Are Combat Mentor Requirements Too Easy?

[Ahtstymm]

Hello, me and my friends heard there was talk about mentor status being to easy to attain, resulting in the mentor status having, a less than fantastic reputation, and as someone who is currently a combat mentor, I agree, however the question arose of what could be better.

Some people suggested that to become a mentor someone should have to complete the most recent tier of Savage difficulty content, however I believe this is extremely harsh.
I wanted to suggest the idea of Mentors having to beat the most recent Extreme difficulty trial (in addition to the current requirements), I know this still harder however some mentors have never completed a synced extreme and clear old ones unsynced to unlock the Duty Roulette:Mentor option and this would provide some level of skill-vetting to ensure mentors know enough to give adequate support to other players.

I wanted to add this to the forums to hear others' thoughts on the issue so please, if you have an idea for what may be better than this, I'd genuinely love to hear it!

[KageTokage]

Trade mentors are the main reason mentor status is viewed as a meme as you can fulfill the requirements in the natural process of getting a DoH/L job to level 80.

Combat mentor requiring as many commends as it does at least ensures people have been playing for a good long while. It doesn't mean they're necessarily amazing at the game but people shouldn't be expecting that of what's essentially a volunteer role in the first place.

[linayar]

When the point of a mentor is to help a new adventurer, I don't think clearing the most recent raid tier at Savage difficulty is relevant.

In that regard, the problem is the existence of boosts, which are great for veteran players creating new characters, but also enables new adventurers at a high level.

This does not mean that people who use boosts with their first character would not be able to learn the game quickly as they go, but those are not the people that would make use of mentors anyway.

At the end of the day, a mentor just needs to be willing to help others, even doing basic things like queueing for roulettes. If more people are willing to be mentors regardless of the reputation it has now, the system would probably work itself out with so many people willing to help.

I think the other problem is not the bad reputation of some mentors, but also bad reputation of some potential mentees who are not willing to consider suggestions.

So, in the end, clearing Savage would not fix anything as far as mentoring new adventurers if people won't learn to work together. But people do work together in this game, so mentorship should be fine if people do not try to discourage others from the program.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

All the requirements they add just take time to accomplish and nothing else. Unless they add something like pass x quiz on extreme/savage mechanics it will always be too "easy" bad players can still meet any time based requirements and end up as a mentor when they couldn't teach a pig to eat slop. I would be for the little quizzes on mechanics for old extreme's etc as you are going to have to teach these to sprouts when they que for it. Fully randomised questions with a time limit to answer them as well as maintenance requirements to keep your mentor status. I.e Successfully complete x number of synced extreme's with mentor roulette so people don't just insta leave an instance they don't like.

I have cleared the current tier bar Gaia, working on that now. But I still couldn't be a proper mentor because I don't know those old extreme's by heart well enough to teach them to people. I could for sure help a party clear and work on it but teaching? Nope. I would like that mount but I know I also cannot be bothered to spend so much time learning every single old fight and spend hours in that roulette. So I am content to know I will never get it, kudos to mentors who actually do put the work in.

[Jeeqbit]

The requirements are not so bad because most people who get combat mentor play the game a lot and have genuinely done a lot of content and leveled a lot of classes. This is in contrast to trade mentor which you see people getting before they even enter Shadowbringers.

Some people suggested that to become a mentor someone should have to complete the most recent tier of Savage difficulty content, however I believe this is extremely harsh.

Absolutely not. There is far more to this game than savage that people want help with. Questions in the novice network do not usually pertain to savage either, because they are asked by people who are not in Shadowbringers yet, or returners that have not had time to get back into savage yet.

It's important to stress that most combat mentors have done savage and extreme content before even though it's not required. I don't have conversations with very many mentors who say they have never done it and most of them will imply that they have when you talk to them.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Hi, Combat Mentor with 5000+ comms, 2000+ duties on tanks alone (no tank mount farms) here who also actively mentors people should they ask for advice.

Short answer, yes it absolutely is, but the long answer is a bit more complicated. The idea is that high comms + high number of duty runs + having one of each role levelled = good player, but the truth is much uglier.

The problem with "Mentor" in general is that the requirements are purely numerical, without consideration if said player knows more than rudimentaries of Tank / Heal / DPS classes or even has the right attitude for teaching people how to play. "Number of duties run" is probably fine, assuming said duties aren't... well, guildhests.

