The mentor system sucks, and here's how I would fix it.

[Aramina]

I don't, but there's no reason to remove it, either, knowing that not everyone is altruistic by default.

This. In an ideal world everyone (or at least enough) would be willing to help just to help, but reality is the roulette (and mount) were created because that was not happening. Removing it would hurt far more non-mentors than it would mentors.

[Vnolan]

For the Mentor Roulette issues, my suggestion on how to clean things up somewhat:

• Add a second roulette - "Mentor+ Roulette" that would have all content that is currently in the roulette with a priority on EX/MSQ content, if possible. Have a successful completion of this count as 2 or 3 ticks on the achievement for the titles/mount/etc.
• Change the current Mentor Roulette to NOT include EX/MSQ. Still counts towards achievements same as always.

No one would touch the new one. The current fastest method to getting the achievements is to cheese queues using a dummy tank and/or healer account. You have them queue for the Guildhest "Under the Armor" and at the same time you have your mentor queue for the roulette on a DPS role. If the queue pops for the tank/healer but not for the DPS, you know you weren't paired and can just spend the 60 seconds doing the Guildhest before trying again. If the DPS queue pops and it's not a short duty, you can take the penalty.

• Have UNSYNCED CLEARS not count towards unlocking either roulette. People faceroll a lot of old content unsynced to farm mounts and have near to no idea how the fights are supposed to be done when at current level.

Mentors would just buy clears. Even synced, ilvl differences make several of the trials easy to the point where even the average player could sell runs. If a mentor legitimately "earned" their clear as a tank, they'd still be able to queue as a healer or DPS.

• Add a harsher penalty on using the Duty Finder for leaving both roulettes - 2 hours on Mentor and 24 hours on Mentor+.

Harsher penalties would just result in them looking to get removed.

Being Vote Dismissed also activates the lockout in Mentor+.

The Devs would never allow players to inflict a penalty on others as it would be ripe for abuse.

[Lucinda]

While reading the entirety of this thread, I’ve done a lot of thinking. At first, I put most of the blame on mentors. Then, it balanced out slowly between mentors and players. From my personal experience with some mentors, there are some horrible ones that really shouldn’t have bothered getting it. I feel like a lot of responses on this topic would be fuelled by personal experience.

While Novice Network could be treated like a general chat at times, I remember it being very helpful to me. I was so disappointed once I had to leave! If the system were to change, I’d wish for the NN to have the least changes.

If I were to suggest something, it would be to finding ways to prevent mentors with little to no intention to help from getting the status. Also, there should be consequences in place for those who are unnecessarily rude to mentors. That way, only mentors who truly want to help out will remain, and will stay in good spirits due to other players needing to respect them more.

[JackHatchet]

FCs and Linkshells exist to talk with your friends.

Not a good response. FC and Linkshells are not global chat, nor are they even close. I've seen lots of people say "oh just join a social linkshell." I've never seen a Linkshell that's as active as novice network. Not even close. You find one--you let me know. But until that happens, it's just a bad answer. It's so out of touch with the situation that I don't know if you're trolling me or just don't understand that a Linkshell isn't anywhere near as active as a global chat channel.

[Yshal]

The mentor system really helped me out when I was returning to the game. The people in the channel were extremely helpful and the mentors I see in the roulettes I've joined have all been friendly and have explained fights when I've asked for a refresher on them.

Seems to ME that the system is working just fine.

If a mentor isn't acting appropriately, I'd just report them like any other person. But when I see someone with the crown, I know they have hundreds of hours of play time and at least know the basics of the game and the content I'm doing with them. Knowing this, I feel confident about asking for advice from them.

If you remove the mentor system from the game, I'll have no idea if the person offering me advice has even a week of game experience.

Seems to me the system is just fine.

[Iscah]

For the Mentor Roulette issues, my suggestion on how to clean things up somewhat:

• Add a second roulette - "Mentor+ Roulette" that would have all content that is currently in the roulette with a priority on EX/MSQ content, if possible. Have a successful completion of this count as 2 or 3 ticks on the achievement for the titles/mount/etc.
• Change the current Mentor Roulette to NOT include EX/MSQ. Still counts towards achievements same as always.

