Mentor system needs an overhaul

[Penthea]

My server's NN is pretty decent for the most part. It is largely server based. Diabolos' serves as a place for help (which is very quickly given) and as sort of a general chat. Sometimes it goes for a couple hours without a single word being said, and then a question is asked...and is promptly answered. A fair number of people seem to like being in it. The other day I saw a few say that they enjoyed NN because it was more lively than their FC chats, which is kinda sad in a way, but it's good that people actually want to be there. lol

Well I'm glad to hear it's not awful everywhere. I haven't seen the Moogle one in over a year now, but when I did...it was not nice at all. I ended up just sending tells to people who asked questions because answering them in NN often resulted in needless sass. Maybe it's better now. Maybe.

[Jeeqbit]

Most Crystal worlds have moderately good to excellent novice networks which answer questions regularly, and whose sprouts love it so much they don't want to leave. Mentors regularly party with sprouts to help them get faster queues as well. I haven't visited it for about a year, but I found Mateus as one of the most populated Crystal worlds to be full of trade mentors.

Siren, Sargatanas and Jenova seem excellent as well and answer questions a lot.

[CanaryBlues]

I'm a mentor on Ragnarok and do my best to help anyone who needs it. To be honest I was doing that before mentor was even a thing.

However some of the requirements suggested by the OP are too much.

As a mentor myself - I have all classes maxed out but I main scholar and bard. I can't play melee very well and I am the worst tank! But ask me for information on scholar or bard and I'm good to go.

Having knowledge of the game is good but you can't expect me to know every last detail about the game. I rarely do relics because they are not a necessity so I do my main relic and stop there.i only do fates when I have to because again its not really content that is a necessity.

Also don't forget ARR is many many years ago now! Not everyone is going to remember every quest or every minor detail from all the time ago.

If you are going to suggest changes to the mentor system then at least make sure they are relevant changes and not based upon one or two bad experiences you've had.

I myself do my best as a mentor! Yet- at the same time I have my days where I'm too busy being an fc leader to give detailed paragraphs about specific content. So my response is im busy so Google it! If not you'll be waiting a long time. Yes there are a lot of bad mentors but you can't punish the good ones on their behalf. You come across a bad mentor then report them and blacklist them.

[Awha]

I am one of those crystal mentors that refers people to Google often for most questions. I do get heat for it but in the end I think mentors are meant to guide people to tind their own answers not outright give them the answer.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Welp, seeing this thread is still alive and having regained my composure, I’ve decided to add some of my own thoughts as well...

- Mentor system shouldn't be based on commendations alone. It should be removed.
- Players who wish to become Mentors should have all classes maxed out
- There should be a requirement for grinding low-level content, ARR specially.
- Mentors should have all relic quests completed from all expansions. The grind in ARR is real challenge for that.
- More focus on FATEs. I've seen too many Mentors not understand how Fates work.
- Harsher punishment for players abusing the Mentor system to berate players that are non-sprouts. I see it happen almost daily at this rate.
Either way, whether SE does something or not, this whole system will ultimately be seen in a negative light over time.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

1. This I’d agree to an extent. But I don’t think removing comm entirely from the requirement would be good either. In fact they HAVE to include commendation into the factor. Why? Commendations are given to who had left you a positive impression upon grouping up with them. This can be gameplay or attitude, or even aesthetic. Ask yourself: do you want to have a douchey ultimate raider mentoring you with their problematic attitude, or have a polite, civil player who gives you wrong information? The answer is crystal clear. It's not perfect, I agree that much. But removing this would make it worse.

2. Having all classes at max level doesn’t guarantee players being good enough to mentor another player. Ever seen a SAM that gets out-damaged by a NIN? Then that player was probably me I have all classes to the max, complete with the mentor crown but because I don’t main SAM, I suck a lot with that class.

3. Why? Is this to further prove how much time the said mentors had invested into the game?

4. I need your help in this one: "challenging". What makes you think ARR relic is such a challenging grind at this point? If any, it’s another time sink & a test of patience, just like the previous point.

5. I don’t do FATEs much so I have little to nothing to say beside: FATEs are imho, rather intuitive most of time. It only takes a moment to stop, read, and think how to complete a FATE. Unless of course the said player is super new to MMO but this also applies to non-mentors as well

6. How? What specific feature does the system provide a window for these mentors to abuse non-sprouts? And why? For what? Mentors are just another homo sapien behind their screen operating the character, like any other regular players. They’re not hand-picked by the game’s staff either. Mentors or not, abusing should be punished equally. But I’m genuinely failing to see how the mentor system enables abuse, which is something that we’ll inevitably will see in any MMO.

That being said, I’m sorry to read that you had a bad experience with the mentors. But based on what you’ve written above, those situations are not just ‘mentors quirk’. Regular player also does that too.

[Lanadra]

Well I'm glad to hear it's not awful everywhere. I haven't seen the Moogle one in over a year now, but when I did...it was not nice at all. I ended up just sending tells to people who asked questions because answering them in NN often resulted in needless sass. Maybe it's better now. Maybe.

From my experience it's 98% french since I unlocked NN about a month or so ago. Which is fine, but I certainly can't read any of it or offer insight.

[xxmiamorecadenza]

I’m still of the opinion that mentors should have current content Extremes both unlocked and cleared. We’re expected to have previous expansion’s completed - why not this one?

[Penthea]

From my experience it's 98% french since I unlocked NN about a month or so ago. Which is fine, but I certainly can't read any of it or offer insight.

I can understand both of the primary languages of the server so I was able to follow what was going on. There certainly were mentors who genuinely wanted to help, but there were others who definitely did not and said some really mean things that were completely unprovoked and it often derailed the conversation. The chat was in English and French, but mostly in French.

But like I said it was over a year ago, and it's possible I just happened to see it in an unusually bad period. Maybe it's better now or is usually okay. Perhaps those meanspirited people I saw have since been banned. Wouldn't be surprised if that happened.

[Deceptus]

I’m still of the opinion that mentors should have current content Extremes both unlocked and cleared. We’re expected to have previous expansion’s completed - why not this one?

IMHO Extremes have no business being in Mentor Content. That level of play requires a lot more coordination and prep than most people are actually prepared for.

Complex mechanics can't easily be explained via the chat log, when instead you could simply watch a quick video.

[ItMe]

IMHO Extremes have no business being in Mentor Content. That level of play requires a lot more coordination and prep than most people are actually prepared for.

Complex mechanics can't easily be explained via the chat log, when instead you could simply watch a quick video.

Do you mean just current extremes (as the post you're replying to was mentioning current content)?
Or do you mean stuff like ARR EXes have no business being mentor content?