Remove the Mentor crown

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Mentor icon needs to go, as well as rewards. If you want to actually help and teach others, you can do that without a stupid crown by your name. The watering can suggestion is nice, but the sad truth is most on NA/EU will become a mentor specifically for any kind of 'nameplate glamour', no matter what it is. And then we just have the exact same problem all over again.

The bolded sentences rings in harmony to my initial desire of getting those icons. It’s true. If I could turn on the sprout or returner flower icon, I will pick those over crowns. But sadly I need to be an alt and/or hiatus for months to get it back. I get bored if I don’t see any sort of ‘decorations’ on my name/nameplate/whatever you call it. Heck, I remembered there was 1 player in my World at Old Sharlayan in EW’s first week launch, they had the ‘Looking for materia melder’-icon on. I offered my service and their reply was:”Oh nah. I just like how the icon looked like.”. A few other also asked in the shout chat and got brushed off by the same answer.

Will I help players though? With or without crown, I will try what I can… but not at the cost of my own sanity. I too, like any other players, are just paying my sub to play the game & have my enjoyment. For that I tend to not actively offer advice; I wait for the initial question. I get disheartened very easily when knowing my well-intentioned tips gets brushed off by a player who clearly need that pointer. If said player made that first move, it is at least a clear hint that they’re receptive to some sort of feedback to whatever extent that is.

[SturmChurro]

I dropped mentor status altogether, rather than just turning off the crown.

[angienessyo]

You can take the dumb crown away just don't take away my mentor roulette! That's my favorite roulette in the game and I actually love getting a random EX trial 20 minutes in progress and trying to salvage it. It's a good feeling seeing a run in shambles and being able to turn it around with a little help. I love it so much I've been doing it daily even after getting the mount a year ago.

[LeonKeyh]

Oh look....another topic about this.

Just create more nameplate flairs that will get rid of most of the people that just want something cool next to their name. Or, just... you know... do nothing. It's not nearly the problem that it's being made to be and the problems are typically due to this typical "postmodern" person that can't take criticism and takes any sort of feedback as an attack.

I do think the crown should be behind tougher prerequisites tho!

Like... Do every dungeon atleast once without being hit by a single AoE. Or something along these lines ^^

I thought generally the same thing "Mentors crown should be harder to get." But it's going to be impossible for people to "prove" that they know what they're talking about. With your example, doing every dungeon without being hit by an AE could be done by someone not attacking at all and just focusing on dodging stuff and doesn't prove any sort of job based knowledge (that is really nearly impossible to "prove")

[lalin]

i just think it would be nice to make the requirements a little harder to get , this way it won't be that easy to be a mentor , for example only allow players that have been playing the game for over a year or so to become mentors? or something similar ...
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also a little complain i hate how ffxiv community expect mentors to be gods, like if you are wearing the crown you are not allowed to make any mistakes that's why i never wear it , it gives me anxiety .

[LeonKeyh]

i just think it would be nice to make the requirements a little harder to get , this way it won't be that easy to be a mentor , for example only allow players that have been playing the game for over a year or so to become mentors? or something similar ...
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also a little complain i hate how ffxiv community expect mentors to be gods, like if you are wearing the crown you are not allowed to make any mistakes that's why i never wear it , it gives me anxiety .

A year isn't a long time, it's likely going to take at least that long to get the commendations. The problem with the system is that it is already a system based off of time played, not performance. Eventually, you'll hit the commendation and level requirement, that's just how it is. Commendations, on paper, should go to "good" players, but let's be real, an average healer or tank is more likely to get commendations than an above average/amazing DPS. I've played like garbage on healer and still get comms.

You need to separate that status from time played and move it to actual knowledge/performance. Ideally, a system would be less binary and more about getting "badges" like in Boy/Girl Scouts. Get to 90 as Summoner, complete a current Stone, Sky, Sea, and complete a semi-difficult solo duty. That gets you your SMN Mentor badge. But even that has its problems.

I agree with you that expectations need to be set, but disagree with the expectations that are the problem. I don't think that the problem is the FFXIV community expecting mentors to be gods, it's the minority of mentors that expect to be treated as such.

[Jeeqbit]

The problem with the system is that it is already a system based off of time played, not performance. Eventually, you'll hit the commendation and level requirement, that's just how it is. Commendations, on paper, should go to "good" players, but let's be real, an average healer or tank is more likely to get commendations than an above average/amazing DPS. I've played like garbage on healer and still get comms.