I would also like to see EX trials split from the main Mentor Roulette - I don't know how to do them synched, and wouldn't be able to teach a most-likely-Japanese newbie how to do it.

I would gladly queue for a non-EX mentor roulette with a reduced prize, and there's a lot I could contribute to that. But as long as EX trials are included, I can't be a mentor in those situations.

It wouldn't make sense to move Castrum/Praetorium into the "EX Mentor" roulette, because it's a very different situation. That's not an "extra high skill bar" obstacle, but a time-based one.

If you're queuing for Mentor Roulette, you should be sent somewhere that you can be helpful, and filling an MSQ roulette party achieves exactly that. It's not hard work, even if it is the 'booby prize' for the roulette. Whereas an EX trial may be a situation where you actually can't help.

No one would touch the new one. The current fastest method to getting the achievements is to cheese queues using a dummy tank and/or healer account. You have them queue for the Guildhest "Under the Armor" and at the same time you have your mentor queue for the roulette on a DPS role. If the queue pops for the tank/healer but not for the DPS, you know you weren't paired and can just spend the 60 seconds doing the Guildhest before trying again. If the DPS queue pops and it's not a short duty, you can take the penalty.

...is this why Under The Armour seems to come up in 90% of guildhest roulettes? Urgh.

[Selova]

Yeah, the roulette as it works now helps fill parties with mentors. The problem is that mentor as they are in game atm, is a pointless title that people get for reasons that don't coincide with helping newer players with anything. That's why it's better to just not have them, mentors literally join roulettes and leave if they get something not "worth their time" and from what I've seen, most novice networks are just used as a global chat for people who need someone to talk to.

There is no reason to punish the many for the sake of the few. These topics always spiral into a massive flame war with people who have these vendetta's against Mentors due to personal anecdotal experiences and then want to paint every single mentor with the same brush. No one is denying that there are selfish mentors who only wear the crown for the personal buffs and the mentor mount, but not all of us are like that. I believe changes should indeed be made to the current system, but abolishing it completely because you had a personal bad experience with a mentor isn't the way to go about it.

[BunnyChain]

The current novice network has taught us a few things: People wear the burger-king crown unironically - make it only visible to those who need to see it. And we need a global chat channel - trade & general would be a start.

[rachcouture]

I would also like to see EX trials split from the main Mentor Roulette - I don't know how to do them synched, and wouldn't be able to teach a most-likely-Japanese newbie how to do it.

I would gladly queue for a non-EX mentor roulette with a reduced prize, and there's a lot I could contribute to that. But as long as EX trials are included, I can't be a mentor in those situations.

It wouldn't make sense to move Castrum/Praetorium into the "EX Mentor" roulette, because it's a very different situation. That's not an "extra high skill bar" obstacle, but a time-based one.

If you're queuing for Mentor Roulette, you should be sent somewhere that you can be helpful, and filling an MSQ roulette party achieves exactly that. It's not hard work, even if it is the 'booby prize' for the roulette. Whereas an EX trial may be a situation where you actually can't help.

This is part of the reason why I think Mentor Roulette should be changed like they did with Trials ages ago, by allowing you to queue by what you've cleared, and not locking you out for what you haven't. I honestly believe both the quantity and quality of mentors would greatly improve if more people with the status enabled could queue; a win-win situation.

If it's any consolation, though, I'm far from perfect, too. There are plenty of EX trials and raids I only did once or twice, and after playing the game for five years, some of the fine details in things I've ran hundreds of times start to fade, never mind if I'm distracted by something more important in real life. Hell, I only just did Orbornne Monastery the other day. I prefer to go in blind as I learn best by doing, not reading or watching (and frankly I find writing an essay describing every little detail in party chat when the biggest majority of mechanics are universal throughout the game to be somewhat condescending). Died a few times, but I got the hang of it and had other people in my alliance verify a couple of things that made zero sense to me (i.e. the graphic for the sniper segment; should be the other way around).

All I want is for people to try; expecting more is as unfair as it is unlikely. I just wish more people felt the same.

[DuskTS]

Put Astrope mount for MGP in gold saucer problem solved.