Let's talk about Good Mentors

[Alex_LoneWolf]

There's one title that's been on a lot of people's lips and been mentioned a lot recently: mentor.

While looking through the forums recently, I've seen a lot of negative threads about bad mentors and talking about why they're bad. But sometimes you get a really good mentor who knows what they're doing and really helps you out.

I'd like to hear about those stories. I'll reply to some here and there myself (cause I like doing that). I'd also appreciate it if you passed the link to this thread on to people who tell you about good mentors they've had so they can write their experiences here too.

[Shurrikhan]

The sad thing is, anyone who'd truly be in need of a mentor isn't going to be a position to know how good their mentor really is, even if they might at least be able to identify a bad one. In my own experience, most reception correlates to politeness, not the accuracy or thoroughness of information given. Try teaching a party about focus targeting, AoEs, CD timing, etc., even just in a positive, casual as-you-go-fashion, and you could (in my experience likely) be badmouthed for being a try-hard or not meeting "what [they're] really looking for..." It's probably just my unluck, but I'm not too surprised that many of the best and most informative players I know have given up on trying to mentor people through a roulette rather than personal request.

[Alex_LoneWolf]

I really hear you on the points you've made. But I know there are some really good ones out there who will say "Hey, can I help you with...." or "Hey, here's how you do....". They at least try to put in an effort and people like them.

Although I am not a leaf, I can think of a couple in my own FC, including one who taught me a better rotation for Summoner. I haven't deviated from it since I've learend and I went from barely putting out enough DPS to amazing a lot of people with how much damage I can actually put out.

[Shurrikhan]

I really hear you on the points you've made. But I know there are some really good ones out there who will say "Hey, can I help you with...." or "Hey, here's how you do....". They at least try to put in an effort.

I can think of a couple in my own FC, including one who taught me a better rotation for Summoner. I haven't deviated from it since I've learned and I went from barely putting out enough DPS to amazing a lot of people with how much damage I can actually put out.

(To be clear, I misunderstood your reference to mentors as being only towards those roulette-runners in the shiny hats...)

I still for one will help LS mates (FC abandoned; just house-sitting now) with figuring out a class at both a theoretical and practical level. Sometimes I'll even put the question forward, rather than only waiting to be asked (though that might not be the best sign for their dps if I feel the need to do so). When I was still leveling my own battle classes on my main or alt, especially, I really enjoyed taking someone who was aware and generally capable and making them as recklessly (yet securely) ambitious as I am. (They grow up so fast!!!) But the dozen-plus mentor roulettes I've done have each shown that medium for instruction to be very, very lacking.

[JunseiKei]

Long ago, back when the game was just still in version 2.0, not even 2.1, I ran into a tank that was struggling in Brayflox. One of the DPS spoke up, as they had a tank leveled and started to coach the person. They told them about enmity, pulling mobs and facing them away from parties. We found out the tank didn't have tomahawk/ shield lob and was told it was behind their job quest- they didn't know job quests gave skills~! The DPS also explained that provoke just gives top enmity + 1 and isn't intended to pull groups with. They also talked about using chains, as this tank had been using rage of halone/ butcher block only as well as how good flash and overpower were for holding group hate. Come to boss time, the tank is told to move immediately for orange floor puddles, poison, etc- don't worry about getting another hit in.

The run didn't go too much slower than normal, really only stopping for typing. We went from a run made of the stuff of nightmares to something actually smooth and enjoyable. Looking back on it, this DPS was an amazing and thorough mentor as well as the student was modest, humble and willing to listen. They actually thanked the person for sparing time to explain it to them. Granted, this is from the dark ages of FXIV: ARR, but a good mentor is still a good mentor.

-----

Running roulette the other day, had a tank that was a mentor for Stone Vigil HM. One of the DPS was a new player, so we get to the bosses, we pause to give a brief tip for things to watch out for. I notice it's taking a while for them to type and after a little bit, they've said roughly what the boss does and I add a couple of things to it. The run goes fairly smoothly with a hiccup here or there. We get to the final boss and he asks if I just want to explain the final encounter; I say np and explain it. We kill it, clearing the dungeon with no problems. At the end, he says thanks- it's really annoying to type on ps controller sometimes, so having someone else pitch in for explanations really helped. It was one of those times we ended up helping each other 'cause the last time I ran that dungeon was before 3.0 dropped, so rust was everywhere.

[MuseTraveller]

Way back when mentors became a thing and when antitower was in expert roulette, I had a run with one. There was a bonus message and the mentor tank waited before every boss asking if the newbie needed mechanics explained then proceeded to patiently explain in just the right detail without making it needlessly long text. It was the first mentor I saw that day, unfortunately the last good one I saw as well to this day.
They did get my comm of course.

[Alex_LoneWolf]

Nice! These are some pretty awesome stories!

It's actually nice to hear about people using the Mentor system for the way it was designed, rather than just thinking of themselves.

[Ghishlain]

I'll just cross post my own story from a different thread in here:

I think the only real time where I've given unsolicited advice was in a Copperbell (normal) run I had where there was a sprout ACN with Topaz Carby out. It annoyed the DRK tank we had greatly but eventually Carby just died due to aggro and after noticing that the ACN didn't resummon a Carby after a while made note of that in party chat and made not to use Emerald instead of Topaz. After the next pull the ACN did indeed summon Emerald Carby into the fray and things went smoothly from there. I made my notes about specific bosses as we hit them up and reminded the ACN to resummon his Topaz Carby once before he left as the Topaz Carby is great for solo play but not so much for party play due to having a dedicated tank most of the time. There was never a single word from this ACN but I ended up walking away with three commends that run so I'll take it that people appreciated the talk xD

[Alex_LoneWolf]

Nice story!

I will admit that I had to learn the same thing while working on Arcanist along with....maybe not using Misasma the way I thought it was supposed to be.... XD. This was back at the beginning of Heavensward, but I think it still applies.

When I first stared playing, I ran an instance with a couple of friends of mine, one who was a summoner. I happened to get Miasma in this instance, but was constantly casting it, thinking it was a replacement for Ruin. After we got out, my summoner friend asked me if I was constantly using Miasma. I explained, and he chuckled and explained how Miasma worked.

[Seig345]

I've already tooted my own horn on a recent WoD run where I feel like I did my crown proud, but in response to what makes a mentor "good" being subjective, I feel like a decent metric would simply be whether their advice made an improvement on what they were giving advice for, or at the very least if they remained polite and positive in the face of the challenge and never lost their cool.

When silence is so common in PUGs, I feel like the bar for being a good mentor objectively hasn't been set terribly high for anyone capable of speaking up to help while keeping their cool regardless of the response.