mentor really means that they know how to play or anything to be honest.

[Conquistadork]

shocked to see the next post isn't someone on your butt about you mentioning ur b.f.

I personally don't mind when you talk about your "g/f" but I think that what most people get annoyed at is that you never share your own experience on the topic, it's like your "g/f" is the one typing for you or mind controlling you to always talk about her, it's fine if you want to share your "g/f" experience but you should also share your own opinion too.

Back on topic:

I had a sad experience this weekend where I was running a dungeon with what seemed to be a group of ppl that que'd together. Everything was fine till before the second boss, where I had to move away from the computer for a bit and I said "brb in a few, sorry" or something like that, don't remember the exact words, I was away for like 3-4min and when I get back I was surprised to see that they already kicked me out of the duty...

I was shocked since I wasn't away for long and normally ppl are nice enough to wait if someone needs to be afk for a couple of min. Maybe it had to do with me being a DPS like one of my FC mates told me, and that they weren't willing to wait for me since I could be easily replaced. I felt really shocked that ppl where so impatient that they couldn't wait for a bit.

Thankfully I had another FC friend que with me for the next run and everything went really smooth, and I was able to get my clear of the dungeon. Nothing that great of a story but wanted to share with you guys.

[Avatre]

Hmm, there was a thread on reddit specifically about mentors. I'm not entirely sure being a mentor really means that they know how to play or anything to be honest.

99% of the time it doesn't mean anything as it is rather easy to complete 90% of the requirements by under sizing your party.

I had a sad experience this weekend where I was running a dungeon with what seemed to be a group of ppl that que'd together. Everything was fine till before the second boss, where I had to move away from the computer for a bit and I said "brb in a few, sorry" or something like that, don't remember the exact words, I was away for like 3-4min and when I get back I was surprised to see that they already kicked me out of the duty...

I was shocked since I wasn't away for long and normally ppl are nice enough to wait if someone needs to be afk for a couple of min. Maybe it had to do with me being a DPS like one of my FC mates told me, and that they weren't willing to wait for me since I could be easily be replaced. I felt really shocked that ppl where so impatient that they couldn't wait for a bit.

Thankfully I had another FC friend que with me for the next run and everything went really smooth, and I was able to get my clear of the dungeon. Nothing that great of a story but wanted to share with you guys.

Yeah, some people are just really impatient. I am willing to wait(even on nights where I get home late from work and have very limited time to play) if someone says BRB. Only time I will kick is if they "disconnect"(quotation marks because they aren't always a disconnect) and are gone for 5-10min. If they are just running to quickly grab/do something, I tend to not mind as it lets me catch up on other stuff I need to do(not in-game) while they are away.

[Arkenne]

The other day ran a Trial roulette with my friend and got Thordan.
One of the tanks was new so out of curiosity I checked their gear since they were taking their time on the cutscene so why not?
They had an i110 weapon I believe... I can't really remember, because I got way too choked by the i6 NQ earring they were sporting D:

Yea, no way in hell they would help at all on tanking.

After that we went for a lvling roulette and got Tam Tara. We got a slightly undergeared tank that not surprisingly struggled with his aggro but, fun fact, even this tank was better geared than that one in Thordan :/

[PharisHanasaki]

The Royal Menagerie. I had been helping my BF get his clear, as I got mine on my first attempt.

On our 3rd and last party we had a few new people, and among them a Summoner who mostly helped tank the floor and a Red Mage who obviously thought he/she queued up as a healer. Our summoner couldn't press the button as fast as was required to survive the ATM. Even on our fourth run he/she said 'I still can't press the button fast enough but I'm getting closer'. I thought that was cute, but the other healer didn't even bother raising him/her anymore as they couldn't evade AoE at all. Got hit by everything, literally.

What really did bother me though, was the Red Mage. Both of us healers were healing faster than him/her. But he/she insisted on only casting Vercure and Raise during the second phase. Our third run we got Shinryu down to 1%. I obviously confronted the red mage about it and told him/her: 'Red mage, I know you got the best intentions but we need you to please help with DPS. Neither of us healers are DPSing so we can heal'. He/she replied with 'Okay'. It seemed that he/she got it, but I did caught him/her casting Vercure a couple of times, but since no one died probably realized his/her heals were not required and focused on his job as a DPS, finally. We cleared.

[Nixxe]

Hmm, there was a thread on reddit specifically about mentors. I'm not entirely sure being a mentor really means that they know how to play or anything to be honest.

It doesn't. You can make 100 crafting collectibles and gather 300 gathering collectibles and become a mentor, which entitles you to wear any version of the mentor crown. To give you an idea of what that entails if you don't know, I made more than 100 collectible baklava just to get from 60 to 70 on CUL, the mats for which I bought off the MB real cheap, and that's generally considered the best way to level CUL. I gathered more than 300 collectibles leveling BTN and MIN from 60 to 70, though I'm less sure of the exact number, and I grinded to level those way more than anyone else in my FC.

