Mentor system needs an overhaul

[RinaB]

I think all these mentor complaints are a bit much. As in real life, there are plenty of people who are experienced at their job who are complete assholes. If a mentor is being rude just black list them and move on. My typical experience with mentors is they don't even say anything and the run just goes smoothly. If its such a huge issue, become the mentor you want others to be.

[SenorPatty]

Hello everyone.
- Mentor system shouldn't be based on commendations alone. It should be removed.
- Players who wish to become Mentors should have all classes maxed out
- There should be a requirement for grinding low-level content, ARR specially.
- Mentors should have all relic quests completed from all expansions. The grind in ARR is real challenge for that.
- More focus on FATEs. I've seen too many Mentors not understand how Fates work.
- Harsher punishment for players abusing the Mentor system to berate players that are non-sprouts. I see it happen almost daily at this rate.

Either way, whether SE does something or not, this whole system will ultimately be seen in a negative light over time.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Hello, thrash mentor here. Was curious to see what kind of improvements you suggested would improve the quality--and i repeat: the QUALITY--of the mentor and mentor system and glad to see that...as usual nothing is said to pertain to an improvement

-Mentor system shouldn't be based on commendations alone. It should be removed

Hate to tell you this but the actual thing you should've said was "comms should not be LINKED to the mentor system" because guess what? Regular people still like to comm other regular people. Before this vainglorious crown popped next to my name, I commed for the same reason I do now: someone did something swell. Like a healer in Osborne who used rescue to pull in a party member into completing a 'duskblade' mech just before it went off. That was slick. I commed him. See, nothing to do with being a mentor.

-Players who wish to become Mentors should have all classes maxed out

This should be rewritten as "Players who wish to become COMBAT mentors should have classes maxed out". Because, you know, there's craft mentors /shrug. Aside from that, agreed only on the basis that maxing a class can give someone a general idea of how it works but you wanna know the real problem? With...17?16? jobs now, knowing the inner workings of every single one of them is not what I'm going to expect even from say, a hardcore raider who's a mentor. Unless they're the type to have good brains from remembering to the finest detail every skill and passive. I'd rather see something like "(Insert job here) mentor" as a thing to show that this is the job I know super well and I can definitely tell you all about it.

- There should be a requirement for grinding low-level content, ARR specially.

Gonna have to be a bit more specific here. Waaay too vague here.

- Mentors should have all relic quests completed from all expansions. The grind in ARR is real challenge for that.

Don't know what does that have to do with improving the quality of mentor or the mentor system. Please explain.

- More focus on FATEs. I've seen too many Mentors not understand how Fates work.


At this point, I feel like we're getting situational. Like "On a sunny Monday afternoon, I asked this mentor how do I join a fate when my level is higher than it and the mentor replied 'google' it." And that was the origin story of how I became a supervillain and sought to destroy the mentor system.

Or I could be way off the mark here and you're talking about something else, to which I would say "could be a BIT more specific about you wanting more focus on fates".

- Harsher punishment for players abusing the Mentor system to berate players that are non-sprouts. I see it happen almost daily at this rate.

Ah yes, the crux of the matter. Not sure how much more harsh you want it to be, since FF14's gms take reports seriously. And they make reports on mentors even more seriously. And they deal sanctions like mana from the heavens on mentors who have done the big bad of being, uh, big bad on sprouts. Losing your mentor mount progress because you're banned from being a mentor? Check. No more NN for you? Check. Good ole fashionable ban from the game for being a spectacular jackass to someone? Check. Was that your 3rd strike? Permaaa-ban!

Or maybe you were thinking big like not only should they super ban mentors but they should find out where they live and send the special task force to physically ban them from their computer. Then break it. Then break them. Then break their console too. Then go back to breaking them.

Anywho, trash mentor here. Looking forward to more suggestions that will actually improve the QUALITY of mentors or the mentorship system. Will also accept the discontinuation or elimination of the mentor system as suggestions as well. Thank you for the TED talk.

[Jin-]

Unnecessary requirements. Extreme. Nothing would change.

FATES? What? Those are nothing more than badly designed filler content

[Jeeqbit]

When I started the game as a sprout, I've come across Mentors who had no knowledge about the game whatsoever. Whenever I asked a question, I was told "just google it lol".

Battle mentors may know specifically about battling and trade mentors may know specifically about crafting/gathering. If they don't know about their respective area of expertise then that would be a concern. I think this is most common with trade mentors though.

At times I felt like I was talking to a newbie player hidden behind that crown.

This does frequently happen with the trade mentor status.

the Mentor in our group began to berate me for my use of Diurnal stance for 10-15 minutes. This was back during my time on Chaos data center. I was rather hurt and the group disbanded. I even had to take a 2-3 week break from the game, just because of that moment.

If it hurt you in this way you could report them. They would most likely take action against the individual, because it's not acceptable to hurt someone like this and ruin their month.

- Mentor system shouldn't be based on commendations alone. It should be removed.

This is usually effective though. Commendations usually do mean the person has done a lot of dungeons, trials and roulettes and has a varied amount of battle experience. I don't think most people farm guildhests for them. I wouldn't disagree with increasing the amount of commendations required though.

I support adding lots more requirements like this, but it would be a problem if it filters too many people out on even just one world and we end up with hardly any mentors on that world.

[Ralph2449]

Very few actually know what they are talking about. Very very few.

Not surprising sadly, most gamers who like to tell themselves they are good are often clueless and dont understand anything in any level of depth but since they follow what they were told is "the best" way to do things/rotation/strat they often delude themselves they know what they are talking about.

[Awha]

Mentors are just players with a Burger King crown no more or less.

[Deceptus]

-Players who wish to become Mentors should have all classes maxed out

This should be rewritten as "Players who wish to become COMBAT mentors should have classes maxed out". Because, you know, there's craft mentors /shrug. Aside from that, agreed only on the basis that maxing a class can give someone a general idea of how it works but you wanna know the real problem? With...17?16? jobs now, knowing the inner workings of every single one of them is not what I'm going to expect even from say, a hardcore raider who's a mentor. Unless they're the type to have good brains from remembering to the finest detail every skill and passive. I'd rather see something like "(Insert job here) mentor" as a thing to show that this is the job I know super well and I can definitely tell you all about it..

Or even one job maxed out for each role: Tank, Heal, Melee, Ranged Magic, Ranged Physical. That would ensure you at least have some grasp how each role should be played.

Sadly almost every single anti-mentor thread is basically: This one mentor did this one thing I didn't like so I'm going to complain about it.

Meanwhile, the "You don't pay my sub" club runs rampant and unchecked.

When I started the game as a sprout, I've come across Mentors who had no knowledge about the game whatsoever. Whenever I asked a question, I was told "just google it lol".

Because sometimes something is complex and not easily explainable? I mean, if I don't know something generally the first thing I do is google it. Show a bit of self initiative instead of asking everyone to give you the answers.

[Bsrking5]

Until SE starts paying people to be mentors none of that is ever going to happen. And yes, google it is a great answer. Don't like a mentor, bkacklist them. Going to forums and crying; they didnt fund your personal house and get you the mobrol mount; while trying to get SE to add extreme requirements, is gonna get you no where.

[TalithaSolarien]

*looks amused at the calendar date of the post* ... oh my ....

[Garruss]

Can I grab a handful of that popcorn?