The mentor system needs to be reevaulated.

[Yeol]

Just remove the crown.

Many people went for Mentor status just because they want a fancy crown above their heads.

Remove the crown and you remove the bad mentors with it.
Crown or no crown, a helpful player will always be helpful.

[Afrit_Alchemy]

As both a mentor on my main and alt, my only drive for getting mentorship was to be able to stay in NN and help sprouts and anyone else that needed an answer to a question.

I agree that things could be better, but there's too many variables and you'll run into an asshat, crown or not. One of my closest mentor friends, before taking a break from XIV, would butt heads with other asshat mentors. Why? Reasons akin to OP's.

I wear mine proudly knowing I have a symbol that says "I'm here if you need me, don't be afraid to ask for guidance."

[linay]

As both a mentor on my main and alt, my only drive for getting mentorship was to be able to stay in NN and help sprouts and anyone else that needed an answer to a question.

They really should just make the mentor status account wide.

[Afrit_Alchemy]

Also, sorry for the necroposts... ^^;

[KisaiTenshi]

This thread and it's contents are still bothering me.

That said I think the only solution is to start wearing my mentor crown as much as I can.

The only reason I'm not wearing it presently is because I don't feel like I can achieve my own expectation of a mentor but with the general public consensus being that mentors are actually a detriment I'm sure I'm better than that.
...

I think this is just identifying the problem. The problem is that the crown is active when not engaging in a mentor role. Players who have qualified for Mentor, for ANY reason, should have the crown only turned on when they are "in mentor" mode, so players can engage with players with the crown turned on because it says "I'm available to help"

What seems to happen, or so I hear, is that a small amount of people just want the crown because it's a form of completion. Yay, you got the crown, now are you going to help people or just use it to get an extra roulette queue. Because if it's the latter, entering any DF with the crown on should minimally force the mentor to be a mentor or turn it on/off from the DF to begin with. That can be accomplished by locking out the vote-kick and vote-abandon options from players with mentor status on, because if you enter as a mentor, you should be able to finish it, even if the party is terrible. People tend to complain that they get hard content with the Mentor's queue, when that is in fact the point, and that's the most abandoned content.

On the flip side of that, players who have not completed the content, should not be able to enter with the Mentor crown on. It would help a lot more if the game actually kept internal statistics, basically giving players a S/A/B/C rating in a certain job with certain content, and not permitting the Mentor to be a Mentor in content if they can't achieve at least an A rating in it with a full PUG. If they can only get a B rating, they will only be placed in PUG's with other B-or-better's without the mentor crown. If a player can't get a C or hasn't completed the content, then they will be shown as a newbie.

But what happens instead is people just get the crown and wear it all the time, mentoring or not, bad mood or not.

[KageTokage]

I feel like they should at least increase the max number of mentors in Novice Network because on an average server only a small fraction of the people will bother to talk at all, while the rest seem to just treat it like some kind of status symbol.

It particularly annoys me to regularly see bot farmers pulling overnighters in there.

[Ceridwenae]

I have to say this has been on my mind since I resubbed the other week and acquired mentor status, due to crafting - I don't even feel qualified in that capacity, but it is what it is. What is of concern, as was pointed out way back in this thread, is the fact I could pop the icon for all other aspects of game play mentoring currently enabled. I've never set foot in PvP, for example, yet I can be seen as a mentor for it by the uninitiated if I wish to. This makes no sense. Similarly, I don't think it's smart to have the plain crown (omnimentor?) available in this case, nor the one which suggests I know stuff about fighting things. I mean, I do have a snippet of knowledge, yes, but not where I'd really feel comfortable saying "AMA! I am font of all FFXIV knowledge", or whatever. I'm also an awful teacher, terrible at explaining things. What logic says just because I crafted some stuff and turned in some collectables I can mentor anyone in any capacity in the game? I mean, the methods I employed to do the crafting and gathering would most likely have proper crafters and gathers crying into their pillows at night, but at least I'm not affecting their game in any way if I don't do a "perfect" collectable.

