Yay, wall of text incoming, accumulated while reading the thread...

Quote Originally Posted by Toguro View Post
How will tanking or healing help me teach a Bard?
Like others have said before (multiple times), it gives you perspective on what makes a bad Bard from a tank or healer's PoV. Like, for example, kiting an enemy when you accidentally draw aggro, instead of switching target and letting the tank get the mob back.

For me personally, I didn't even realize there was such a thing as positional attacks until I picked up PGL when I got closer to lvl30 on my GLD. I'd started to keep mobs relatively stationary before that, however. Not due to positionals, but in order to not accidentally hit healers or casters with cone AoEs. I probably frustrated many PGL and LNC back in the day, because my first transition from dodging AoEs by running through the mob and then staying there was to turn it 90 degrees instead (I remember doing this on that 'Died in Six Arms' boss crab many times) ^^; And then when I levelled PGL it clicked that even doing that would be bad ^^;

And yeah, I know these are things you learn a lot sooner than 60, but like someone else said, it's more likely you'll have levelled more than those three classes at least for a bit if you have those three at 60, due to cross-class skills. PGL, for example, has its last cross-class (Mantra) at 42, meaning those who play WAR, BRD, DRG and NIN seriously enough to want them at 60 are likely to have levelled MNK at least halfway to 60. Most others have their last cross-class at around 35. Which means that you'll be more likely to be able to give specific advice to the other party members you end up with as a mentor -- you'll hardly be able to give advice to another tank if you're the tank, or another healer if you're the healer, after all.

Quote Originally Posted by DragonHunterG View Post
For the healer class you need at level 60, can't you just level SMN? Once you're level 60 SMN, you're automatically level 60 SCH. Unless I'm missing something, you don't have to heal at all in order to do that.
xD I was just thinking to myself, "Damn. I have WAR and SCH at 60, but I'd need to get to levelling my MNK in order to meet the requirements D: That's going to take ages, considering how slowly I level..." and then you go and post this. I had completely forgotten SMN... Mainly because I'm a craptastic SMN and can barely handle the level 50 skills. Keeping track of Dreadwyrm on top of that? D: No. Just no. Doesn't help that I have a SMN in my FC who has an e-peen the size of Dalamud ;_; I'll never manage to not compare myself to her.

And while it does feel like 'cheating the system', especially since I've just admitted how utterly worthless I am as a SMN, I do know it enough to be able to help people with less than 30 hours of playtime ;) Those players are highly unlikely to have progressed beyond level 50, unless they're a speed leveller (in which case they might not even need said help).

Quote Originally Posted by Tint View Post
hu? i have done over 3700 dungeons and i have never seen someone being kicked because of a lack of cross-skills. not even the WAR tank in ultima hm without provoke was being kicked xD
Maybe they don't get kicked all that often, but they're certainly likely to not get a commendation if their lack of cross-classing has lead to any sort of hindrance during the run. Like lack of Provoke in a situation where it would have been useful or necessary, or lack of Swiftcast leading to trouble getting a Raise through mid-combat.

Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
The mentoring system being a roulette in the first place makes me question whether it's actually intended to teach much of anything, as opposed to, say, a cross-realm PF listing. "Mentor wanted. About to run a quick dungeon. 3/4. Looking for a skilled all-60 mentor to coach how to successfully speedrun a dungeon." "DRG looking for mentor for improving opener and fight strategy, and BotD maintenance." "Healer looking for a healer-dps coach mentor." Those kinds of things would actually get you some real training.
On the other hand... there's nothing that hinders people from putting up those kinds of PFs now. Sure, they wouldn't be cross-realm, but...