Mentor Changes - Why 1500 Comms?

[BloodRubyXII]

Your tag doesn't stop you helping people, I don't even wear it - I just got mentor status to be able to answer PvP questions in NN but generally I don't wear the crown, because I'd rather help people without it and the general perception of people with the crown is quite poor. This post absolutely smacks of you being upset that you're losing it despite the fact it doesn't really change your ability to help anyone the way you are apparently doing. I predominantly play Feast and before Feast, I played Fold. I also play a Frontlines from time to time and I still can't AVOID getting comms. Even if I don't say anything I'll just get them for being good.

Also you meld SpS as WHM. Why.

[NintendoAnimeFan]

I mean I've only been playing since April of last year and I have well over 1,800 commendations split between healer and DPS. I know commendations are highly subjective but I seriously have to wander about people that have been playing longer than me but have less commendations than me.

And I've only been playing since July of last year, yet I have just slightly over 600 commendations while playing healer almost exclusively. Commendations aren't just highly subjective. They are 100% subjective. You are completely at the mercy of how other players think and feel about you, whether the reasons for said thoughts and feelings are legit or not. Everyone has different opinions on what makes a good or bad tank, healer, and dps.

And let's not forget that there are other requirements to become a mentor besides comms. Completing 1,000 dungeons is no small feat, even if you did take the "easy" method and just kept running trials. I just recently completed my 800th dungeon personally. It's still a grind either way. And then you also need to have at least 1 tank, 1 healer, and 1 dps all at max level AND have completed all of their respective class/role quests.

People need to stop pretending that increasing the commendation requirement AT ALL, let alone fivefold, is a good idea when the comm system is based on subjectivity to begin with.

[SummonerSenah]

Oh I don't disagree. In a perfect world commendations would actually represent excellence and having loads would account for being an amazing player.

However this is FFXIV here. And the bar for getting commendations is much much lower than that.

In XIV you can walk out with a handful of commendations just because a few folks like your glamorous or you simply said hi peeps at the start of a duty. Hell you can get commendations just for being the last person to leave an instance at the end. So throwing out some dps as a healer or aoes as an actual dps is generally going to net you a significant amount of comms.

I guess what I'm saying then is that when the bar for getting commendations is as low as it is. Getting 1500 should be easy enough for anyone including people who play dps.

To piggyback off of this.

When dps aren't getting comms, they say that "only tanks and healers get them." But when healers and tanks aren't getting comms, they say that "people give out commendations randomly, it could be for glamour or just a cool name or something."

If giving out commendations is as random as people think, then everyone always has an equal chance to get them regardless of role. If you haven't hit 1500 yet it might just mean that possibly you aren't running roulettes a lot, or just run with premades, and need to branch out a bit.

[Frizze]

And I've only been playing since July of last year, yet I have just slightly over 600 commendations while playing healer almost exclusively. Commendations aren't just highly subjective. They are 100% subjective. You are completely at the mercy of how other players think and feel about you, whether the reasons for said thoughts and feelings are legit or not. Everyone has different opinions on what makes a good or bad tank, healer, and dps.

And let's not forget that there are other requirements to become a mentor besides comms. Completing 1,000 dungeons is no small feat, even if you did take the "easy" method and just kept running trials. I just recently completed my 800th dungeon personally. It's still a grind either way. And then you also need to have at least 1 tank, 1 healer, and 1 dps all at max level AND have completed all of their respective class/role quests.

People need to stop pretending that increasing the commendation requirement AT ALL, let alone fivefold, is a good idea when the comm system is based on subjectivity to begin with.

Whether someone is a good mentor or not is subjective. Hell, whether someone should be a mentor or not in the first place is fairly subjective. The criteria i lay out might be different from the next guy. If i was asked, id say someone should know what theyre talking about, be friendly, and a good communicator. How do you automate judging that? Well having several classes leveled up would mean you should know about classes(should have at least one in each role, so thatd be 5 level 80s), that one is easy to measure. Having cleared most/all of the instances(ideally one or more times in each role) could indicate you know the runs. All we have here to measure is the checkmark for clearing, and the overall number youve run. Not ideal, but the more you have finished the more likely you are to be knowledgeable of the runs. So how do we measure friendly/communicating? Comms are the only thing the game has to measure anything remotely like that. So in absence of a perfect tool, we use the one we have. And 300 was too small a number to begin with, so im not pretending when i say that this increase was overdue. If i were designing the system, id also make players re-certify regularly(probly once per patch) and id give the system better rewards(the idea i like best is cash shop credit for each full patch they stay certified - so a free outfit/mount/emote every so often for being a good active mentor) and bigger punishments for abuse.