My experience in Novice Network doesn't help this view and there are a few people who have some idea what they're talking about, but it mostly seems to be a social channel for drama queens who shout over people who actually want to help and shout at the people who need help. I wanted to help people, but gave up after I noticed the other mentors were rubbing off on me and I didn't want to contribute to the problem. The top tier of PVE mentors so to speak seem to be the sort of people who can recite the current theorycrafting by heart, which is moderately useful I suppose, but don't necessarily understand the reasons for the the theorycrafting being what it is except in the vaguest sense. This of course doesn't even touch on the players who are only mentors to wear the crown and do not interact with Novice Network at all and have no intention of helping anyone from the outset.

YMMV based on your server, but Malboro was largely the same before I transferred to Balmung (in the sense of it being more of a social channel than a help channel), though not nearly as toxic.

[HyoMinPark]

Hmm, there was a thread on reddit specifically about mentors. I'm not entirely sure being a mentor really means that they know how to play or anything to be honest.

It does not. I was helping Bourne_Endeavour level their DRG to 69 last night by spamming Doma Castle, and the "mentor" AST ran away from us with the stack marker on the second boss. Died, of course, and I had to Dualcast Verraise them. I also had to stop DPSing to Vercure the tank as he dropped to below 20% multiple times, had to Mana Shift the AST more than I've ever had to Mana Shift before, and still left with zero commendations. .___.

Seriously though. That stack marker/mechanic is present in so many freaking fights, how is it that people STILL don't know how to handle the FOUR PULSATING ARROWS POINTING INWARDS TOWARDS YOU.


I never did post about when I helped Bourne clear Royal Menagerie for the first time. This WAR... face-pulled the boss 5 out of the 6 pulls we got in immediately after the barrier dropped, refused to even wait for Protect, and died to Tidal Wave each pull except for one. Their reasoning was they were "excited." I completely understand being pumped up for the epic final battle of an expansion, but when you have half the party being newbies, and half being people who have cleared trying to explain mechanics others keep dying to, and your tank refuses to even wait for us to finish explanations (which were split between me on AST and my co-healer, and we can't exactly type on the fly while keeping people up, including the DRK wearing Level 68 and below white gear, and my RDM friend, who spent most of the time dead from RDM tanking), I start to lose my patience. Especially when we're called hostile for telling the WAR to PLEASE WAIT A MINUTE OR AT LEAST 5 SECONDS FOR PROTECT.

Needless to say, we didn't clear with that group. Ended up Vote Abandoning. We only made it past the ATM maybe twice; everyone except the two tanks ended up tanking the adds, and my RDM friend got Death Sentenced by the large one just about each time. I was starved for MP from Raising, the WHM was starved for MP from raising, and even with my friend Mana Shifting us (BLM in the group never did even though they have endless MP), it wasn't enough due to all the unnecessary death. Felt so bad for the poor BRD that said they waited 44 minutes for the queue to pop before the Abandon went through.



Also, didn't share this, but this happened a couple days ago: was farming some Ex primals for upgrades, and I decided to join in on some Lakshmi in the (vain) hope that the mount would drop (spoiler alert: it still doesn't exist). Had two people say to me that they were "surprised" I was doing so well, and had almost kicked me prior to queuing in because I had joined in on BRD, and they don't like BRDs.

....when will people realize that BRD is an extremely viable DPS in terms of, not only support, but DPS potential as well? BRDs are doing EXTREMELY well in terms of personal DPS in SB, and it really grinds my gears to hear people saying how weak BRDs are. I know there are a ton of terrible BRDs, but even a glance at FFLogs would show you that good BRDs are far from weak. So we don't put out the raw damage a (good) SAM does, or a MNK, or a NIN, or even a RDM. But considering our (newly regained) mobility and heavy support utility, we still do a pretty damn good job. Wish people would take the time to see that... At least they seemed to realize not all BRDs were bad? I'm not sure. It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth just thinking about that encounter.

For the record, I was pulling better DPS than the RDM and the SAM in that farm group. >.>

[Bourne_Endeavor]

It does not. I was helping Bourne_Endeavour level their DRG to 69 last night by spamming Doma Castle, and the "mentor" AST ran away from us with the stack marker on the second boss. Died, of course, and I had to Dualcast Verraise them. I also had to stop DPSing to Vercure the tank as he dropped to below 20% multiple times, had to Mana Shift the AST more than I've ever had to Mana Shift before, and still left with zero commendations. .___.

Seriously though. That stack marker/mechanic is present in so many freaking fights, how is it that people STILL don't know how to handle the FOUR PULSATING ARROWS POINTING INWARDS TOWARDS YOU.

Likewise, I just did Omega 3 and the mentor tank dragged her around the arena to avoid things completely oblivious to DPS uptime and positionals. Thanks to this, half the raid got clipped by Waltz since everyone scrambled to follow and got caught between getting hit by said Waltz or the Token aoes. The mentor crown doesn't mean anything more than you've played the game a lot. And this thread alone shows just how experienced some players are despite their play time.

[Averax]

I just wanted everyone to know that this image is definitely still relevant.

[Mysterysword]

Novice Network.

I refuse to be a PvE mentor, but was thinking about becoming a DoL/DoH mentor. Knowing the NN is really just a dramapad has helped to solidify my decision to stay far, far away from it.