Combat Mentors - From the view of newish player

[Eien713]

This game has atrocious online resources compared to other popular games. The only thing that's adequately covered anywhere is crafting, everything else is outdated garbage. You want to learn something about a specific job? Hope you're ready to sign up for an account on a third party platform, join a chat channel and figure out how to self assign yourself the right role. Navigating the online resources for this game is a learned skill in and of itself. A lot of people also prefer human interaction as a way of obtaining information; If there are people willing to answer their questions (which in my experience, there always are) it's not worth complaining about.

But then how did other people, mentors included, come to learn their jobs? Not everyone is theorycrafting in the game, so I'm sure the proper info is out there. And if someone directs you to a guide, then you check it out instead of relying on people to "teach" you your job. Also, on YouTube, I'm pretty sure there are videos about the different classes, and they usually mention the patch said guide applies to (same for written guides). The guides are usually properly updated too.

ARR EX's? No guide necessary.

You'd be surprised, then, at how these simple trials go in DF.

[LittleImp]

But then how did other people, mentors included, come to learn their jobs? Not everyone is theorycrafting in the game, so I'm sure the proper info is out there. And if someone directs you to a guide, then you check it out instead of relying on people to "teach" you your job. Also, on YouTube, I'm pretty sure there are videos about the different classes, and they usually mention the patch said guide applies to (same for written guides).

Telling someone to google an answer and directly linking them to a guide are completely different things.

Most of the nuance I've picked up around my job actually came from other players willingness to answer my questions, mentor me and directly provide me explicitly relevant resources. I googled a flowchart one time for my job, and later found out it wasn't even correct. My entire trajectory on this game has been shaped by people who were willing to stop and give me some of their time. I myself became a mentor because of a specific encounter in which a tank who had cleared the tier week 1 joined my party, got in my discord and walked us through the entirety of a difficult fight while being super friendly, for no other reason than he had time to kill and wanted to help someone else out. The social impact of someone extending their hand and showing a willingness to help without expecting anything in return can't be understated. Telling someone to 'google it' is a cold dismissal.

You'd be surprised, then, at how these simple trials go in DF.

I've done ~1500 mentor roulettes and clear ARR EX's 9/10 times. I have two other close friends on the same grind, and they have the exact same results. Crystal must be the god tier datacenter for pugging ARR EX's or something.

[Eien713]

Telling someone to google an answer and directly linking them to a guide are completely different things.

Most of the nuance I've picked up around my job actually came from other players willingness to answer my questions, mentor me and directly provide me explicitly relevant resources. I googled a flowchart one time for my job, and later found out it wasn't even correct. My entire trajectory on this game has been shaped by people who were willing to stop and give me some of their time. I myself became a mentor because of a specific encounter in which a tank who had cleared the tier week 1 joined my party, got in my discord and walked us through the entirety of a difficult fight while being super friendly, for no other reason than he had time to kill and wanted to help someone else out. The social impact of someone extending their hand and showing a willingness to help without expecting anything in return can't be understated. Telling someone to 'google it' is a cold dismissal.

I guess it's a matter of point of view. I personally always try to make an effort before going to another person for help. As for people giving advice, to me, it depends. I've seen people dismiss advice or lash out for getting it if it's unsolicited advice even though they actually need it. I don't mind people asking for help when something is truly obscure or they can't wrap their head around it, but if it's something that's as easy as a google query, I don't see the harm in making the effort yourself. Also, walking people through a fight and everyone making an effort to clear is different from trying to explain stuff to people who can't seem to follow instructions or who don't even speak the language you're trying to explain in. And joining a Discord and explaining stuff through VC is also totally different from typing walls of text and being unsure if people are even reading and/or understanding what you've written. After all, in VC, you have the luxury of doing callouts on the fly without having to throw away your controller (if you play on console like me) to type on the keyboard and risk dying in the process.

I should probably mention that I've never told a person to google something myself, but I have asked people to look up guides before diving into Ex trials. I have also never ever come across a mentor who told people to use google.

I've done ~1500 mentor roulettes and clear ARR EX's 9/10 times. I have two other close friends on the same grind, and they have the exact same results. Crystal must be the god tier datacenter for pugging ARR EX's or something.

If you go as a healer, you can salvage the run. Any other role can be pretty hopeless.

[Katie_Kitty]

I myself became a mentor because of a specific encounter in which a tank who had cleared the tier week 1 joined my party, got in my discord and walked us through the entirety of a difficult fight while being super friendly, for no other reason than he had time to kill and wanted to help someone else out.

Just wanna point out, this is not what mentors do. *some* mentors may do it, but not because they're mentors, instead it's because they're raiders. I'm not saying this is what you expect of mentors, but just to keep in mind - There are no mentors in savage. If you're in savage, then what you're doing is beyond the scope of the mentor system. Mentor system is for newbies and newbies are not in savage.