Tell me stories when a mentor hurt you.

[Mesarthim]

Mentors are people too. Anyone that associates it with "oh every mentor is bad" is an idiot full stop. Anyone can get the crown regardless of skill. I was attacked for wearing the burger king crown just yesterday because of a one-liner that wasn't even rude. But because a MENTOR said it then by the gods I am just a terrible person.

I've done 2000 roulettes, I don't bail out of extremes, you name it. But if people plant a suggestion in their head that because one mentor bad all of them are bad, that's on you not the crown.

[tsuchii]

I don't blame the entirety of mentors for the bad ones among them. I've just had some grating experiences with leech-like airplane-mode mentors who put in no effort when a sprout actually needs help.
Recently I had a bad DPS mentor who didn't speak a word during Dzemael Darkhold. He watched the sprout healer die to the All-Seeing Eye's boss mechanics. Then, he began pulling the next mobs (as a DPS) before the healer had even come back to us. I had to start giving advice in his stead because the mentor never wrote a single message.

Did you know unsolicited advice is reportable in this game? I personally never interfere in duties unless I am specifically asked to. If I want to control the pace of a dungeon, I'd play tank.

The way that your person stayed and didn't say anything negative meant they were patient enough to wait for your healer to pick up on the mechanic. Especially when it is a first timer, the worse thing that you can do is rob/spoil the new player of experiencing resolving mechanics on their own. The eye boss mobs do not need pulling, they will always attack in the direction of the boss. If anything, taking them to the party just potentially removed those mobs from the healer struggling with the mechanics.
IDK I wasn't there. I am just saying not to always assume the worst.

[tsuchii]

Never aoe'd on big pulls and got out dps'ed by the healer 100% even on bosses.

That's likely a bot.

[TomsYoungerBro]

I'm not sure how people think it's a flex. It just means you got 1500 commendations. I got 4600 in my 3 years of playing. I NEVER give them out but receive them anyway. I am a collector so for sure I will take the collectable horse. What ego? You can't even property show off that mounts because other than personal use, mounts are useless in this game. Using my achievement mount or legend title but not saying a word doesn't mean I'm flexing. I just wanted to use the things I worked for.

So then to you what is the mentor program actually about? You've left NN, you want a collectible mount, and you want to show things that you worked for (Mount and crown for instance). Is getting mentor status and the mount really just meant to be an achievement within the game? Do you think that was Square's actual intention with the program?

It's pretty clear that it isn't. A mentor is supposed to be a knowledgeable person that helps guide new players. Its not a means to "use things that you worked for". A legend title is not a mentor crown or the mentor mount. A legend title comes from completing content, therefore, its meant to be an achievement. A mentor crown is meant to show new players that you have volunteered yourself to help out sprouts. You are supposed to be guiding new players.

When you queue up mentor roulette, do you leave when you get an extreme duty some level 50/60 sprout queued up because they were interested? "Just go unsync it in PF" mentors. When you were in NN, did you actually try to help sprouts out before you realized it was just a cesspool of players with fragile egos? etc. etc.

[Jeeqbit]

Yesterday I had a Ninja mentor in the 99 dungeon. Never aoe'd on big pulls and got out dps'ed by the healer 100% even on bosses.

Were they a crafter mentor? Important distinction because crafter mentors are often sprouts in disguise or just more experienced in crafting/gathering.

A mentor crown is meant to show new players that you have volunteered yourself to help out sprouts. You are supposed to be guiding new players.

If they ask, yes. If they don't, they might be wanting to do a blind run of the content. If they wanted to know the mechanics in advance, they probably looked up a YouTube video.

The problem is that offering unsolicited advice to a stranger can come across toxic, even though this is not intended. "Btw use X ability". From the mentor's point of view, that's just friendly advice to use a certain ability. From a stranger in the dungeon's point of view, you are attacking them for not using X ability and they get a poor impression. They don't know you personally and don't necessarily know you're trying to be friendly.

[Picothea]

Did you know unsolicited advice is reportable in this game? I personally never interfere in duties unless I am specifically asked to. If I want to control the pace of a dungeon, I'd play tank.

The way that your person stayed and didn't say anything negative meant they were patient enough to wait for your healer to pick up on the mechanic. Especially when it is a first timer, the worse thing that you can do is rob/spoil the new player of experiencing resolving mechanics on their own. The eye boss mobs do not need pulling, they will always attack in the direction of the boss. If anything, taking them to the party just potentially removed those mobs from the healer struggling with the mechanics.
IDK I wasn't there. I am just saying not to always assume the worst.

What a strange comment. From the Support Center:

It is not a violation to offer advice when pointing out issues; however, it should be treated as advice only and not something that must be followed.

As long as you're not insulting the other player, there's nothing reportable about actual advice.

Furthermore, as I said in my original comment, this mentor was in a rush to pull the next mobs in the dungeon (after the boss, not during it) without the healer's presence. This is not teaching the sprout anything.

[Catwho]

I've shared the opinion that the crown should be changed to a watering can.

I say this as a mentor.

[LilimoLimomo]

I'm a mentor, and for awhile I wore the crown because I like being helpful and wanted to see if I could overcome the negative stigma associated with mentors. But eventually, I took off the crown (naturally I continue to be helpful and kind).

Not every mentor has left a bad taste in my mouth; in fact, most haven't. But in the rare circumstances that someone is aggressive or demanding or impatient, it does feel like a disproportionate amount of the time there's a crown over their head. To be fair, it could be that there's some confirmation bias at work there, but the impression sticks.

The worst, though, is the Novice Network. Every time I've gone in there since I got my crown, there are always mentors doing things like chastising players for not playing in the ways they feel are optimal, or kicking players out of the chat when they have tame and reasonable disagreements on subjective matters. And thus, Novice Network, one of the resources that should be a compassionate place to assist new players in playing this fun game, has become an absolute trash fire. I don't go anywhere near it, and I can't imagine inviting a sprout to the Novice Network for any other reason than to punish them (which to be clear, I would not do).

So is every mentor bad? Of course not. Again, I'm a mentor. But I do understand why mentors overall have a bad reputation, and I think it's one that's well-earned. Though in the end I think that says more about CBU3's curation of the mentor program than it does the overall population of mentors. As the saying goes, a few rotten apples spoil the whole bunch.

[Shikiseki]

I personally don't really notice other mentors unless they stick out with bad attitude - which I'll stand up against, especially directed against other or newer players. Everyone can get into a chain of bad luck wipes and irl emergencies so I'm fairly lenient with player performance, especially in casual content like, who's so serious about this game to lash out on such trivial content in the first place...

The main issue imo are indeed long-time veterans that also think that automatically qualifies them into a MVP mentor but actually don't want to have anything to do with new adventurers. Just give them a "gold star" to show off their efforts that they have completed the game or smth (or a special snowflake icon lol).
Too bad the returner status is a Sprout Crown cause this one would have been perfect for the Mentor status (a crown with a sprout icon)

[Mecia]

That one time in ShB when an AST mentor threw a hissy fit over someone (me, wasnt instant) pulling E12N without a timer. They proceeded to walk off the platform while the rest of us continued. They continue their tantrum coming off as exactly the kind of holier than thou mentor that makes generalization common.