The Mentor System

[Caitsithhh]

Having the Burger King crown means you only know the very basics…like how to complete the msq and level other jobs Why would that be considered a mentor is beyond me. SE’s choice. Instead of ppl that actually raid or do the content at a skill level that isn’t 1-2-3.

[Lemuria]

Having the Burger King crown means you only know the very basics…like how to complete the msq and level other jobs Why would that be considered a mentor is beyond me. SE’s choice. Instead of ppl that actually raid or do the content at a skill level that isn’t 1-2-3.

The 'burger crown' means you have the requirements to be both a trade mentor as well as a combat mentor. That means a healer, a DPS and a tank all at level 80, having all crafts and gatherers at 80 and significant content completion under your belt. No, savage content isn't required but then that's not what you're usually mentoring people on.

These are new players, and new players will usually ask more generalised questions. If you're ready for endgame savage content, you no longer need mentoring.

[Jeeqbit]

Having the Burger King crown means you only know the very basics…like how to complete the msq and level other jobs Why would that be considered a mentor is beyond me. SE’s choice. Instead of ppl that actually raid or do the content at a skill level that isn’t 1-2-3.

It also means you have enough experience to have earned 1,500 commendations and complete 1,000 dungeons. Sharing experience is what you are asked to do as a mentor.

I do not think someone who raidlogs savage and never does any other content like dungeons, alliance raids, bozja or other content should necessarily be a mentor, because a lot of trade mentors raidlog and not being able to communicate an experience of casual content affects the advice they are giving to sprouts a lot. It causes them to overwhelm sprouts with savage-level rotations when they just want to know about their Sastasha rotation.

In the Novice Network, no sprout questions relate to savage because they lose this status after one of the level 70 quests and level 80 returners only remain in the novice network long enough to ask how to gear up for savage.

[LittleImp]

In the Novice Network, no sprout questions relate to savage because they lose this status after one of the level 70 quests and level 80 returners only remain in the novice network long enough to ask how to gear up for savage.

There're actually a lot of questions pertaining to endgame gameplay, metas, gearing etc asked by not only returners, but other mentors as well. Extensive endgame knowledge is actually a valuable groundwork for advising newer players, because it's where their journey is ultimately headed and you can help to guide peoples path so that they're productive when they get there.

There're are a handful of mentors that go overboard and spam endgame theorycraft stuff to feed their own ego, but they're fairly rare and at the very least their information is generally accurate. The same can't be said of the weird PVE mentors that spend 10 hours a day on the game, yet never touch any hard content, and tell sprouts bizzare things like "You take more damage from behind", "Sheltron only blocks physical attacks", "Upheaval is useless outside of IR", or "Spamming emotes instead of dpsing as a healer is okay as long as you keep the party alive" (these are all real examples I've personally witnessed).

Broad experience is valuable for an educator, and imo some level of raid experience is a vital part of that tapestry for PVE mentors. Personally I'd like to see the PVE mentor requirements updated to include some reasonably outdated savage content, or clearing the EX from the previous patch.

[Jeeqbit]

There're actually a lot of questions pertaining to endgame gameplay, metas, gearing etc asked by not only returners, but other mentors as well.

Those questions are asked, but the truth is a lot of mentors do actually have the answers and they are good enough. There have been a lot of memes lately, but a lot of them have actually done at least some savage tiers.

It's good for them to have at least stepped into extreme or savage once to understand what is different about it so they can answer questions about it, but in the novice network I think it's intentional that while one mentor might not have the answer, another will.

"You take more damage from behind", "Sheltron only blocks physical attacks"

To be fair, these things were true in Heavensward for paladins. Those mentors must have not kept up with the changes over time or taken a long break.

[SturmChurro]

I'm new to the game and have been playing for almost 2 months now. I have played with many Mentors and I would say over 90% of the Mentors I've played with have been very toxic and rude to both me and other new players in multiple instances that I've joined. People achieve the mentor status just to walk around and have a crown next to their name as some kind of Title but they do not help new players instead I've seen them yell at other players telling them they should have watched a video before joining the instance, to play an easier job if they can't understand how to play it, not teaching mechanics or helping new players. Many and I mean MANY of the mentors have left the instance after the second or so wipe, I've made a few videos on it.

