The Mentor system isn't bad, it does what it's supposed to, which is just to provide an in game system for people to help each other (and to fill queues). Some Mentors will only want the crown or the mount, but they don't take anything away from those mentors that actually want to help, and they still contribute to the secondary purpose of adding players into the DF player pool.

There are some changes I'd like to see, but a complete rework isn't necessary. More mentor slots in the Novice Network would be nice since the ratio of mentors to novices tends to be closer to 50-50 than ~25-75. I'd also like more tools to find players in need, like an indication of what duties have first timers queuing for them, or the ability to specifically queue for in progress duties that have been up for a long time. It might also be nice to give novices in the NN more ways to get in touch with mentors, these could range from simple player status (Looking to learn a dungeon, need crafter, etc) to having a place to post more detailed messages that mentors could browse and respond to.