I do not understand the reason for Trade Mentor

[Freyt]

To be completely clear, if you're taking advice as gospel, then you need to be told bad advice so you can learn not to take advice as gospel.

The crown doesn't mean that much. What it does mean to the cancel culture is "something I hate". For everyone else it just says "I did a certain amount of content and I'm letting you know", so maybe you might see some amount of reliability in them versus any other random player who might have zero experience.

[Aurida]

They probably should just do another mentor requirement rework. Just add a global per-world trade chat channel that you can freely opt into, then both delete the crafter crown entirely and change the combat one to a watering can icon to go with the sprout.

Especially given that near-100% of all actual crafting mentor 'advice' is 'just use google for 'ffxiv current patch crafting macro'' they don't need to be in novice network or in contact with new players. That way they can lower the combat requirements back down, too. If anything the goal should just be to get people in there actually interested in helping, not just terrorizing the place with inane social linkshell banter.

[NanaWiloh]

People may complain about the useless banter in the NN but earlier tonight it turned into a blessing here on Lamia. New player was in the shroud and notice the weather condition was tension signaling odin was up. Not a single Hunt linkshell on lamia knew or even noticed the NN found it. Best of all most of the people who should up for the kill were NN mentors and novices. On a side note its been a year or more since I last ran into Odin so it was a welcomed and fun Kill for me.

[MistakeNot]

Look at requirements to pve mentors. You have to do all tank, healer, and dps shadowbringers job quests plus do bunch of dungeon runs and have tons of comms. Mentor is suppose to be hard to become and have lots and lots of experience in that field. Other wise why even give requirements to be one if don't think need a challenge to be one. How it is right now I could create alt and in one to two days it could be a trade mentor that's how easy it is right now.

Why should it be hard to get? How does jumping through 1500 hoops make you a better mentor than jumping through 500 hoops?

[Mhaeric]

A crown isn't needed to help new players, you know?

I always see this statement or a variation of it trotted out every time mentors get brought up, and it's poor reasoning. Technically it is true, but it is also a lot easier to provide help to new people with the crown than without it. Without the novice chat that the crown provides, one would have to maintain one's own friends list and/or linkshell to communicate with new players if one didn't want to rely on finding and chatting with new players via /search and /tell or just happening upon them. The crown gives access to an easy way to both communicate en masse with novices and provide access to the same service to those novices.

[Hash_Browns]

I always see this statement or a variation of it trotted out every time mentors get brought up, and it's poor reasoning. Technically it is true, but it is also a lot easier to provide help to new people with the crown than without it. Without the novice chat that the crown provides, one would have to maintain one's own friends list and/or linkshell to communicate with new players if one didn't want to rely on finding and chatting with new players via /search and /tell or just happening upon them. The crown gives access to an easy way to both communicate en masse with novices and provide access to the same service to those novices.

Novice Network could easily exist without mentors, or the crown if they chose to implement a better system. Usually, when I am helping people, I'm shot calling pointers during the duty, and the Novice Network chat serves more as a "Can anyone help me queue for X?" kind of deal.

I wasn't giving my sassy little remark because "Lol, mentors, am I right?! Upvotes to the left, guys." It was more of a "The entire damn system is still broken, the requirements don't mean jack - trade or otherwise."

(Hi I'm a crafting mentor with all level 80 crafters, 2 level 80 gathers, and I couldn't tell you the first thing about crafting & gathering.)

The system is bad, the rewards make the system even worse, and the entire thing has a giant stigma because being a good player means something different to everyone, while the best "mentor(s)" in this game is youtube, The Balance discord, and reddit for crafting macros.

The system is broken, and the only way to ever solve it is to peel it away, and make a newer, better system. This isn't even counting the problem that we have a ton of in-game systems that teach people the basics, but all of them are optional - but thank god for that because sometimes they outright tell you information that they shouldn't be feeding you! (Tank hall of novice telling players to AOE a few times, and then single target.)

I will agree, however, that the novice network chat is something worth keeping.

[Krotoan]

Novice Network could easily exist without mentors, or the crown if they chose to implement a better system. Usually, when I am helping people, I'm shot calling pointers during the duty, and the Novice Network chat serves more as a "Can anyone help me queue for X?" kind of deal.

I wasn't giving my sassy little remark because "Lol, mentors, am I right?! Upvotes to the left, guys." It was more of a "The entire damn system is still broken, the requirements don't mean jack - trade or otherwise."

(Hi I'm a crafting mentor with all level 80 crafters, 2 level 80 gathers, and I couldn't tell you the first thing about crafting & gathering.)

The system is bad, the rewards make the system even worse, and the entire thing has a giant stigma because being a good player means something different to everyone, while the best "mentor(s)" in this game is youtube, The Balance discord, and reddit for crafting macros.

The system is broken, and the only way to ever solve it is to peel it away, and make a newer, better system. This isn't even counting the problem that we have a ton of in-game systems that teach people the basics, but all of them are optional - but thank god for that because sometimes they outright tell you information that they shouldn't be feeding you! (Tank hall of novice telling players to AOE a few times, and then single target.)

The system should never have been given rewards in any form. That was the mistake. But stripping them now would create unintended "exclusives". I think there should be a chat for each server moderated by a team of actual people from SE... but we all know how they feel about adding people to the FFXIV team =[

[Hash_Browns]

The system should never have been given rewards in any form. That was the mistake. But stripping them now would create unintended "exclusives". I think there should be a chat for each server moderated by a team of actual people from SE... but we all know how they feel about adding people to the FFXIV team =[

I don't go in much anymore, but I do believe that the Novice Network usually handles itself pretty well in terms of self-moderation, I really don't think that's an issue. Ever once in a while, you get some novice network drama, but it doesn't usually turn too sour.

I don't think SE could do anything about the mount/glam though. They could take it away, and release it somewhere else, but I'm not sure what kind of effect that would have at this point in time.

[Krotoan]

I don't go in much anymore, but I do believe that the Novice Network usually handles itself pretty well in terms of self-moderation, I really don't think that's an issue. Ever once in a while, you get some novice network drama, but it doesn't usually turn too sour.

If they made it strictly voluntary and not a "you need to be this... " to join I'd expect more than a few trolly players popping in to be.. themselves. Also the SE moderators could also be good sources of official policies for things that players may not be clear on.

I don't think SE could do anything about the mount/glam though. They could take it away, and release it somewhere else, but I'm not sure what kind of effect that would have at this point in time.

.. pretty sure it wouldn't be nice. People already throw fits on this board about certain exclusives being made available in alternate ways.. but yeah.. unlikely.

[KatCnaa]

I always see this statement or a variation of it trotted out every time mentors get brought up, and it's poor reasoning. Technically it is true, but it is also a lot easier to provide help to new people with the crown than without it. Without the novice chat that the crown provides, one would have to maintain one's own friends list and/or linkshell to communicate with new players if one didn't want to rely on finding and chatting with new players via /search and /tell or just happening upon them. The crown gives access to an easy way to both communicate en masse with novices and provide access to the same service to those novices.

This is exactly the issue I've run across. The novice network provides a place where an interchange of mentors can join and leave as the have time (or patience) to help, and it's a one-stop place for new players to come to find those mentors who can help them. We've tried making help shells, or pulling new players into our FC, but that takes a lot more time and effort, and in the end you have a setup where you find yourself running out of room for new sprouts as the old sprouts become mentors themselves.