The Actual Solution to the Mentor Roulette problem

[Fynlar]

Imagine getting butthurt over all mentors just because a couple of them weren't willing to bend over backwards to be your doormat.

[LineageRazor]

Many or most newbies who sign up for Extremes in Duty Finder do it because they don't know there's an alterative. The game is great at teaching you to use Duty Finder - but does NOTHING to teach a new player about Party Finder.

When I wind up in Ramuh Ex, I usually take some time to tell players about Party Finder, how it works, and why it's better than Duty Finder, whether you want a quick win (go unsynced) or actually learn the fight (can go in multiple times with the same people, rather than be saddled with a new batch of newbies every time). The reactions I get are usually positive.

[Fynlar]

Many or most newbies who sign up for Extremes in Duty Finder do it because they don't know there's an alterative. The game is great at teaching you to use Duty Finder - but does NOTHING to teach a new player about Party Finder.

Yep, exactly; and I've faulted the game quite heavily for this. The PF is an excellent feature and the fact the game doesn't really bother to educate about its use surely leads to lots of players remaining ignorant about it, and how it can be used to organize a content run with specific goals in mind, rather than just the DF's "complete duty XYZ, generally as fast as possible" mindset.

Incidentally, they could have solved the issues with CM/Prae more elegantly this way too; warn the player when unlocking CM/Prae that they are story-intensive dungeons with lots of cutscenes (you know, just like how it does before major story beats like The Banquet) and encourage the people who want to organize a slower paced run with people who will actually let them watch the cutscenes to set up the run in PF instead. You could even go in with fewer people with the undersized + level sync settings, or even the minimum IL setting too, if you wanted to help enforce the slower pace -- all of which would make the fights a bit less faceroll to boot).

In other words, let the players retain the choice instead of shoving one way down everyone's throats. They never needed to make the dungeons forced cutscenes no matter what, and I still say it was a mistake that they did.

Anyway, tangent.

[van_arn]

The solution is to stop telling volunteers how to do their job. If you want to do things another way, you do you.

[GeminiReed]

(CM/Praetorium) They never needed to make the dungeons forced cutscenes no matter what, and I still say it was a mistake that they did.

Those two instances are the story capstone of 7th Umbral and they are mandatory. The right fix would have been to separate the story bits from the instances however Square simply didn't have the time (or likely the developers due to burnout) to provide that rewrite/refactor.

PF would not have solved it. Once they were unskippable Square had to significantly dial up the rewards just to get vets to fill the queues because it was taking days for fresh 50's to get the instances to pop.

The rewards go hand in hand with the unskippable CS. Make them skippable and they'd pay out no better than the 50/60/70 roulette.

[Ariel_Valmont]

There’s nothing wrong with mentor roulette, if a dungeon/trial wasn’t designed to be queued for with the duty finder, you wouldnt be able to queue for it with the duty finder, there are examples of this.

If you can’t drag a group of sprouts across the finish line in Ramuh extreme (for example) you’re not much of a mentor, and probably shouldn’t be using mentor roulette.

Sometimes we get some bad groups, but 9/10 you should be able to clear the fight with plenty of time to spare.

[van_arn]

There’s nothing wrong with mentor roulette, if a dungeon/trial wasn’t designed to be queued for with the duty finder, you wouldnt be able to queue for it with the duty finder, there are examples of this.

If you can’t drag a group of sprouts across the finish line in Ramuh extreme (for example) you’re not much of a mentor, and probably shouldn’t be using mentor roulette.

Sometimes we get some bad groups, but 9/10 you should be able to clear the fight with plenty of time to spare.

The lesson of how to participate in endgame(s) content via party finder instead of duty finder is more valuable than a single clear.

Again, "can" doesn't mean "should." Your time is better spent helping someone within the scope of the mentor system if you are so passionate about mentorship, and endgame(s) activity is outside of that scope.

Of course, you do you. Should you decide to go beyond the scope of the mentor system, kindly don't waste your breath by expecting the same of others who don't share your same passion.

[seida]

I like this idea, mostly because I'm technically a mentor, but I never turn on my status or do the roulette because I haven't unlocked 100% of extreme trials. And even if I had, I did a lot of them so long ago I barely remember the mechanics. I'd happily help sprouts through any other content, but I wouldn't feel like much of a mentor in some of the EXs because of a gandalf moment.

So, I'll just keep my status off and stick to helping sprouts in normal roulettes.

[van_arn]

I like this idea, mostly because I'm technically a mentor, but I never turn on my status or do the roulette because I haven't unlocked 100% of extreme trials. And even if I had, I did a lot of them so long ago I barely remember the mechanics. I'd happily help sprouts through any other content, but I wouldn't feel like much of a mentor in some of the EXs because of a gandalf moment.

So, I'll just keep my status off and stick to helping sprouts in normal roulettes.

This is more valuable mentorship than someone that spends an hour in a df'd extremes. Bonus points for spamming leveling roulette, of course.

[Laerune]

Wouldn't a better and easier solution be to remove mentor status from that that bail trials alot?