I do not wear the crown, I don't want it for anything but the crafting bit - and even then, I'm not sure those requirements shouldn't be higher because if I wander into getting it by accident*, I have to think those requirements just aren't stringent enough. It's still a thing I can look at and say I suppose I earned it, I can be a little proud. At least I can't do the mentor roulette, that would just be completely naughty if I could do that in addition. I know I can resign the whole thing, and I think I'll resign it when I log in later today. If I'm truly worthy I'm sure I can get it again. If not, eh. It's not a loss to anyone.

I would say you get it if you earn it in the sector in which you earn it alone, and you should only wear it if you're prepared to represent what it represents (and indeed, it tells you this when you're poking the icons. No one can say they don't know how to behave when they select it for display). How it is right now is very silly and ought to be addressed.


* And herein lies the clueless bit: I resubbed, and was intending to get into an inn room to do some glamour/dye stuff. I misclicked (am Queen of Misclick), and inadvertantly started talking to the Hall of Novice chap. Can't escape the conversation, so just click through, sort of not reading and thinking it's the usual blurb with a long list of How To Get Mentor stuff. Not really paying full attention I click yes, just to shut the convo up, and immediately realise what I've done. If there's any further proof required that I should not mentor, there it is. It killed my returner status dead. I was wanting to use that crutch! I needed that! I misclick things regularly enough there should be a warning sign on my character's front and back! Oof.

[Stanelis]

I think sqome people do misunderstand the purpose of the mentor role. Mentors aren't here to teach players to be great players (it isn't the role of the mentors to know every rotation for every job and to tell players in NN what they should be doing in savage content) but to guide beginners if for some reason they do not know what to do at some point. They are also here to help with duties they partake in by giving directions to new players.

[BillyKaplan]

The only reason I'm not wearing it presently is because I don't feel like I can achieve my own expectation of a mentor

This statement, old as it may be, is at the core of the problem here. What expectations do you have that you cannot live up to? If you cannot live up to them, maybe it's time to reevaluate them. How fair are they to other people? How in-line they are with Square's own requirements and stated definition of a Mentor?
I can say I expect every Mentor to be Jesus level of human. No one's going to live up to that. But that's also nothing SE asks out of Mentors in the first place.

Players who have qualified for Mentor, for ANY reason, should have the crown only turned on when they are "in mentor" mode, so players can engage with players with the crown turned on because it says "I'm available to help"

It basically tells you that when you want to change your online status to it. There's nothing keeping people from lying.

That can be accomplished by locking out the vote-kick and vote-abandon options from players with mentor status on, because if you enter as a mentor, you should be able to finish it, even if the party is terrible. People tend to complain that they get hard content with the Mentor's queue, when that is in fact the point, and that's the most abandoned content.

1. Disabling the kick options is only going to protect bad behavior. And it's not like votes are something the Mentor themselves is capable of passing on their own, they need at least so many other people to vote with them
2. Mentors are absolutely not here to carry dead weight. "You should be able to finish it, even if the party is terrible"? Are you serious? How is my BLM self supposed to carry a party through the Aurum Vale when the tank and healer are both undergeared and hardly familiar with their kits because they're sprouts? Remember those aforementioned inflated expectations? This, right here. This is it.

they will be shown as a newbie.

And thus escape the scrutiny of actually being a Mentor in there. Everything you suggested only means less people would be Mentors. Which is nice in theory but the roulette was there to get queues moving. SE isn't going to do anything that will hurt it that much.

But what happens instead is people just get the crown and wear it all the time, mentoring or not, bad mood or not.

You have no way of monitoring what people do when they have the crown up without going all Big Brother on each and every single Mentor. And that's something SE shouldn't do, even if it had the manpower to do so - which it doesn't.

I'll be blunt, this entire post was more than a bit delusional.

They are also here to help with duties they partake in by giving directions to new players.

Which includes, but should not be limited to:
1. "Put up a Party Finder". Extreme primals synced, at least ARR ones, is not something so easy to run synced. At least not if you have more than a couple of first timers. That's not content that should be pugged so much.
2. "Watch a guide". Maybe the mentor can't really explain the fight which is not a requirement set forth by SE. Maybe the newcomer learns better through visual aids and not by reading walls of text. Knowing that you should probably prep before an Extreme fight is a good thing, especially since up to then most content could be streamrolled.

[Zeldert-Castiel]

I'm sorry to know what happened to your friend. As a mentor this story boild my blood.

I want to help in my server but currently Japanese speakers dominated and I can't speak Japanese...