Suggestion: Change the Mentor Icons

[Kolsykol]

I definitely do think that it's not as horrible as people act like, even if I do that myself too.
My issue is moreso that the bad is pretty avoidable and tied a lot to the rewards and inflated egos of some people that is reinforced with icons etc.
I think it's pretty unnecessary and could be solved relatively easily.

But I also think that people have a tendency to notice and pay attention to negativity more and I am definitely guilty of this probably moreso than most, I very easily get worked up over things.
Especially when I feel like it's totally pointless negativity.
Like if you listen to Reddit then everyone plays a Miqo'Te or Viera wearing the 2B pants, but that's because they get upset by that type of content so when they see one of them in a crowd of 50 people they pay more attention to it.
Same with '' female armor '' and then people never stop to ask themselves why they always bring up the same handful of identical examples.
If that's all you got then is it really a widespread thing to begin with or do you only feel like it is?
Just because stuff exists doesn't make it the status quo or common.

I actually kinda feel this with DRK's with the artifact armor and the Horde weapon or SAM and NIN players with the PvP 180ilvl Heavensward set and a cheap glowy weapon from the market board.
To me it has basically become the generic go to '' I want to be a cool edgy boi '' gear in my eyes and I feel like almost every time I see someone in that they kinda suck and like they're all over the place.

Is that actually true in reality?
Not really, but we're human beings we find patterns and even if they're not there and not true we find them anyway.

Most mentors are probably cool but the people with inflated egos are going to be a lot more noticable and have a greater impact.

NN and Mentors sound good when you're talking about a gaming experience pre-2010. Now, you can google anything for the game, and players who have put in the work to catalogue items and put together guides. Mentors are really unnecessary and I've never seen a need for them. Remove the program from the game, and life would go on as normal.

Honestly even with googling the game can be confusing for a sprout.
And I'd rather explain something to someone quickly than having to stop so that they can go and google what to do.

I also think that people appreciate social interactions too, we all ask things that could very easily be googled.
It becomes a bit depressing when you just google everything and have no interactions with people lol.
And a lot of people get something out of helping too it makes them feel good.

[Jeeqbit]

The worst part is that no one—including possibly the devs—seems certain what mentors are supposed to be. Are they just folks who have been around long enough to know the answers to basic game questions? Are they just experienced enough players that they can be trusted to be warm bodies to backfill every bit of content in the game? Are they meant to be expert players who can tell you how to play a job correctly? All of the above?

They do. Mentors are supposed to be players with experience of the game (such as having earned 1,500 commendations and completed 1,000 dungeons). They are supposed to share their experience of the game with sprouts and others, particularly in the novice network. It doesn't matter if that experience is the "wrong" answer to a question, because other mentors will probably offer a "correct" answer that is the one that will probably be accepted by the sprout.

Because sprouts leave the network before the current expansion in most cases, mentors don't usually need to answer any questions about the current content and questions that would require experience doing extreme or savage are not really asked even by returners. Most rotation questions concern how to execute a rotation in a low level dungeon like Sastasha, which does not really require the mentor to be an expert at level 80 rotations.

The point is, most battle mentors are genuinely pretty experienced at the game, but even if they are not they don't need to be because the questions they will get concern very basic things that you would be asking while unlocking Sastasha.

Most mentors are probably cool but the people with inflated egos are going to be a lot more noticable and have a greater impact.

This is an important point. It's usually a minority of people that give the majority a bad name.