It's time to revaluate paper crown battlementors

[Jojoya]

There still needs to be something in place to make it easier for new players to find veteran players who want to be helpful by answering questions and occasionally accompanying new players into instanced duties.

Remove the mentor system rewards from the mentor system. Then there's no incentive for players who don't want to be helpful to insert themselves into the system.

Move the Mentor Roulette mount to the "Lifer III" achievement (10,000 dungeons completed) - that seems a fitting grind even if it can be cheesed unsynced.

Create a "Leaving a Better Impression III" achievement that requires 10,000 commendations to get the nameplate crown.

Create new nameplate icons for mentors.

Change the mentor requirements to completion of a multi-part exam. Each part of the exam would have questions pertinent to a separate part of the game: combat systems, pvp, crafting/gathering, general game play (the "when do you get your first mount" type questions), whatever else seems appropriate. Applicants must answer at least 90% of the questions in at least one of the sections correctly to be designated a mentor for that part of the game and gain access to the Novice Network.

Combat systems mentors may also be required to have a certain number of current expansion EX/Savage clears (or prior expansion at the start of a new expansion until the X.2 patch release when current kicks in). No cheesing by doing old content unsynced.

PvP mentors may also be required to have a particular standing in PvP.

Crafting/gathering mentors may also be required to have a certain number of Expert crafts completed. If new Expert recipes get added, older ones couldn't be used to qualify after one patch cycle of the new ones.

[Jeeqbit]

Getting 1500 glorified brownie points and completing 1000 instanced dungeons not only does not require any skill playing tank, healer, or DPS roles

Does not require, but generally I find battle mentors to be experienced players that know a lot.

teaches nothing about the game's battle mechanics to the point where you can adequately give advice to fledgling new players trying to learn their way through the game.

False. New players don't need to know how to do a level 90 opener. They don't need to know how to clear savage and ultimate raids. They need to know where to find a repair NPC. They need to know what a tank stance is. They need to know what level they get their chocobo or what a blue quest means. They need help with their 2-button Sastasha rotation. They need to know how to unlock dyes.

Mentors don't really need to know anything about optimized gameplay at level 90. They answer much more basic questions than that in the novice network. Nevertheless, in my experience, all battle mentors I've met do know about level 90 gameplay.

I would propose that in addition to the already existing requirements, there is an added requirement that you must complete 50 current Savage instances.

Again, sprouts don't ask questions about savage since they are still going through the MSQ. Returners don't remain in the novice network long enough to start asking questions about savage beyond unlocking it and buying crafted gear.

The purpose of a mentor is to share experience. Everyone's experience is different. Some people's experience is doing lots of dungeons, some people's experience is doing lots of savage raids, some people's experience is doing lots of fishing. The collective wisdom of multiple mentors comes together in the Novice Network to answer questions.

[AmiableApkallu]

It honestly just needs to be required.

Actually, I just had a thought: You could make the current Hall of the Novice series required before Sastasha. Then, add a second series, as part of the Crystal Braves story. "Test this new training hall and make sure it's up to scratch for our new recruits," or something. Party-based combat is a lot less abstract at Lv.50 than it is at Lv.16, so that hopefully puts trainings and tutorials in a better context.

[Jeeqbit]

Actually, I just had a thought: You could make the current Hall of the Novice series required before Sastasha. Then, add a second series, as part of the Crystal Braves story. "Test this new training hall and make sure it's up to scratch for our new recruits," or something. Party-based combat is a lot less abstract at Lv.50 than it is at Lv.16, so that hopefully puts trainings and tutorials in a better context.

It's not required but the MSQ was changed to take you to the Hall of the Novice and introduce you to it. There are npcs that explain what basic acronym's mean.

[LianaThorne]

Sure, but I'd argue they would be a better mentor than some rat who no mit tanked their way through ARR content for 2 months begging for coms.

Debatable when there's people who pay for their clears in Savage+ content.

[Mika_Zahard]

My God, these takes are terrible

[ValkyriaCrystalis]

As someone suggested years ago : just replace the crown with a watering can. This would be cute af and less incompetent players would wear it just for showing.

[Doc_Seraph]

"A good mentor is a patient one" - Kupo <3

[Deceptus]

Let's face it, nobody respects battle mentors. Getting 1500 glorified brownie points and completing 1000 instanced dungeons not only does not require any skill playing tank, healer, or DPS roles but teaches nothing about the game's battle mechanics to the point where you can adequately give advice to fledgling new players trying to learn their way through the game. You know it. We all know it. The thing is that the battle mentor status could be much better and be respected within the community.

To that end, the requirements should change and all players given mentor status should be removed until they reach new requirements.

I would propose that in addition to the already existing requirements, there is an added requirement that you must complete 50 current Savage instances. An example of a current savage instance would be only P1s-P4s counting towards this number until the release of patch 6.2, then only P5s-P8s would count. This would exclude min-iLvl runs of older savage fights and extreme trials which in most cases are too easy. 50 would be the ideal number given that within on patch cycle assuming they adhere to the 4-month time schedule you would be able to clear 48 savage instances provided you are obtaining a full tier clear by week 4 and continue to farm until the end of the patch. It requires dedicated play but is still more than reasonable to do for a player that actually understands how to play the game within an 8-month time period (i.e. 2 patches). In addition to this, mentors should be required to complete 50 savage instances per raid tier in order to maintain mentor status. This is important in order to ensure mentors are a bit up to date regarding job balance and dungeon changes that occur during patch changes and to deter plays to buy their way through this requirement. "bUt wHaT If YoU qUiT tHeN cOmE BaCk?" you shouldn't be a mentor. Added to this, a mentor that is reported for harassment should be barred from ever gaining mentor status ever again.

Adding a harder requirement to being a battle mentor would put some meaning into having the status, instead of some person who ran ARR dungeons on healers and kept telling people "Hey guys I'm only 100 coms away from mentor status, make sure you give me your coms at the end of the dungeon UwU TY". With a stronger meaning to the status, we could then actually point to battle mentors as people who have enough game knowledge to explain to players basic mechanics like the type of mitigation, when to use single target rotations vs AoE, lining up buffs and CDs, and other basic yet nuanced in formation. This isn't to make mentors shilling advice like "go look a guide on RDM rotation" or pushing people to look at Akh Morning or the Balance but to ensure that players can know that a battle mentor actually knows basic stuff about the game and can provide more in-depth information.

Gatekeeping: The Rant

This is nothing more than putting more expectations on mentors than the game actually does.

A mentor is there to:

• Be a decent examples of player behavior(shown by commendations),
• Have a good foundational basic understanding of jobs (By getting different job roles to max level),
• And to fill queues.

That's.It.

We all should know that negativity bias is real and people remember a few bad instances verses the multitude of mediocre or good ones.

For every salty mentor who doesn't have a good day, there's a "You don't pay my sub" player who refuses to accept help.

[Kaurhz]

My God, these takes are terrible

Thank you for contributing to the discussion, oh wait...



Never mind.