A mentor kicked my dog!

[Krotoan]

The second is the "if you don't like the heat get out of the kitchen" response.



These are particularly funny because they basically try to say that none of the problems I've spoken about exist - or rather that they do exist but they aren't problems. Lmao, sure thing kiddos.

Jokes on you, outside of mentor roulette I haven't had the crown on for more than a year now. Please reach harder.

Yes people have some expectations, you personally can avoid these expectations by NOT running the mentor roulette. It's completely optional. Tell me why you HAVE to run it? This is exactly like the people who complain the main story roulette is too long yet STILL QUEUE all the time.

Let me also address your supposed problems one by one

Always able to offer instruction
Never give unsolicited instruction
Good at all the content (yes, even if they're new to it)
Good at whatever job they're playing (even though they might be leveling it still)
Patient and willing (and able!) to carry everyone through everything

1.nobody expects this, but people do expect basic understanding of mechanics and FFXIV theory. Why are you running the mentor roulette without being at least passingly familiar with its contents? It's meant to offer the broadest possible help to people who want to finish/clear content. If you hate running EX/raid/dungeon with people who are going to have expectations of the person WEARING THE CROWN THAT SAYS YOU ARE GOING TO HELP IF THINGS ARE GOING ROUGH, don't run the mentor roulette.

2. IF someone refuses help, stop helping. Not really hard to do.

3.see 1

4. Don't use an unfamiliar job in mentor roulette. Practice it on other content , queue in mentor when you're confident with it.

5. Patience is part of the job description but there is no job that can totally carry an entire party.

[SilverObi]

The general disdain for mentors made me turn in my crown and pretty much pipe down in regards to offering advice. Hell, even without it I feel hesitation on giving tips to a clearly struggling player unless they ask explicitly for help, what with all the vitriol that gets thrown about. I do enjoy the NN since people actually do ask for help and its a generally good way to debate tactics with people who have tried them in content even if sometimes opinions clash and names get called.

[MorbolvampireQueen6]

Easy solution just put mentor as a title and sell crown by name in mogstation.
Not going 2 lie only reason i think about getting it is 4 crown lol i think others are same with thay

[Vahlnir]

Easy solution just put mentor as a title and sell crown by name in mogstation.
Not going 2 lie only reason i think about getting it is 4 crown lol i think others are same with thay

I'm not going to lie either...this way of thinking is part of the problem, not the solution. Mogstation and all.

[van_arn]

The general disdain for mentors made me turn in my crown and pretty much pipe down in regards to offering advice. Hell, even without it I feel hesitation on giving tips to a clearly struggling player unless they ask explicitly for help, what with all the vitriol that gets thrown about. I do enjoy the NN since people actually do ask for help and its a generally good way to debate tactics with people who have tried them in content even if sometimes opinions clash and names get called.

This is why it's important for mentors, when giving advice politely, to not tolerate rude responses. See also: set an example.

I had a tank that, when I suggested they flash or cover, flatly said no. This is after they caused a wipe by refusing to pick up adds.

We immediately kicked them and we went on to healtank the boss. While we were fighting, the replacement tank came in and had a great view while they were locked out.

Zero time lost, two sprouts think the mentor is a god-tier healer (even if he absolutely isn't) and the replacement tank sees the funniest thing they'd seen all night.

[Krotoan]

Easy solution just put mentor as a title and sell crown by name in mogstation.
Not going 2 lie only reason i think about getting it is 4 crown lol i think others are same with thay

The problem is there is a reward people want associated with the title and NO accountability or level of judgement needed for it. For the mentor title to be valid there should have been some sort of after instance survey the potential mentor could choose to send out when finished. That way you could avoid people who didn't want to fill out the survey or toxic people "blamming" you because it was unwelcome but still get actual feedback instead of checking off boxes.

[Sandoria]

Most crowns I've seen just use the status to farm up some in-game perks. There have been a few genuinely good, helpful crowns along the way but they are far and few between.

