Remove the Mentor crown

[Krotoan]

There are many players who just want the mentor crown to be a status symbol, like for clearing high end content, for example.

I've said again and again that I understand that.. but asking for the qualification for being a mentor to be more difficult or arduous misses the entire point of mentors being a guide for players who need basic assistance with the game.

Yeah.. remove the crown, get rid of that mount everyone queue cherry picks for. Make it voluntary and you'll get people genuinely willing to help rather than clout and symbol farming.

[SturmChurro]

I've said again and again that I understand that.. but asking for the qualification for being a mentor to be more difficult or arduous misses the entire point of mentors being a guide for players who need basic assistance with the game.

Yeah.. remove the crown, get rid of that mount everyone queue cherry picks for. Make it voluntary and you'll get people genuinely willing to help rather than clout and symbol farming.

They'd have to get rid of the crown, no status symbol such as watering can, no exclusive chat channel (especially that they can kick from), move the mount out of the roulette. Honestly, I don't think the system can be salvaged. Which is why I think it should be removed entirely. I just don't see any compelling cases for the necessity of a global chat channel, or even a novice chat. SE could literally just provide more resources in-game to help newer players. The roulette can be redone as well.

[Johners]

They'd have to get rid of the crown, no status symbol such as watering can, no exclusive chat channel (especially that they can kick from), move the mount out of the roulette. Honestly, I don't think the system can be salvaged. Which is why I think it should be removed entirely. I just don't see any compelling cases for the necessity of a global chat channel, or even a novice chat. SE could literally just provide more resources in-game to help newer players. The roulette can be redone as well.

The mentor system doesn't work because the people in the best position to advise new players are making content for video or written guides instead. Trade Mentor is especially noticeable for this as I've got that in-game solely because I levelled all my DoL and DoH while following a well written guide and copying the crafting macros from it. All trade mentors could be replaced with a 15 minute YouTube video explaining the underlying mechanics of DoH/DoL and how to effectively use Teamcraft.

As for Battle Mentor, it's basically the same thing. If you wanted to try high-end duties, the vast majority of mentors aren't the people you ask for advice, you watch or read a guide on the internet. Heck, if you just want to understand your class better or try something new, a guide is a much better. Again, you can replace basically all battle mentors with The Balance server on Discord and a few YouTube videos.

I understand why the mentor system was originally added and while it might've worked in a game with a much smaller player base, the issues with the system and much more noticeable on a player base of the current scale. A system doesn't have to exist just because it existed in the earlier days of the game.

You can safely remove the entire mentor system in favour of decent guide content. Square Enix could even update the guides on their own website, which do exist, by working with the existing communities that are making guides on YouTube or for Discord servers like The Balance.

The only elephant in the room is the two seat mount reward which probably accounts for like 95% of battle mentors anyway. This should remain in the game as either a reward for completing the pre-Stormblood MSQ (end of the free trial) or as a cash store item.