If giving out commendations is as random as people think, then everyone always has an equal chance to get them regardless of role. If you haven't hit 1500 yet it might just mean that possibly you aren't running roulettes a lot, or just run with premades, and need to branch out a bit.

Its also possible someone isnt getting comms because they arent very good at their main class. Are you a DPS that doesnt know your single target/aoe rotation, and when to use each? A tank that doesnt use defensive cooldowns? A healer who starts healing the second someone drops to 95% but doesnt cast a single damage spell the entire run(or alternatively one who lets the party die due to not healing at all)? Its possible you might be the problem.

[Esmoire]

Just going to throw out that not getting commendations specifically because you mostly play with friends despite having a billion hours played is entirely fair. You've spent a lot of time playing with people you seem to get along with enough and that doesn't really speak too well for one's abilities to actually mentor.

Mentors should have to be constantly exposed to people who are new, people with vastly different mindsets, and people who will test you. Not people you are comfortable with. It's not just about how well you deal with content, but how well you deal with other people. If you can navigate situations where someone might be difficult, or someone is genuinely having a hard time, or manage to get a struggling party of strangers with different learning styles through a challenge, that says a lot more than the thousands of clears you and your friends gotten farming.

Given I started playing late last year and have more than enough, I think the system is fair. With regards to playing DPS I think people do not give enough credit to what you can do to make for a pleasant playing experience on any role. Mechanical deeds like using Pelaton, interrupting stuff, or peeling something off a healer when a tank messes up, on one side of things. On the other spectrum, being a good upstanding member of the community by engaging people when they reach out, or even unprompted to compliment someone on their contributions or even something like a goofy glamour. Contribute to the outcome and contribute to good spirits. Sometimes you will do everything right and not get any commendations but for the most part people will notice.

[BloodRubyXII]

Man, we had a healer in a dohm mheg a couple of nights back, super new, super nice guy, nervous and actually asked if we wanted him to leave after he got smoked by landsblood. So I put put a mark over my head (was playing DRG) and said "just stand on top of me and you'll be fine". Got to the last boss, explained it to him, end of the run, all 3 other members commed me, and they weren't a premade.

The point of this story? Ok not every group is like this, in fact it is especially rare especially if you don't level a lot, but the point is - you don't have to heal/tank for comms. Yeah you'll get them for free almost every time if you do, but there's literally no excuse to complain that getting comms is hard. If your reasons include hating group content, anxiety about speaking up or "I only play with friends" - you aren't much use to the mentor system anyway outside of NN.

And in Eden normal you'll get comms even as a DPS just for not dying. This isn't difficult if you just play the game and make an effort to be nice to people; and sometimes this is why I don't even know why mentor system exists, because people would do this anyway.

[hynaku]

3k comms really doesn't add anything but playtime.

Playtime is what you need to be a mentor. Why should one be a mentor if put hardly any effort into it. Ones that haven't played for years should not be mentors. Ones that have spent years playing and put in tons of effort should be ones that's mentors. As a healer can get 1500 comms in about 3 months playing. If been here since ARR or even HW should already have than many and more. When look at my play time compared to amount comms I have. Means every hour got at least 5 comms it average out to. 80% comms I have got from playing as a dps.

[Terkhev]

Even if comms don't translate to skill or knowledge of player, higher count sure gives higher probability of that player being good.

[FirstnameLastname]

Not trying to say anything here, but how can people with well over 2k hours in the game not have at least 1.500 commendations? Maybe someone is not worth being commended then? Or is that rebellious thought too edgy for our inclusive™ community?

[Kanitezz]

Not trying to say anything here, but how can people with well over 2k hours in the game not have at least 1.500 commendations? Maybe someone is not worth being commended then? Or is that rebellious thought too edgy for our inclusive™ community?

Some people do crafting, gathering, or RP more than they do the instanced battle content. So they wouldn't have had the opportunity to get that many. Sometimes you all forget that there is more to this game than just killing stuff.