Mentors...please!

[Jojoya]

So I want to put this out there and it has been mentioned before, but mentors need another re-work. Just because a person gets commendations does not mean you are suitable to be a mentor. I cannot tell you how many countless times I have joined a roulette or party and I see the mentors go. "You should just go in unsynched." or they just leave. There should be a counter for how many times they just up and abandon a duty that way if they do it many times their mentor roulette becomes suspended. There should also be a report mentor function that needs to be reviewed so that if someone is abusive to other players as a mentor it should be taken away.

As someone who enjoys teaching people how to do a fight and learning as we go, it is horrible to see someone join in and say "Just do it unsynched." What great mentor advice! This is a major issue for a healthy community and the future growth of this game. Mentor status should be an honor and a chance to show your skills to help others achieve a great goal! So please FFXIV reword the mentor status again and make it to where being a mentor isn't just something to get a roulette and rewards. Make it for people who want to help.

Perhaps it would be better if SE publicly posted what the role of Mentor is intended to cover since there's so much confusion and disagreement among players.

To me, the intention seems to be for Mentors to help out new players understand game basics and where to find things. It's not supposed to be hand holding veteran players through end game content.

That said, it's been pretty amusing at times when I'm on my alt on another data center. Novice Network is the Mentors talking about gambling on FFT bot games on Twitch, discussing incest in anime and arguing politics while it's left to the sprouts to help each other out when someone has a question or needs assistance.

[shibeouya]

I am convinced that most if not all the mentor issues come from the mount rewards for 2k mentor roulettes. 2 issues with that:

1. The number of clears required is insanely high - encouraging mentors to go after quantity over quality.
2. Every duty is treated as the same "progress" towards the mount. So a 2 minutes guildhest is worth the same as a 1-2 hours ex primal.

There's ways to solve it but SE has refused to look at the problem. This leads to a lot of mentors abandoning ex primals because they are not worth the effort - even if you end up clearing after an hour (which is optimistic) it is less progress than leaving instantly, eating the 30 mins penalty and possibly ending up in a guildhest.

Some possible solutions:

1. Stop considering number of clears as the unit towards the mount. Instead, count the time spent inside a cleared duty. So if you spend 2 minutes in a guildhest it is worth much less progress than spending 2 hours in an ex primal that you end up clearing.
2. Split the ex primals into a separate mentor roulette, and give it greater rewards. This would ensure only mentors who want to help for this specific content are there, and that they are rewarded in consequence.

[MistakeNot]

I am convinced that most if not all the mentor issues come from the mount rewards for 2k mentor roulettes. 2 issues with that:

Some of the problems no doubt comes from that, but I'd say the majority of the problem is that the requirements for becoming a mentor have little or nothing to do with who would be a good mentor.
The mentor requirements all basically boil down to playing a lot. Doing that does not suffice to make one a good mentor.

I'd say the whole mentor system is flawed from start to end, and no amount of tweaking can fix it. It would have to be scrapped and redone from scratch - and even then I wonder if it is even possible to create a good mentor system.

[Deceptus]

So I want to put this out there and it has been mentioned before, but mentors need another re-work. Just because a person gets commendations does not mean you are suitable to be a mentor. I cannot tell you how many countless times I have joined a roulette or party and I see the mentors go. "You should just go in unsynched." or they just leave. There should be a counter for how many times they just up and abandon a duty that way if they do it many times their mentor roulette becomes suspended. There should also be a report mentor function that needs to be reviewed so that if someone is abusive to other players as a mentor it should be taken away.

As someone who enjoys teaching people how to do a fight and learning as we go, it is horrible to see someone join in and say "Just do it unsynched." What great mentor advice! This is a major issue for a healthy community and the future growth of this game. Mentor status should be an honor and a chance to show your skills to help others achieve a great goal! So please FFXIV reword the mentor status again and make it to where being a mentor isn't just something to get a roulette and rewards. Make it for people who want to help.

1) Not everyone can remember mechanics they knew very well from 5 years ago.

2) If you're in EX level content you should be doing a minimal amount of research. "Learn as you go" wastes everyone's time and generally leads to abandons.

3) A mentor isn't your EX teacher alone. They possess knowledge about the game in general. Skill rotations, class optimization etc, help with quests, MSQ etc

4) Personally I don't think EX content should be in the Mentor Roulette.

[LalaRu]

Maybe the Mentor roulette itself needs go away, and integrate into Leveling roulette the achievement and reward for doing it <n> times as a Mentor.

After all, Mentor is meant as guidance for the basics of the game, and extreme duties are quite far from that. It fits Leveling roulette.

[Avidria]

Extremes being in the roulette is the reason I stopped trying to unlock it, and why I'm not fussed about becoming a mentor again at all. The only reason I can see is the mount, and it's just not worth it.

[Tsalmaveth]

I stopped bothering to try to get the mount... though I keep my mentor status on to offer help when people ASK it of me. And I never even use the Mentor Roulette anymore because I am tired of being expected to CARRY people... because that's what it felt like, esp with a majority of people buying skips, not doing low content or the novice hall to learn, and just expecting to be hauled through things by higher players without complaint or listening to/doing what they're asked.

[Bsrking5]

Honestly the largest problem with the mentor roulette is getting an ex duty with people who don't know the basics and refuse to learn like facing bosses away from the rest of the group to prevent cleaves.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

I am not a Mentor but that would also be my advice for non-relavent content. Realistically you will be able to fill a party-finder faster if you're just trying to get through it than if you are attempting to do the synced battle. However quitting standard story mode stuff is deplorable. Extreme content from a year or more ago I can understand. That should definitely be unsynced unless your spell learning.

[LineageRazor]

I'm not one to abandon duty when I find myself in an Extreme Primal for Mentor Roulette. I'll give it the ol' college try, and most of the time we'll pull off a win... eventually.

However, win or lose, I'll usually recommend to the players involved that they use Party Finder instead. There are generally two kinds of folks who queue up for an Extreme Primal using Duty Finder:
- Newbies who are unaware that you can run the content unsynced (and probably just want to complete the thing to finish a quest, or whatever)
- Players who do know you can unsync the content, but want to run it synced for the challenge

BOTH groups benefit more from using Party Finder. The former get their quick win, and the latter get like-minded individuals who are also in it for the challenge of it (and who may run other content with them in the future).

Duty Finder queues for Extreme Primals are OPPRESSIVELY bad, as well, even with Mentor Roulette to help out. If you're satisfied with unsynced, you can fill a party AND get the win in about ten minutes, using Party Finder. Challenge-seekers... well, they're in for a long wait either way, but at least in the end they'll get folks who actually want to be there, if they use Party Finder.

I don't endorse Mentors who abandon duty, no matter what duty they wind up in. However, I do not think that newbies should be using Duty Finder to complete Extreme Primals, and I tell them so. Most are actually grateful, as they were unaware of the unsync option and just want the clear.