... but there ain't no way I'm going to bother with a major overhaul till the 'weird A character problem' is fixed.

In the meantime, note that as of Game Update (GU) #49, 7 October 2008:

Mentoring other players now grants greater achievement reward for the mentor.

• 0-5 level difference: 0% bonus
• 6-10 level difference: 50% bonus
• 11-20 level difference: 100% bonus
• 21-30 level difference: 150% bonus
• 31-50 level difference: 200% bonus
• 51+ level difference: 300% bonus
  
• This bonus is only applied to achievement experience gained through combat or loot items, not through quests or exploration.
  
• Mentors will now receive experience when their apprentice has disabled combat experience.

This is, I think, extremely good news. It means one less barrier to mentoring, and should mean more same-level groupage goodness :)

Submitted By: Seefar  

Mentoring serves the dual purpose of raising the con level of the mobs while at the same time equalising the experience level of the group members. I believe (a belief that is yet to be fully tested) that reducing the spread of levels within a group improves Character Class balance, i.e. it allows players to more readily complement each others' skills. The tanks can tank with less fear of losing aggro and more assurance of being able to regain it; the mages can nuke more comfortably; the healers can heal less stressfully.

SoE's official notes on mentoring says:

"It allows friends to play with friends, regardless of level differences. Mentoring also lets players go back and experience battles or zones they may have missed as they leveled up."

So, contrary to the often-stated argument that mentoring is only meant to be used between friends, it's also specifically intended to be used as a device to allow players to experience lower-level content.

Personally, I would rather the technique were named something other than 'mentoring'. A true mentor will always know more than his 'apprentice', and in EQ2 this is often not the case. 'Mentoring' implies a degree of 'expertise', and a relationship between 'mentor' and 'apprentice' that is often closer than some players would like. If you're 'mentoring' someone who in fact hates your guts (a situation that can arise without you even knowing it) - the group is not going to be a happy one!

Some players claim that mentoring 'grows weak toons', citing the example of five level 70 characters all constantly mentoring the same single low-level character. It's true that this technique can 'powerlevel' that character all the way to 70 in a relatively short space of time. But this is only one possible scenario - and it's certainly not the most common one.

Another equally valid situation is the husband and wife who don't always play together, but when they do, whoever is higher mentors the one who is lower. This isn't power-levelling: this duo will gain experience more slowly overrall.

And then there's the case where a group of mixed-level characters regularly mentor 'the little guy'. It's true that on each occasion whoever is 'the little guy' will receive a huge experience boost. But this isn't powerlevelling: such teams will gain experience more gradually, because the little guy isn't always the little guy: sometimes it will be that character's turn to return the favour - and be one of the mentors!

How to mentor

In order to mentor someone else, right-click on the character you wish to mentor, or on their 'card' in the group display if the character is in the same zone, and select 'mentor'. I bet there's a slash-command for this too, but I don't know what it is (I do NOT know it all!).

When either you or your apprentice drops from the group, you will revert back to your native level (and those unfamiliar with mentoring may wonder what hit you!). To stop mentoring all you need to do is to right-click on your own 'card' in the group display, and select 'stop mentoring'.

The mechanics may be simple, but, like anything, it still requires practise.

Submitted By: Seefar  

New with Kingdom of Sky: Zotar99 told me that "You get AA points for non-repeatable quests that are blue or higher and named mobs that are green and higher. If mentoring brings those quests and named mobs into range, then you will get AA points (and regular xp). Not sure if discovery xp is increased when mentored to low level." Thanks for the information, Zotar99 :D

Chest drops - including master chests - can occur even at low level (with some rare exceptions, you never get chest drops from greys!).

For questaholics, mentoring enables you to acquire rare drops that start quests which you may not otherwise be able to acquire as you have 'grown too big' for them.

Mentoring removes many barriers to effective group play. It ensures that all group members will receive eXPerience for monster kills and quest credit where relevant, without interrupting gameplay to discuss the mechanics.

One big but not so obvious plus to mentoring is that it makes groups easier to find - if you and they are free to group then "you're too big / too little" becomes less of an issue.

When you mentor someone, the 'apprentice' receives an XP bonus (if in range) while your own XP gain is reduced by a substantial amount. The important thing to remember here is that when you are fighting mobs that would normally be grey to you, you aren't losing XP, you are gaining some, in battles that would otherwise generate none at all for anyone!

