Mentors - What is expected really?

[Thamorian]

Glorified queue filler.
Nothing more.

Uh huh...yeaaaaahhhhh no. We 've already been over that. Are you looking to contribute to the discussion or you just looking to increase your post count again?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Uh huh...yeaaaaahhhhh no. We 've already been over that. Are you looking to contribute to the discussion or you just looking to increase your post count again?

He's not wrong. Mentor roulette literally exists to fill queues.

Also, your post added nothing to the discussion.

[Thamorian]

He's not wrong. Mentor roulette literally exists to fill queues.

Also, your post added nothing to the discussion.

You didn't read any other page in this post did you? We aren't talking about the Mentor roulettes, are are talking about the mentor system as a whole.

THIS IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! This is so far off the mark that you are in China when you should be in New York!

SE did not make savage raiding a requirement to be a mentor. SE made mentor system to help low level players learn the game at a basic level. Basic rotations, general questions, and stuff like character config and system config. Novice Network is filled with new players still progressing through the game starting at level 1. The "New Adventurer" status is applied to all players who have less than 168 hours of play time and have not completed the quest The Far Edge of Fate, not players at end game raiding. Just because you have some twisted idea of what a mentor is supposed to be does not make it true.


No they aren't. The average mentor have the same gameplay skill as the non-mentor. You just have such a biased preconceived notion that mentors should be great at the game that when you run into a bad one, you notice the crown and take notice of it more. I'm sure you ran into a bunch of mentors who played just fine but you didn't notice they had a mentor crown on or you don't remember them because they played their role adequately so there was no noteworthy reason to remember them.

Mentor Roulettes came much later than the mentor system so no, it's not a scheme to get queues moving. And being able to do savage raiding and being a good mentor does not have much much in common. You can have a really really nasty and rude person be good at raiding and a mentor who is not good at raiding but can help teach new players about the game.

Mentors don't choose to be mentors to impress you. And like I said, I'm sure you run into plenty of people who had mentor crowns on who you don't remember because they didn't do anything noteworthy to be remembered for. They did whatever role adequately they sign up for in the dungeon. Ran a dungeon and it went smoothly? In what way is a mentor supposed to shine bright in that regard? Someone being bad at end game has NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with being a mentor. The requirements to obtain mentor are pretty low and the only extra systems they gain is novice network, which is for new players, and a regular "casual" content roulette. Yes you can become a mentor by being a healer that only heals, a tank that stays in tank stance only doing enmity rotation and AoE, and a DPS who doesn't hit all their oGCDs. Or you can become a mentor by making collectables with crafting and gathering while only ever doing each dungeon a grand total of once to unlock them. Show me where it says mentors have to be great at end game?

As long as mentor has a good attitude, share what knowledge they have, and helps new players learn the basics of the game, they have fulfilled the requirements of what SE wanted mentors to be. You need to stop equating mentors with something they are were not designed to be.

Basics of the game being:
How do I get to Limsa?
Where do I get my first mount?
How do I join a FC?
How to I enable more hotbars?
What is a basic rotation for a class?
Where do I go to unlock a job?

If a mentor is also a great at savage raiding and knows a job really well, thats great but it is bonus knowledge.

Yeah, my posts haven't been adding anything to the discussion.

I don't post just for the sake of posting.
If you'd like to discuss it, I'm happy to oblige. A short blunt answer was all that was needed, I think. However I'm always happy to expand on anything.

In what way was the Mentor System designed to be a "glorified queue filler" when the mentor roulettes (which was not even mentioned about at all in the original post) came much later than the Mentor System itself and Novice Network?

[BillyKaplan]

You didn't read any other page in this post did you? We aren't talking about the Mentor roulettes, are are talking about the mentor system as a whole.

There are two things that the Mentor system brings to the table: the Mentor roulette, and the Novice Network. There's literally nothing else in the game that's affected by it other than a cosmetic change to your search info if you so wish. Between too many NNs being cesspits of toxin and decay, and they being a very limited chat channel to begin with whereas Mentors and Sprouts/Returners can't even get in, that leaves us with the Mentor roulette. In the patch the Mentor roulette was released, they said in the patch notes the roulette itself was specifically to help queues for those pesky duties that don't pop.
Everyone can be helpful with or without the crown. Everyone can be a piece of trash with or without the crown. "So long as a mentor has a good attitude"? Has nothing to do with them being a mentor. We're bodies to get the queues going.

Mentors don't choose to be mentors to impress you.

Uh, #NotAllMentors much? A lot of them do. I know a few people who cheated the DF system, powered through the achiev in two weeks, and only use the mount to shove it in people's faces.

And all the questions you brought up aren't things you need a mentor for. It's why the Novice Network amounts to "let me google that for you". Hell, you don't even need that, most of it is information that exists inside the game. It's also information people somehow managed to grasp before the Mentor system was introduced.

Remove the Mentor system tomorrow and the only thing that'll change would be -- oops, certain queues not popping. The Novice Network is now replaced with the Limsa shout chat.

[Canadane]

In what way was the Mentor System designed to be a "glorified queue filler" when the mentor roulettes (which was not even mentioned about at all in the original post) came much later than the Mentor System itself and Novice Network?

This is two fold here.
One, it's not uncommon for features to arrive in a staggered way. I wouldn't believe for a second that after the mentor system was implemented it was only then some dev got the idea for a roulette. It was entirely planned.
Two, the novice network is there to help newer players. "Hey can I get help with x?" is essentially helping fill queues by getting players together and putting them through content. I don't know how it is on other servers, Hyperions started out pretty strict on staying on topic. Nowadays it's a bit more social. But the questions and answers are still there. The assistance is still there. People end up doing more content from the knowledge gained and help provided.

It's the same reason the Relic and Anima weapons involved doing content you've probably already done. SE tries very hard to get players to do content multiple times in order to help people through the queues as often as possible.

[Canadane]

Uh huh...yeaaaaahhhhh no. We 've already been over that. Are you looking to contribute to the discussion or you just looking to increase your post count again?

I don't post just for the sake of posting.
If you'd like to discuss it, I'm happy to oblige. A short blunt answer was all that was needed, I think. However I'm always happy to expand on anything.

[Penthea]

I'm happy when mentors are competent with their classes. Some are disappointingly awful. Sadly the requirements to get the mentor tag mean any fool can get it.

[MeganLynn]

The mentor status is so easy to obtain that it actually means nothing. Actually...people with a mentor's crown are usually the worst players in the game.

No, it's people with this type of attitude that are the worse players in the game. I would take a mentor that doesn't know much but is willing to learn, over someone with this attitude.

[Lastelli]

No, it's people with this type of attitude that are the worse players in the game. I would take a mentor that doesn't know much but is willing to learn, over someone with this attitude.

A mentor shouldn't be willing to learn. He should be willing to mentor less experienced players and to do so, he should have some solid knowledge of the game. However, given how easy it is to become a mentor, many mentors are not competent enough to offer useful advice to sprouts.

Not a single one of the requirements to become a mentor has anything to do with skill or knowledge of the game. As of now, the mentor system is only a way to let people wear a shiny crown and to fill queues faster, placing a big fat carrot (the only 2-seater obtainable by playing the game) at the end of an excruciatingly time consuming grind (2k mentor roulettes)

To the OP: don't bother with the mentor system. If you feel like you can help a player, by all means do so. But realize that the mentor status means absolutely nothing.

[pacifist0rz]

Mentor's one job is explain to people to not use duty finder for extreme trials and instead put them unsynced in party finder.