(sidenote, i finally have a blush smilie)
a reason for not having a mentor?
well, you can chip, but well, how do you know what to chip, or even if, how useful is chipping anyway ?
only real reason to chip is to save time, but still, what do you plan do to after you chipped ?
lets say you want to skill rifle
either you start most likely with opalo, or you chip it to 2k or more and then?
i guess after you chipped you will go and hunt, same you would have done before, maybe with bigger stuff, which means bigger cost etc
imo chipping is interesting for single skills, but right from the beginning and building a high level character, well, where is the fun? not to mention the cash at all
besides this a mentor has NO disadvantage, and if you don't want to chip, what most don't want to do afaik, then even a mentor who doesn't help you is no loss
of course, no gain, but thats another thing
what you can have from a mentor is easy
knowledge and help
i sell several stuff i find at better prices to disciples usually (tt) so the armor will be cheaper (i disturb some PA traders with this a bit
)
someone you can ask, often a mentor helps you to get into a soc, or even into the same as the mentor(usually i do this, it is good to be the leader
)
with even more ppl to ask in
tp runs, even emergency tp runs, last time a disciple was invited on a beacon mission, but didn't had the tp
i left everything where it was and took her to the tp, unfortunatly too late, but we got some more tps later on
help from stucking outposts usually
yes, i didn't mention gifts in this list, but mainly due to several reasons (beside my greed
)
a mentor shouldn't give gifts, at least not in the beginning because:
-"professional" disciples
those will ask for mentors in towns usually, are added, and if they get free stuff, kick you and get the next idiot
-the quitting rate
about 70-90% of the newcomers quit, every gift on those is lost cash, and it adds up
if you give your disciple a full pixie, about 20 ped per disciple, full shogun about 100
means, after 3 quitted disciples with pixie you lost a global
but honestly, a mentor doesn't hurt, in the worst case you don't get help and are exactly at the place, you are now
in a better case, you will have the first entry in your friendlist most likely, and someone who even answers the questions
in the best case, you found something like a friend
but in every case, you haven't lost something, and it is kinda easy to see
if your mentor explains you how to move (important, i do it usually before the first tp run away from PA), maybe the keymapping, then you are a big step further on your way as before
(my "pro mentor" posts get a bit longer usually
)