Reasons not to take a mentor

[Borr]

Well, I wouldn't know really. I have a mentor and am very satisfied with him. I did read the warnings about being carefull to pick the right mentor. When i was saved by a guy from a furious snable he offered me a discipleship and I choose to accept it after having denied other requests. It turned out allright for me, but I can imagine that other people have had other experiences or regrets.

Please let me, and the new players, know how you experienced your discipleship.

My mentor introduced me to my society (i had no idea what that was LOL) and showed me around the game. I am still working my way towards graduation, but I never regretted my choice.

Please vote in the poll and let us know what your arguments are.

 

[Borr]

Well, maybe there is one reason... It can take quite a while to graduate and since you can't chip your skills until you have graduated, this may hold back on your development?

How long has it taken you to graduate?

I am at 400 rifle now, which took me two months. But I must say that i am not an overly active hunter, but more of a sweater. My professional standing in sweat gathering used to be higher than laser sniper ;-). Last week I used some more ammo and gained 100 skill levels in rifle, so it should not be too hard to be a bit quicker, especially when depositing.

 

[desidude]

i graduated in 5-6 weeks of serious play

on average u can do that in 10 weeks i guess

 

[dee]

i didn't get a mentor, because I didn't really find anyone to mentor me at the time. I already read up alot here anyway so I had a general idea of how things ran, and that was all it took.

ps: your av pic is creepy

 

[sledge-]

I had a mentor and he helped a lot!!!
The only reason for not having a mentor imo is if you start a new avatar and know what you are doing.
A mentor who is never online or does not help you is kind of bad luck because there are a lot of good mentors out there ....
... ok how should a noob know who is a good mentor?

1. Don't accept mentor offers from ppl who have not talked to you before
2. Ask how long your mentor played EU
3. If you don't see you mentor online in the first days on calypso it may be usefull to find another one.
4. If your mentor is no help and you can not kick him talk to other players ... there are enough ppl who are kind enough to help without being your mentor.
5. Read the Forum ... or meet Alice ingame

The time to graduate depends on the time you invest and a bit on your ability to deposit A depositor can do kind of quick start but imo everybody should sweat for at least 1 week to feel the value of a ped and get some basic skills.
... i finisched after 6-7 weeks

 

[Alice]

... or meet Alice ingame

(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 )

 

[In Love With]

agree with Alice,

as long as you do not wish to chip, there isn't a real advantage of having a mentor. My mentor wasn't online for weeks and weeks and weeks and long I after I graduate he came back online (recently almost every day again, WOW must have gotten boring I assume and asked me all kind of stuff ... Turned out that I was already in better shape then him, lol

We had a friendly chat and all is good, so yes he did not really help me at all, we are still on each other's FL

ILW

 

[Dutchie]

To me my mentor was a great help to get me started, helped me to get a few more difficult TPs, find a good soc etc.

Then again as a disciple I'm fairly self-supporting. Never had to ask for a rescue mission, always found my way out, even on Amethera.

Only thing I learned though is that it may help if your mentor is not too skilled. Mine is quite uber, which means that hunting together is boring for at least one of us.

Dutchie (still not graduated).

 

[Borr]

Preliminary conclusion

i graduated in 5-6 weeks of serious play
on average u can do that in 10 weeks i guess

Wow, excellent job! I guess you deposited to be able to do it this quick?

ps: your av pic is creepy

Hehe, thanx! I am still looking to put a picture of my in-game avatar up there, but that one is creepy as well ;-)

So the only reason to not have a mentor is if you would want to chip your skills. For all other situations, having a mentor does not hold you back in any way. I find it a challenge to work my skills towards graduation. Even if your mentor would suck, it is just tough and you have to find your own way either by reading the forum, asking other people or finding a soc that can help you, but you would be there anyway if you didn't have a mentor in the first place.

Even if you are serious about playing the game and would want to chip your skills, I wouldn't want to advice to rush that too much. As Desidude says, if you are serious about it you *can* graduate in just a couple of weeks. In that time find out a good strategy that works for you and find the skills that match it.

When we look at the results of the poll so far (50 votes), we see that most people that made the choice to either have or not have a mentor (and that took the 'trouble' of voting) are satisfied with the choice they made. Only 3 people regretted not having a mentor [TIP: find a good society not only for the tips, but also for the social aspect of it!] and 9 people (18%) regretted they took on the mentor. The latter I think is more that they are not satisfied with the mentor they picked than the fact the they choose to have a mentor. (right?)

