Do you think the Mentor system could be fixed by lifting most restrictions to it?

[Eriane_Elis]

By that what I mean is... What if mentor wasn't something that you earned in the game but something that you just talked to an NPC at any point once you've completed all the dungeons / trials and boom, you're a mentor? In fact, why do you even need to complete trials and dungeons? It's not like being a mentor means you need to remember everything about every dungeon or trial, it's about mentoring people on becoming better players and doing what you can to answer their questions.

Of course however, the reality of Mentors is that it's an elite badge of honor where the badge is flaunted and is used inappropriately. This concept is about destroying the negative stigma / elitist toxic behavior behind the mentor crown.

By making it easy to obtain, you remove all elite status it has making it so that people who do want to help, will help.

It's a radical thought but maybe it's crazy enough to work? I remember in guild wars I think "mentor" status was bought using a certain amount of gold.

Edit: I also want to point out that maybe if you replace the crown with a scholar hat, it would be more appropriate. I think a gold crown doesn't accurately reflect what a mentor is about.

[KDSilver]

Am I reading it wrong, or are you suggesting to lift restriction because you lost your mentor status because you don't have the requirement for it, so that you can get it back, but also calling mentors "elite" ?

"In fact, why do you even need to complete trials and dungeons? It's not like being a mentor means you need to remember everything about every dungeon or trial, it's about mentoring people on becoming better players "

How do you become a better player? Why is it needeed to complete every dungeon/trial ?
You not only need to understand the class you're playing, sure, but it comes to also understanding game mechanic and remember what pattern boss do during party instance.

Mentor aren't computer/robot, sure, you can't remember absolutely 100% of everything though years.
However, since mentoring is supposed to grant help, having some knowledge of every piece of content is my opinion the least they could ask.

I'm not saying mentoring is good. But when it was introduced, it was meant to help new player for several thing. And clearing is one of them.
You can't be expected to "mentor" someone if don't even know what content he's talking about.

Mentoring is already out of control for a long time, with the mentor community being filled with a lot of non-mentor who are just trying to get the mount.
So it you let even more people get in the role, it'll become even worse than now. It already doesn't mean a lot right now, so if anyone could get it "just because he talked to a npc"...

[KageTokage]

Honestly, they need to at least combine the trade and combat mentors into a single general mentor status and require the criteria for both to be met in order to become a mentor.

It's disproportionately easy to get access to mentor status via trade mentor; so much so that people can realistically meet the criteria just in the process of getting to level 80 with a DoH and DoL job.

They also need to make Novice Network an opt-in only thing so it's not being clogged all the time by useless "mentors" who just wanted a crown.

[Eriane_Elis]

I think there was a misunderstanding. What I meant was that I'm sure there are many people out there who would like to become a mentor but 1.5k comms is practically impossible for most to get. I don't want to mentor anymore, it's a lot of effort and I don't really play with randoms outside of MSQ roulette and raids. Personally I have rarely ever seen competent / patient / helpful mentors. I know good ones exist, I've seen them but how many parties have you been in where the mentor player yells at a sprout instead of teaching them something? In my opinion, giving everyone the option to mentor could essentially remove the pedestal and the crown could act as an actual mentor status rather than what it is today. Kind of like wearing something that says "hey, ask me anything! I'm willing to help!". Heck, get rid of the crown and replace it with a tutor hat. You know, the ones scholars wear.

[Controller]

I think it was a mistake to make the status to begin with. It has failed and it needs to be deleted in my opinion.

[SenorPatty]

More people having access to mentorship isn't what's going to fix it, since the core of the problem is essentially two things: the crown and the mount. It's far, far less the "prestige" of being a mentor and more about slapping glam next to their names and having a shiny flying horse to boot. Remove those and watch people drop out of it like flies.

[ZattanaWen]

Being a mentor shouldn't just be a matter of unlocking the thing by playing a lot. It used to be way easier to get, and tons of people were mentors, and they still thought it held prestige. Now it's somewhat harder to unlock, but again, unlocking it has nothing to do with helping people and everything to do with just playing nonstop.

There isn't really anything in the game they could leverage to quantify helping people (aside from Mentor roulette, which you don't get until you're already a mentor) so tbh I'm not sure how you'd measure that, but there needs to be something.

There should be ongoing responsibilities and if you don't do them, you lose it.

Mentor Roulette should be much easier to unlock, and maybe you should have to do it regularly to keep mentor status. And maybe you can't be a mentor until you've done what you need to to unlock Mentor Roulette. As it is, you have tons of mentors out there who can't even access Mentor Roulette because you have to have cleared every goddamn dungeon in the game to do it, including all the optional ones.

Maybe a sort of probationary period.

Base Requirements (# of comms, levels, dungeon clears) unlocks a sort of Temp Mentor, and after 30 days of doing stuff a mentor should have to do, it becomes regular mentor, but you have to keep doing that stuff to keep it.

Mentor should have responsibilities. It shouldn't just be a status symbol. I don't mind rewards for it, but there's just still too many toxic people running around as mentors now.

[DrWho2010]

1.5 k comms may be hard to get for a new person just starting to play the game but for anyone who's been around 5+ years if you don't have 1.5k comms by now you've really done something wrong.

[ZattanaWen]

1.5 k comms may be hard to get for a new person just starting to play the game but for anyone who's been around 5+ years if you don't have 1.5k comms by now you've really done something wrong.

Pretty much. I've only been playing 2+ years (with lengthy breaks), pretty much exclusively DPS, and I'm at like 1100 or so.

[wereotter]

More people having access to mentorship isn't what's going to fix it, since the core of the problem is essentially two things: the crown and the mount. It's far, far less the "prestige" of being a mentor and more about slapping glam next to their names and having a shiny flying horse to boot. Remove those and watch people drop out of it like flies.

I agree with this.

I stopped flagging myself as a mentor specifically because of all the people who are only there for exactly these reasons. If the mentor status became a thing where you were known as a person who is actually willing to help with no reward, I'd consider actually getting my status back again. But as is, when you have people who just want a crown, and who are trying to farm the mount (and drop from the roulette when its anything harder than a levequest or leveling dungeon) I don't want to be associated.