You can have up to five people mentoring you at the same time. Each additional mentor provides an XP bonus. Both mentor and 'apprentice' will gain XP as long as they are within range of each other; the mentor only gains XP when in range of the one being mentored (in my view, a useful device for encouraging groups to stick together!).

Submitted By: Seefar  

If you intend to mentor another character, try to meet in a place which is safe for that character before accepting a group invite. Docks and Taverns are good places for this :) Mentor immediately, and then be extra wary for the next few minutes, as the threat environment of the zone will be unfamiliar to you, full of dangerous surprises - but also great fun :D

If you do accept a group invite remotely, note that you cannot mentor until you're in the same zone. If your natural level is "too high" for the group, then your entry to the zone they are in will cause their threat environment to "bounce". This can be disconcerting, to say the least, and if you zone while members of the group are engaged in combat, there's a risk that the reward for that combat may be compromised.

Pause before entering the zone, notify the group that you are about to zone so that they can ask you to wait in case they are in combat, and then mentor as soon as you enter the zone. This allows the rest of the group to continue with whatever they were doing with the least disruption. It may mean that travelling to meet with the group may be hazardous for you - but it allows you time to familiarise yourself with the territory, and besides, danger can be fun! :D

If you try to mentor someone but cannot:

• the person you are trying to mentor may already be mentoring someone else
• you cannot (currently) mentor someone in the same zone if you are riding a griffon
• you cannot mentor someone... if you are dead :D

If you intend to mentor, keep your encumbrance in check. Make use of weight-reducing bags (such as the one given as an HQ reward by Foomby in the Enchanted Lands); in particular, don't carry strongboxes with you! Your abilities are scaled down when mentoring, but the weights of objects are not. So you may find (as I did once, and as Quartzite has also discovered, and reminded me, thanks, Q!) that when mentoring you're so heavily encumbered that you can barely walk - embarrassing!

Be aware that some people seem to resent the mentor. Possible reasons for this include:

• inability to see the amount of XP being generated on mouseover of the XP bar
• the belief that the mentor would be of more use to the group at his/her 'natural' level

Submitted By: Seefar  

If these are indeed bugs, and not 'features', then perhaps they will have been fixed by the time you read this.

Harvesting Skill reduced while mentoring?

First sighting: 07Aug2006

While adventuring in the Sinking Sands, level 70 with maximum harvesting skills mentoring to level 44, I paused to harvest some roots. And couldn't: 'Skill Too Low'. Huh? What an odd place Norrath is, sometimes...

Not sure whether this is a bug, or a design feature. If a design feature, it will have the side effect of encouraging an activity that I would like to discourage: bouncing in and out of mentoring. Possible scenario: there's a mob: mentor to kill it; there's a harvest node; unmentor to gather; mentor after gathering and we get unintentional aggro and die; so much for 'mentor expertise'!

Misleading 'no XP' messages

First sighting: Many moons ago!

When a character that is 'too high' joins a group, those group members that are 'too low' will receive a warning message that they will not get XP. If the high-level character is in another zone, this message is still delivered, but it is wrong. The limits are calculated on a zone-by-zone basis: all characters will continue to earn XP as normal (while mentor and apprentice are within the required range of each other) if these limits are not exceeded.

Problems Mentoring while in a Raid

First sighting: 11July2006

Update: 30Dec2006

A Raid Leader has the ability to move characters between groups in a raid in order to balance the groups prior to a battle. When a character that is mentoring another is moved to another group, the mentoring is not automatically cancelled prior to the move. It is therefore essential to ensure that characters 'unmentor' before being moved. Failure to do so risks the reward for any encounters.

I have recently led two raids into Maulic's Stronghold for Return of the Light. The first was a total disaster: although all characters in the raid appeared to be 28 or under, General Drull and his entire orc army were all grey, and those who should have received quest credit for his defeat failed to do so. I suspected that the reason for this was due to this bug, so in the more recent (successful) raid, I deliberately avoided any transfers between groups prior to the raid. After despatching Drull and his cronies, I transferred those who needed Cannix for the final encounter into group2, leaving four in group1. The levels of those four showed as 70, 33, 33(53) and... 25(47). The last was originally mentoring a level 25 character in group 2, and this clearly demonstrates the existence of this bug.