[WarzonePrez]

I mean basically... title?

Honestly though I can't parse so I acknowledge that I can only tell so much about competence when I'm not playing with a friend who can but even as a healer I've not noticed mentors being specifically worse than other players.

I just read through another thread about how awful people think mentors are, multiple people claiming they'd never met a competent mentor and like.... bull. I call bull on that. It's just a bold faced lie unless your threshold for competence is sky high.

Let's look at the requirements to be a mentor; you don't need to be level capped in anything, you don't need to have completed any content that is remotely challenging and there is no "competence test" before joining. You need to have played the game for a little while... that's basically it.

If SE made being a mentor harder (say... cleared the prior tier's final Savage fight as a new one comes out?) they would not only be invalidating the main purpose of the mentor role (filling queues) but also would invariably receive large scale backlash from the hypercasuals.

So what is it, community? What do you want from mentors? What makes you happy? Because it seems to me mentors need to be

• Always able to offer instruction
• Never give unsolicited instruction
• Good at all the content (yes, even if they're new to it)
• Good at whatever job they're playing (even though they might be leveling it still)
• Patient and willing (and able!) to carry everyone through everything

When they fall outside of this it's immediately chocked up to this ridiculous standard that maybe .01% of players can actually reach somehow being the baseline for a status that you can get by crafting a couple hundred collectables.

Chill. The. Fluff. Out. Just because someone has a little crown icon by their name doesn't mean squat in this game and if you're willing to stereotype people for it you're likely no prize yourself.

GCBTW.

There is a thread in this forum called "Tales From the Duty Finder". I think you should take the time to read some, if not all, of it. Then come back here and define what a "good mentor" is.

[Veis_Alveare]

There is a thread in this forum called "Tales From the Duty Finder". I think you should take the time to read some, if not all, of it. Then come back here and define what a "good mentor" is.

That's literally the issue I'm complaining about - there is a ton of bad press in that thread for mentors and because of that and threads like it we wind up with this negative stereotype surrounding mentors that's entirely undeserved.

I've seen plenty of stupid mentors. I've seen plenty of stupid sprouts, returners and regular players as well. There are a ton of people that are absolutely awful at this game in every level of play and yet the only ones who have such a negative reputation are mentors.

No one talks about how they queued in, saw a sprout and knew they were going to play like crap even though that's just as if not more likely.

If SE took the time to develop a mentor program that had an actual skill gate we wouldn't be here. I would very much be in favor of mentorship only being accessible if you've cleared the prior Savage tier. It wouldn't keep every bad player out but it would certainly do a lot of filtering of people who have no business representing "exemplary play".

A good mentor is a patient person who understands mechanics of instances, jobs and the game as a whole and is able to articulate them well the vast majority of the time.

That bar isn't super high but it's much higher than what we have now while still being too low to satisfy a lot of the nitpicky idiots who whine about how a mentor dropped an AoE on them in casual content.

I think to be a mentor that could reliably satisfy the playerbase you'd literally need mind reading powers. Anything short of that and you're damned no matter what.

Let me also address your supposed problems one by one

These aren't problems I have. I rarely speak at all ingame now that the ToS is so Orwellian. These are problems I've observed based on the entitled brats on the forums constant whining.

[Violet_Galaxy]

I love being a mentor and I wear my crown loud and proud. No, it doesn't mean I know every single thing about Eorzea or every single mechanic in a dungeon. All it means (to me) is I play this game too much and met SE rather easy qualifications for mentor status. That's really all there is to it. I apologize in advance if I'm having a bad day in a dungeon or trial; mentors are humans and are prone to mistakes and bad days, but at the same time I'll try to follow the golden rule. I'll try my best to explain mechanics if someone asks but if I don't know, I'm going to be 100% honest with you and tell you I don't know. Please don't hold that against me just because I have a crown.