[Suggestion] Mentor Rework

[MitsukiKimura]

Just...no. Most mentors I've met don't even speak or say anything helpful. Your kind of mentor feels more like a Hardcore raider than an "Actual" Mentor that's suppose to be a good example and help beginner players with questions or content. The 1500 commendations thing is a good stepping stone in the right direction, because dear lord 300 is not hard to come by. Act like a jerk you most likely won't get any commendations. Time to weed out the ones who shouldn't be having that crown.

[Thamorian]

yesterday while doing the leveling roulette we had a mentor healer who was so bad we wiped 3 times from a lack of heals and he died twice on basic mechanic.
My friend and I were wondering the whole time "how is that a mentor?"

Nothing says a mentor has to be good at playing a job they are currently on. Just needs to reach level 80 (60 before) and do Job quest/role quests. Mentor is more about knowing good answer to give. But if anyone, not just mentor, is failing to heal and wiping to basic stuff, that is pretty concerning. Lazy? Really bad connection? Bought account? Or really just that bad and got carried through most dungeons and got pity comms? Who knows.


Also to the main post, don't know how I missed this gold mine of a post. This is something I feel like would come from someone whose head is far up their rear. These are HORRIBLE suggestions for mentor. Mentor isn't nor should it be an equivalent to Runescape completionist cape. Dear OP, please, turn your crown off if you currently have it on. You look to be the type to give all mentors a bad image.

[CastoaKardos]

I don’t think that being able to clear everything in the game should be a requirement. Someone may be able to explain every mechanic in mandatory dungeons but be unable to explain a savage fight, that doesn’t make them unhelpful.

That being said, if there were to be a change, personally I think the only thing that could be done is to perhaps add a separate “mentor commendation” system where party members can commend a mentor. I think a system like that would be better for getting rewards because then those who pick up the status for said rewards have to at least be somewhat helpful to get them.

Again though, being a mentor is more about just wanting to help, like people have said. You’ll always have good and bad mentors, just like in any community.

[Reynhart]

That being said, if there were to be a change, personally I think the only thing that could be done is to perhaps add a separate “mentor commendation” system where party members can commend a mentor. I think a system like that would be better for getting rewards because then those who pick up the status for said rewards have to at least be somewhat helpful to get them.

How would that be different from current commendations ?

[CastoaKardos]

How would that be different from current commendations ?

In theory, it wouldn’t be. I’d imagine it’d work the same way, just having mentor rewards locked behind them. It’d be by no means a perfect fix, since people tend to hand out comms all the time anyway, but personally I’ve always thought it’d be at least a better system than having them locked behind mentor roulette. Though that’s mostly because most of the complaints I see about the current system is over people becoming mentors and spamming the roulette for the mount with no regard for new players. I know other issues are around, but at least on my server, that’s what I hear about the most.

[Reynhart]

Though that’s mostly because most of the complaints I see about the current system is over people becoming mentors and spamming the roulette for the mount with no regard for new players.

You can use current commendations for that. Make it so that you need to keep receiving commendations if you want to keep your mentor status. Of course, it would be related to the times when you actually do instanced content (No Mentor removal if you go on vacation for a month )

That's also why I suggested that mentor should receive ongoing QoL so that you won't reach a point where you have all benefits secured and can quit "mentoring" completely.

[CastoaKardos]

You can use current commendations for that. Make it so that you need to keep receiving commendations if you want to keep your mentor status. Of course, it would be related to the times when you actually do instanced content (No Mentor removal if you go on vacation for a month )

That's also why I suggested that mentor should receive ongoing QoL so that you won't reach a point where you have all benefits secured and can quit "mentoring" completely.

Yeah it's the first time I've heard of a mentor QoL idea and honestly it sounds really interesting to me. I think it'd be really fun to see what all could be done with a system like that if it was implemented right.

[Sabrenn]

"Mentor" is a status like "Online", "Busy" "LFG" and "RP". If you don't want to mentor, don't have your status set to mentor. You qualified to mentor, but that doesn't mean you should mentor 24/7. If you're not mentoring, don't advertise to sprouts that you are currently willing to mentor and take space in the nn from people who want to help. That's all. I qualify for both pve and doh/l mentors but if i'm just farming trials or leveling a new class I don't know how to use yet, I don't have it on because I am not currently mentoring. Would you have "RP" status on then complain that people whisper you about rp because you just want to have "RP" next to your name? No.

That's all I have to say on this topic. Nothing wrong with the reqs.

[Saefinn]

What you're asking for is an "Elite" player badge. That's not what the mentor status is for, sure it's how some view it, but it's wrong. And I'd say an "Elite" player badge has no place here, it just encourages the wrong kind of attitude. Ultimate already gives you a title to wear as a badge of honour and exclusive weapons to parade around for completing it.

I agree there needs to be a better way to determine who is and who isn't a mentor. But a mentor should only be that, a mentor. Somebody who helps and is willing to help people who're new, unsure, need questions answered, need help and so on. You don't need to have done the latest content, to have cleared savage or ultimate and so on. They need to be knowledgeable enough to be able to offer meaningful help and to be the helpful sort.

As suggested in another thread, I'd be more in favour of replacing the comm requirement with a new comm option called "Commend for Mentor Status" it'd still tally as part of your regular comms but it'd also contribute towards the number of mentor comms you need to get the status. This then means if they're comming you because you were helpful or had the right attitude then they're more likely to comm you for mentor status, but if you did your job right or helped carry or they thought your name was funny or you made them laugh then they might just regular comm you.

[Valence]

A mentor is here to help and guide new players without any promise of reward. This is not capitalist network, this is novice network. The only reward I always had was smiles and happy sprouts that were sad to eventually graduate out of it, and that's the only thing that matters. If you introduce rewards, the only mentors you'll get are mentors that aren't here to help sprouts but that are here to farm rewards.

While it's always good to have a general idea of certain advanced game systems, 99% of the questions asked here are "how can I unlock my chocobo and when?" or "what are retainers?" or "how do I change class?", or maybe "how do collectables work exactly?". Some might go as far as asking for melds, but that's about it.

If you really want to be a good mentor, 1) be happy and willing to actively help new players and 2) have a big dictionary of useful links and resources, as much as for the sprouts than for yourself