Anyway, thanks for your comments and votes!

 

[Aliana]

Yes. If your serious about it, especially if you don't mind making a deposit, you can finish quite quickly. I sweated my first week, deposited then graduated in five weeks. I would have done it faster, but I brought LB up to 1700 then pretty much abandoned it when I switched to Rifle when a friend handed me a 103 amp and ultimately graduated in Rifle.

A good mentor is very helpful, but an overall support network is invaluable. I had (and have) my mentor, this forum, a fantastic soc and good friends. Since that time I would add TS and the wonderful people there to that list too. All of this together helps to make your experience what it is.

Hugs,
Aliana

 

[dee]

men·tor /ˈmɛntɔr, -tər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[men-tawr, -ter] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. a wise and trusted counselor or teacher.
2. an influential senior sponsor or supporter.
3. An alternative to the "Search" function on EntropiaForum.com

 

[GBE]

My discipleship was great. My mentor was Toxic from CRT and he helped me with everything. Without him I would have had no clue what was going on and probably would have gotten ripped off a time or two. If not for him showing me what was going on I probably would have quit after a couple of days. I eventually joined the soc that he was a part of (CRT) and have made some great friends because of it. I guess I just got lucky as he was just standing outside of pa looking for a disciple when I arrived.

 

[Midori Fairlona]

I didn't have a mentor, mainly because I didn't know what one was until I had been in the game for a couple of months.

I made quite a few silly mistakes and poor investment choices early on, but I don't regret it as it was a very valuable learning experience and I was able to form my own perspective of the game.

As to the mistakes, the biggest was that I read that there was a sweat cap and that due to my current skill level I wouldn't be able to sweat much longer, so I deposited a small amount of money and went off hunting instead. Little did I know that MA had removed the sweat cap a short time after I joined, so I had given up sweating at a time when the price was at a more reasonable level.

On the positive side, I had a lot of fun charging around Eudoria without a map or protection and stumbling across a tp every once in a while. I think I surprised some of the more experienced players with my exuberance at finding a tp, but to me it was a major achievement. The feeling of finding those little alcoves of civilisation out among the wilds was sort of akin to the feeling I have gained from my 4 globals.

So, on balance, a mentor can help to stop you from making stupid mistakes and losing money needlessly, but they can also take away the joy of self discovery. Which path you choose is entirely up to you.

 

[Alice]

So, on balance, a mentor can help to stop you from making stupid mistakes and losing money needlessly, but they can also take away the joy of self discovery. Which path you choose is entirely up to you.

well, a mentor is usually the first person you have in your friendlist and a person you should know you can ask, not necessary have to
mentors cannot tell everything from the beginning and cannot read your thoughts (most can't )
if you have disciples you don't give orders, usually suggestions, but on certain things just when you are asked
you can still be independent with mentor, especially when you tell him you want to
I often ask if the disciples want to take the tps alone, or if i should tell them the coords, or run completly with them
the first ones i get with them, usually to Atlas Haven, but many don't ask for tp runs after that
I'm not the kind of nanny mentor holding the hands of the disciples all the time
I haven't had a mentor too really (well, he quitted few days after he got me, but told me how to sweat at least ) and learned the things on my own
(i did some stupid mistakes too, e.g. buying Maddox 1; the funniest when looking back was changing from longblades to power fists because i read you need to be a qualified Brawler for getting martial arts , now im about 1700 PF skills, well , i don't regret this really too; maybe the merps do, since i had this merp fisting period due to that last christmas)
that has advantages, but PE without community isn't the same, and having someone you can talk to and ask if necessary doesn't hurt (usually)

 

[Kaiser]

I had the best mentor in the whole world. We became awesome friends and have loaned each other amounts up to 50K + ped with no fear or thought of dishonesty. You can meet some great people through the mentoring system.

I have a few disciples myself and the way I keep from ruining self discovery is by letting them ask me questions instead of giving them everything they need to know up front. Yes i have even let them get themselves stuck at outposts etc. These are all lessons they need to learn. I do come and bail them out when they need it though so it is not all bad