Buff effects do not automatically adjust when you change levels

First sighting: April 2006

There appears to be a bug in that the effects of buffs are NOT recalculated when you change levels. If you wish to ensure maximum effectiveness, ALWAYS recast your buffs when you change levels. Recast buffs after setting up to mentor, 're-mentoring' another in the group, or when you stop mentoring. When your 'apprentice' gains a level, you do, too: so recast buffs as part of your celebration of the event. Kudos and thanks to Minitank for pointing this out to me: I would never have spotted it, since I rarely look at the numbers!

Alternatively: don't worry about it. The difference is minimal - and when mentoring, you are already hugely over-powered in relation to another of your class and level (which I personally think is a bad thing...).

Roekillik Assassins become even more deadly

First sighting: 2005

If you have the little Roekillik rats on your tail at your natural level - be aware that they don't give up trying to kill you just because you're mentoring. And, they don't play fair - they don't reduce their level to your mentored one... if you see a red assassin - RUN! Of course the polite thing to do is to make sure that the assassin is attacking you, not your apprentice, before you start running... but you're probably both dead anyway, let's face it.

This 'feature' isn't restricted to the World Event that gets these assassins on your tail: any quest that you may have which will cause a beastie to spawn as you approach will almost certainly mean a wipe :/

When you stop mentoring your XP bar mouseover information may be misleading

First sighting: 2005

There is (or was when I spotted it) a bug that could leave you apparently in a "mentor state" even after you have left the group. The XP bar mouseover tooltip will say that you are "currently earning X% less than usual", or some such. I do not know whether you are actually earning less XP: it may just be a misleading tooltip.

If XP is important to you then it's advisable to hover your mouse over your XP bar after you leave a group in which you have been mentoring, to ensure that it does not imply that you are still mentoring. If your normal XP bar is turned off, you can examine the bar in your Persona window ('P') instead.

If this situation arises, you probably have to /camp (or maybe just zone?) to fix it.

'Too far away'

First sighting: May 2006

When you enter the zone your group is in and right-click on a group member to mentor but find all the options greyed-out; then hover your mouse on these greyed-out options; if the tooltip says "too far away": this might be a bug. When it happened to me a /camp fixed it.

Update: August2006

According to Sony's Roolz I'm not supposed to mention this, since it's an exploit... the ability to mentor someone in the same zone can lead to a situation where a low-level character can park safely at zone-in, the high-level character can move to the Phat Lewt mobs and then mentor to farm :(

So the inability to mentor because you are 'too far away' may be experimentation on the part of The Makers to address this issue. Maybe?

It is possible to mentor... nobody!

First sighting: 2005

One time when I was zoning out of BlackBurrow, the group disbanded while I was "tween zones". I found myself out in Antonica, not in any group - but still at the level I had been mentoring! ... or maybe I just dreamt that :D [edit: no, I didn't dream it, it happened again the other day - dang bugs! Hmmm... or might this perhaps be a useful feature?]

Again, using /camp will fix this. Maybe zoning will too.

Submitted By: Seefar  

Mentoring is always a purely voluntary activity.

Lonewolf Guild Members of the rank of White Wolf agree to practice mentoring.

Guild Members of all ranks (and all levels!) are encouraged to consider mentoring the lowest level member of a group as soon as it's possible to do so safely. Unless the situation warrants a change, remain mentored at the same level: resist "bouncing" in and out of mentoring, since this is a distraction to the group (and can be dangerous).

If everyone mentors the little guy, everyone benefits. When the "little guy" gains a level, the whole group does! And remember: some days you will be the little guy!

The group's leader should always have the final say on whether you mentor. He or she has responsibility for the group and its objectives (organising a group and keeping it focused can be difficult at the best of times) and is entitled to play the game in his or her own style - respect this.

It is my hope that the Lonewolf Guild will eventually become renowned for our ability to provide assistance to other players' adventuring objectives through effective mentoring, adding to groups the strengths of not just one player, but multiple players who act in concert as a team to further the group's objectives. Whether this will happen... time will tell!

Submitted By: Seefar