You could make an argument that high comms = "clearly they've done something right somewhere", however in my experience receiving comms is pure madness and I feel like given on entirely different occasions than "they played well" or "they were helpful / they were polite" (all of which is fine!). I had runs where I carried a group and received no comms and where I got all of them, then I had runs where I played like an absolute idiot, died multiple times and still got two comms. Then there is also the usual case of people just dropping comms on their tank / healer regardless how well the DPS played.

There is also the issue that all commendations are valued equally - the comms I receive for helping a group through Ramuh EX or Nidhogg EX for instance while explaining mechanics and strats are the same value as Timmy Tough-tank farming guildhests and receiving comms for rudimentary knowledge of his class and a deafening silence in chat.

Commendations as a requirement are inherently flawed by how they are obtained - they are given out seemingly out of habit and bear no meaning to what the player actually does.

Calling mentors "mentors" purely on numbers rather than "veteran" really puts actual Mentors into a bad spotlight, as most of you have seen before: some with really nasty attitude, someone who quits a duty as they see it or ask to be kicked instead, you know the drill.

Duty Roulette: "Mentor" is a fine addition to this, but at this point it makes no sense to call it "Mentor".

Change current "Mentor" to "Veteran", reestablish a new framework for the Mentor program. Or don't, I don't really care, I got people to actually mentor and not throw a fit at.

[SenorPatty]

Hi, Combat Mentor with 5000+ comms, 2000+ duties on tanks alone (no tank mount farms) here who also actively mentors people should they ask for advice.

Short answer, yes it absolutely is, but the long answer is a bit more complicated. The idea is that high comms + high number of duty runs + having one of each role levelled = good player, but the truth is much uglier.

The problem with "Mentor" in general is that the requirements are purely numerical, without consideration if said player knows more than rudimentaries of Tank / Heal / DPS classes or even has the right attitude for teaching people how to play. "Number of duties run" is probably fine, assuming said duties aren't... well, guildhests.

You could make an argument that high comms = "clearly they've done something right somewhere", however in my experience receiving comms is pure madness and I feel like given on entirely different occasions than "they played well" or "they were helpful / they were polite" (all of which is fine!). I had runs where I carried a group and received no comms and where I got all of them, then I had runs where I played like an absolute idiot, died multiple times and still got two comms. Then there is also the usual case of people just dropping comms on their tank / healer regardless how well the DPS played.

There is also the issue that all commendations are valued equally - the comms I receive for helping a group through Ramuh EX or Nidhogg EX for instance while explaining mechanics and strats are the same value as Timmy Tough-tank farming guildhests and receiving comms for rudimentary knowledge of his class and a deafening silence in chat.

Commendations as a requirement are inherently flawed by how they are obtained - they are given out seemingly out of habit and bear no meaning to what the player actually does.

Calling mentors "mentors" purely on numbers rather than "veteran" really puts actual Mentors into a bad spotlight, as most of you have seen before: some with really nasty attitude, someone who quits a duty as they see it or ask to be kicked instead, you know the drill.

Duty Roulette: "Mentor" is a fine addition to this, but at this point it makes no sense to call it "Mentor".

Change current "Mentor" to "Veteran", reestablish a new framework for the Mentor program. Or don't, I don't really care, I got people to actually mentor and not throw a fit at.

Hit the nail right on the effing head, my guy (or lady), along with the suggestions (same ones I make too).

At this point, comms and mentorship is "expectations vs reality" taken up to 11.

[linayar]

The main problem with the commendation system is that it's part of the challenge log.

[Reinha]

You can require Ultimates and it doesn't change the fact that one mentor alone can't carry 7 clueless people through extremes. Sprouts need to take responsibility for their learning. Mentors are there to guide them and clear up misunderstandings.

[CKNovel]

You can require Ultimates and it doesn't change the fact that one mentor alone can't carry 7 clueless people through extremes. Sprouts need to take responsibility for their learning. Mentors are there to guide them and clear up misunderstandings.

Damn, this is why Extreme trial should be 50/50 mentors and sprout.
What happens if the mentor(s) don't even know what's going on? It's been my case when I got Niddhog EX and the ARR Leviathan/Ramuh.

Some EX trials can be brain dead but others like Ramuh requires actual teamwork and when the 7 sprout have no idea how to recognize an aoe, it often results in... Frustration.
One hour of frustration and salt.