There should be some kind of way for Mentors to lose their Mentor status for being rude, Toxic, refusing to help new players, Giving wrong advice for mechanics, Leaving the instance and such. Something that would be the opposite of commendations. There are waaaayyy to many Mentors but only a few of them actually take their Mentor status with pride and help others. I wanted to become a Mentor, I was looking forward to it but all these Mentors are giving it a bad reputation.

Please consider doing some kind of change. Increasing the things you have to do to obtain the Mentor status just makes the crown look like a shiny Title to many, and many of them do not actually wish to be actual Mentors. Mentors have been the ONLY toxic players I have come across in my entire 2 months of playing.

Unfortunately, this seems to be too often the experience with mentors. It's why I think the game would benefit from the removal of the mentor system entirely; without constant oversight - in it's current state - there's just too many flaws in it. I don't see SE carrying out this constant oversight either. The crown and mount should have never been included in the first place. There is no need for either for players that actually want to help players, and they shouldn't need a reward to do so either.

[Jeeqbit]

I used to experience the same with mentors when I was a sprout, but I don't think it's actually a problem with mentors but a problem with experienced players generally. Experienced players are just more likely to have achieved mentor status from having played a lot.

They have seen these dungeons before, so they get impatient in them and want to get through them quickly and that can cause them to leave or express frustration when it doesn't go as well as a previous run they did.

The mentors who participate in the novice network answer questions all of the time and help people queue into content faster for the first time, but the majority of them probably don't participate in the novice network. It's fine to not be in the novice network but they should only wear the crown if they actually want to help and be polite and considerate of the fact that someone in a dungeon is new or returning.

[Wolwosh]

Mentors are very often the 1st to die

[Eien713]

Mentors are very often the 1st to die

Funnily enough, I do notice mentors messing up, and it's understandable since they're human. But sometimes I see mentors who mess up more than should be the case for this status. I do think that there needs to be different criteria for mentorship--ones that test if the person is good enough at the game and knows enough to answer questions, not how long they have been playing the game. But I honestly can't think of how this would be possible to implement. One thing that I can think of is increasing the number of clears required for some or all instances. Right now, 1 clear for each duty that's part of the Mentor Roulette is considered enough, which is really not.

Generally, people enter the mentor system for a few reasons:
1. They want the crown.
2. They are lonely and want access to a global chat channel with a captive audience.
3. The envisioned power dynamic feeds their ego.

Please don't ignore the existence of people who enter the mentor system because they actually wanna help -.-

[Lunalepsy]

I'm new to the game and have been playing for almost 2 months now. I have played with many Mentors and I would say over 90% of the Mentors I've played with have been very toxic and rude to both me and other new players in multiple instances that I've joined. People achieve the mentor status just to walk around and have a crown next to their name as some kind of Title but they do not help new players instead I've seen them yell at other players telling them they should have watched a video before joining the instance, to play an easier job if they can't understand how to play it, not teaching mechanics or helping new players. Many and I mean MANY of the mentors have left the instance after the second or so wipe, I've made a few videos on it.

There should be some kind of way for Mentors to lose their Mentor status for being rude, Toxic, refusing to help new players, Giving wrong advice for mechanics, Leaving the instance and such. Something that would be the opposite of commendations. There are waaaayyy to many Mentors but only a few of them actually take their Mentor status with pride and help others. I wanted to become a Mentor, I was looking forward to it but all these Mentors are giving it a bad reputation.

Please consider doing some kind of change. Increasing the things you have to do to obtain the Mentor status just makes the crown look like a shiny Title to many, and many of them do not actually wish to be actual Mentors. Mentors have been the ONLY toxic players I have come across in my entire 2 months of playing.

It needs a few improvements, yeah.