Are Mentors seen as unhelpful?

[EZGIL]

[HyperiusUltima]

If there's anything I don't like, it's the Burger King Crown. They need to change it to something else because every time I Mentor Roulette, it reminds me how much a joke the system is.

[Zeastria]

Players have unrealistic expectations towards mentors.

[CelestiCer]

Players can be and are helpful, regardless of how they decorate themselves with labels and titles.

Few bad apples doesn't make up the entire basket, yet only a few are needed to make it reek... I sense that's the problem with the Mentor tag, where quite a number of Mentors stain the tag to a point that its associated with negativity. I already get an expectation that Mentors mess up anything, and when they do it right/flawlessly/perform exceedingly well and are helpful? I'm actually genuinely surprised. But when they mess up? it's amplified 10x fold. Like " of course, its a Mentor. Waddaya expect? " vibe.

Painting everyone with the same Brush isn't right. But, the Mentor-tag has a laughably low bar to entry as requirement. It doesn't do a good job of filtering out players, anyone can wear it and will even if all they want is farming a Mount through mentor roulette. The Mentor status there for in no way showcases qualification to be helpful to other players in any form of content.

[MsMisato]

I actually see a big part of them as generally unhelpful. There are those that geniunely want to help and I happy those exist, but when you watch sprouts ask for help, the go to answer run it unsync or the information that they give is general god awful. I think last night I heard one mentor tell a sprout to ignore job quests because they aren't important. I also been in raids where a sprout asked a mentor for advice, and they (the mentor) came off pretty a-holish like. Most times they simply treat NN as their own personal chat and nothing more. I understand this isn't the case for all servers, but I turned off my crowned and turned off NN because its annoying to see mentors be bad, give bad info and so one. This is what happens when you tie a reward to it.

[ChrysOCE]

The mentor isn't supposed to be a walking encyclopedia of all mechanics for all fights. And certainly shouldn't be expected to perform flawlessly at all times. What should be expected, is that mentors are positive and encouraging. That, if someone has a question, we try and help (even if the answer is to search online). And to invite sprouts to the NN and try and answer any questions in chat. Anything outside that is a fabrication of the player base.

[Jeeqbit]

I guess from now on I can't help people and will just have to be silent in any content that includes Mentor Roulette like the rest.

Most of the time, yes. However there will be times when someone asks questions and you can kindly answer them with all that experience you have, because then it's solicited advice. You are also helping them just by being there and having sped up their queue, and by being patient when they make mistakes and cause a wipe.

You can also do things such as carrying them (putting a shield on them if you know new players usually get hit by something and die), and they will still learn they got hit by it when they take all that damage. Or you can mark things they should attack with a (1) marker (I have this on my hotbar), or just appearing like the person who is doing all the mechanics right and the person to follow.

Or in some trials like the first EW trial I just mark myself with a dorito so people can follow me, because sometimes most of the people there have absolutely no idea how to do the mechanics.

They are subtle little things, but unless someone asks for advice, just helping them clear the dungeon is usually enough actually.

mentor didn't want to explain anything to the new person, so I started to. Only took them 1-2 boss fights before they began interrupting me and complaining that I'm 'overloading the new person'

Overloading a new person is a valid concern, actually. One of the examples I always return to is when someone tries to teach a level 90 opener and level 90 raid optimization to a level 15 sprout who only has a few abilities unlocked. It's absurd, but people do it, and at a certain point, inundating them with information that isn't going to be relevant for months or years is going to overwhelm and confuse them.

It's also important to weigh up which mechanics are really worth explaining. You could overwhelm them if you tell them every single mechanic in the alliance raid, but if you choose 1 or 2 really important mechanics per fight, it might not overwhelm them as much. The healers can just heal through the less lethal mechanics, while other mechanics may be considerably more obvious than the 2 you choose to explain.

[Kaurhz]

Most are, yes.

But that is because people do largely have unrealistic or inappropriate expectations of what a mentor should be, they aren't really designed to be anything more than a simple signpost for FAQ-esque questions e.g., "When do I get my Chocobo", "How do I unlock xyz"

It doesn't really help either that there is a status symbol and mount locked behind it - Because this means that people will oft' work towards it for cosmetic reasons - Rather than actually wanting to help people. There should be no symbol whatsoever for becoming a mentor. Equally, there should not be a mount locked behind it - At best just a Framer Kit for reaching that level. Achievements, sure. But they should be like the commendation achievements, in that the score they give is 0.

You will rarely actually find people that are useful and/or helpful. There are countless people that are just simply bad for it - and I mean people that are teachers/mentors by career.

[Jeeqbit]

Regarding the mount complaint, I have asked mentors before if they are doing it for the mount and all of their answers were just that they didn't really expect to actually get the mount because of how many roulettes it takes, or they didn't have Mentor Roulette unlocked, or they weren't interested in it at all. I think the whole mount thing is just a strawman argument.

[Jojoya]

I recently got out of a Mentor Roulette Duty in Wanderer's Palace, and at the start they did a giant pull of 7+ mobs(which is difficult for some healers). The healer was doing fine, but then when he did another giant pull, he didn't have cooldowns until when his HP was already low. I noted that he should use Cooldowns when doing big pulls, but when it turned out the healer had gone AFK for a minute, I apologized as needed.

However, the rest of the dungeon he was being a snark about Mentors in general being unhelpful or critical or nosy. Is this how most people see mentors? Because if so, it shows that the Mentor system is failing, or that some players view mentors as unreliable and unhelpful, possibly because of their own experience of their NN on their home world.

There are a few great mentors out there. Unfortunately, there are more that are unhelpful if not downright obnoxious that are far more noticeable. That has led to a majority of mentors keeping a low profile and not attracting attention just so they don't get lumped in with the bad ones.

The mentor system has always had its problems. It feels like it's caused by a combination of lack of oversight on SE's part in weeding out the bad mentors coupled with rewards that attract players that have no actual interest in helping other players.

Personally, I don't see a need for the mentor system. Players who want to help other players will do so simply because they enjoy helping and not because they expect a reward for doing it.

I'd also love the commendation system to be revamped so that there's a distinction between commendations given because someone was genuinely helpful versus commendations given because someone had a good glamour, was the tank/healer, or was the only person still left in the dungeon so they got the commendation needed to complete the challenge log entry.