You need to separate that status from time played and move it to actual knowledge/performance.

Time played does usually translate into knowledge and experience and this is what you are meant to be sharing as a mentor. Having knowledge and experience doesn't necessarily mean that you perform well enough to do extreme and savage, although I would say the vast majority of the mentors I have talked to over the last few years have done that content.

The nature of questions in the novice network is usually as simple as "where do I spend tomestones?", "how do I upgrade my gear?", "when do I get a mount?" or "why do I only get 300 exp from this quest?"

These type of questions do not require someone to perform really well or to be able to defeat a striking dummy at Stone, Sky, Sea. By the time they would have questions that require you to be this skilled, they won't be in the novice network anymore because their sprout expired.

It seems very common that mentors talk about raids and optimization so I feel that enough of them could meet these requirements. I wouldn't be opposed to tighter requirements but the battle requirements are working a lot better than the crafter/gatherer ones.

[SturmChurro]

The nature of questions in the novice network is usually as simple as "where do I spend tomestones?", "how do I upgrade my gear?", "when do I get a mount?" or "why do I only get 300 exp from this quest?"

Some could also say, what is the purpose of mentorship or the Novice Network, if these are the sort of questions that are typical?

Even the mentor roulette could be turned into a more encompassing roulette that more players could do.

[LeonKeyh]

Time played does usually translate into knowledge and experience and this is what you are meant to be sharing as a mentor. Having knowledge and experience doesn't necessarily mean that you perform well enough to do extreme and savage, although I would say the vast majority of the mentors I have talked to over the last few years have done that content.

The nature of questions in the novice network is usually as simple as "where do I spend tomestones?", "how do I upgrade my gear?", "when do I get a mount?" or "why do I only get 300 exp from this quest?"

These type of questions do not require someone to perform really well or to be able to defeat a striking dummy at Stone, Sky, Sea. By the time they would have questions that require you to be this skilled, they won't be in the novice network anymore because their sprout expired.

It seems very common that mentors talk about raids and optimization so I feel that enough of them could meet these requirements. I wouldn't be opposed to tighter requirements but the battle requirements are working a lot better than the crafter/gatherer ones.

Sure, the nature of the questions in novice network can be answered by plenty of people with fewer than 1500 (?) commendations. I feel like we really need to separate Novice Network from the Mentor program because you're absolutely right. Novice Network is typically simple questions that really most people that have been playing for a decent amount of time are capable of answering. So, why limit the number of people that can answer those questions? Why not just make server-wide chat channels for stuff like that? Or, I'm sure that if those people went to a town with a bunch of people and shouted their question that they would get their answer. I imagine that most people are like me and are in NN just to actually have some interaction with people. More chat channels like that would go a lllooooonnnngggggg way and possibly even get rid of the need for NN if it's done right; For example, job-based chat channels, DoH/DoL chat channels.

The thing is, Novice Network isn't the only thing; The Mentor Roulette is there too. The Mentor Roulette is there to match mentors with players so that those mentors can help those players and, sure, there are some slightly "tougher" requirements to unlock mentor roulette but the expectation is for those people to be able to give out encounter/job knowledge.

Regardless though, I'm not saying that this necessarily _needs_ to change. I feel like the complaints about the system are widely overblown and it's "fine" the way it is. But, if we're going to sit down and talk about improvements, I absolutely think that things can be improved.

[Jeeqbit]

Sure, the nature of the questions in novice network can be answered by plenty of people with fewer than 1500 (?) commendations.

I've seen evidence that these questions shouldn't be answered by people with fewer than 1500 commendations. Trade mentors do not usually have 1500 commendations and in my experience, a lot of them don't know the answers to a lot of battle questions themselves so what they do is quote The Balance or what they googled. This results in them giving level 90 optimized rotation advice to a sprout wanting help with their Sastasha rotation. Someone with a large amount of experience of the game does not need to consult The Balance and Google for their answers all the time.

I imagine that most people are like me and are in NN just to actually have some interaction with people. More chat channels like that would go a lllooooonnnngggggg way and possibly even get rid of the need for NN if it's done right; For example, job-based chat channels, DoH/DoL chat channels.

I agree that it's a great channel for being social. I don't personally want a global chat because that would be chaotic, but ones with the a limited capacity like the novice network and a specific theme like job-based chats would be good. Linkshells only have 1/5th the capacity and it counts people who are offline.