Guild Wars 2

I don’t really care if I get trolled on this.

Almost one year in on HoT. We were given mentor tags. We were givien expanded comm abilities. Still it’s like pulling teeth to get folks to even apple on events or give any kind of guidance.

It just seems crazy to me. Why wouldn’t U want to give back on experiece and knowledge u’ve gained to help the next generation come in , stay exited, and help those after them?

I’ve tried for almost an entire year to at least get folk to put up those mentor’s on events while they’re active, to ask people to point out wp’s of current objective: to show map is active and to show people where things are happening currently, to no avail.

Idk if people are just scared to mentor , or just like forget u I can’t spend a second to help anyone, I got another chest to open?

It’s just seems crazy to me. With the tools anet has given us to take on some kind of role in leading and 95% of folks just look for a comm or say screw it.

tdlr: why not help someone outside yourself. Just takes a few seconds in many instances, and you help everyone including yourself???

I am not disagreeing with your OP’s standpoint, but your message here falls on deaf ears.

The moral of the story here is the majority of players (society, to go even further) are followers instead of leaders and are selfish instead of selfless. That is how it has always been, that is how it will always be, and there is nothing you or I or anybody else can do about it beside lead by example ourselves and ‘hope’ others will follow to also become leaders so that they can inspire others to lead, but never ‘expect’ such a thing to happen.

Maybe people who would use the tag to show events got abused for putting up the Apple and now dont use it.

Mentor tag. Don’t use it if you don’t know anything

Mentor tag abused as Commander tag

Can we make Mentor harder to get

The Apple tag needs to go

And so on and so forth.

There was and still is hostility for “welfare tags” being used in events like a Commander tag, and people didn’t hesitate to say so in the forums and in map chat.

I’ll answer questions in map chat but I rarely put up the Apple.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Maybe people who would use the tag to show events got abused for putting up the Apple and now dont use it.

Mentor tag. Don’t use it if you don’t know anything

Mentor tag abused as Commander tag

Can we make Mentor harder to get

The Apple tag needs to go

And so on and so forth.

There was and still is hostility for “welfare tags” being used in events like a Commander tag, and people didn’t hesitate to say so in the forums and in map chat.

I’ll answer questions in map chat but I rarely put up the Apple.

Yes. You will def get abuse for using any kind of tag that separates you from the pack. I will agree with that. Plz don’t let that dishearten you. I would take 1 person at least willing to learn how and when to use a tag and failing, then 100 people who just say screw it.

Just for anyone new to gw2 who may be looking at this, I’ll also say that there are many people who will thank you for helping to go along with any negative you might see. And if anyone is ever cruel to you, you may also use the report function.

I use a tag when ever I’m doing an event/meta, as lng as I know what I’m doing. Also “raging up is a thankless thing to do.” 99% of the time no one says than you for tagging up. People flock to the tag, do the event and leave, that if you get get someone with out a tag telling you you don’t know what your doing. And when you tell them if they are so pro they tag up, your met with silence. As they are probably some poor scrub that cant afford the 300g for a com tag.

I thing for every person who’s happy to see a com tag, there are people who are envious of them and will complain no matter what. To be honest I’m tagging up less and less, because of the ungrateful scrubs that harass you no.matter what you do.

I disagree with this completely. Just because people don’t tag/apple up doesn’t mean they don’t help. I’ve seen plenty of people post in map chat for help to have several people reply and help them. Gw2 definitely has a great community at its core.

Yet anyone who has tagged up knows that chat warriors are out there and is probably a reason many don’t tag up. Personally I still enjoy it but trolls will attack any mistake you make really. The majority you helped are usually silent.

mentor tags are useless. They are way to easy to get. And mentor Tag doesnt mean u are able to help.

I disagree that communty of GW2 doesnt help each other. U can just ask in the map chat and usually if their is an answer u will get an answer in map chat.

First time i have seen Mentor tags used it was just a disaster. Every noob just tagged up to feel important. And the badest part is. Most of the mentors talk nonsense and are flagged as Mentors in map chat. U can get a Mentor Tag with less then 2k ap. He havent seen even 10% of the game.

U dont need a Mentor Tag to help each other. The apple is just another Commander Tag that is poorly designed.

I know ap doesnt mean everything but at least that guy has seen alot of the game with high ap. They should have binded Mentor tag with ap when its prupose would be o show that someone is expirirenced and willing to help.

Only time I’ve used it is to draw attention in VB, to assist with people gathering to defend rally points only. I would use it for anything similar, but not if it requires giving out information or instruction.

Wouldn’t do it any other time because mostly, I’m people-averse, and can’t be bothered with the hassle you get if you do even the tiniest thing wrong.

Sometimes the pressure is hard even in this game, I tag when I am confident enough to do events like in ds or other challenging place, if not I wont do it. The same with answering questions, why would I answer something that I am not so sure about? And sometimes there’s just that moment when you want to do stuff by yourself. You have to remember that there is no ‘must’ in this game, just do what you want to do. If your calling is to help others, then do it, but don’t nag other people to do the same thing and then get angry because they don’t want or feels like doing it, that’s not how things work. The fact is, a lot of people help if you ask nicely and you don’t need tags to do it either.

I know it seems ‘crazy to you’ that people don’t want to herd you around but commanding is actually an incredibly exhausting and frustrating experience. I don’t help people learn because people don’t want to learn. Hell, they don’t even want to try! People just want to mindlessly follow the colored tag and mash 1 until they get loot.

I ask people to please stomp the mushrooms, they don’t and the Gerent battle fails for everyone on the map. I ask them to please break the vinetooth prime’s bar, they don’t and the event fails and nobody gets their mastery point. I tell them please for the love of god stun these frogs and lead them away from the octovine you’re killing us, they don’t and another lane has to come in and help. They don’t do these things because they don’t want to do these things. People don’t want to have to think.

Deaths.9165:

mentor tags are useless. They are way to easy to get. And mentor Tag doesnt mean u are able to help.

I disagree that communty of GW2 doesnt help each other. U can just ask in the map chat and usually if their is an answer u will get an answer in map chat.

First time i have seen Mentor tags used it was just a disaster. Every noob just tagged up to feel important. And the badest part is. Most of the mentors talk nonsense and are flagged as Mentors in map chat. U can get a Mentor Tag with less then 2k ap. He havent seen even 10% of the game.

U dont need a Mentor Tag to help each other. The apple is just another Commander Tag that is poorly designed.

I know ap doesnt mean everything but at least that guy has seen alot of the game with high ap. They should have binded Mentor tag with ap when its prupose would be o show that someone is expirirenced and willing to help.

How often have you actually seen or used mentor tags? Did u give up after a few new people used them? Mentor tags were designed to get more people slowly involved in leading. Helping people feel comfortable and willing to take on greater leadership roles. Gw2 does help people . My main statement is that after HoT has been out for long while now. Folks still aren’t using the tools given.

The reasons you’ve given seem to be general complaints, where the main issue is people don’t use tags right and people hate on you if you make a mistake. To that I’ll just say , so what. That’s how it works. People will hate you whenever you lead anything. That’s how you learn. There will be more people calling you every name in the book , then there will be giving you props for the work you put in. That’s human nature. But people will slowly learn to help others if you dont give up.

I’ve seen maps where folks actually try and organize things. In many cases it doesn’t require Comm’s It just requires people recognizing that not all are on same page experience wise . New folks will flock to the icons on map, but all u need for mentor is the mastery and the willingness to throw it up on an event. That’s it. No more is required, except perhaps the block and report key for internet warriors.

If you can say at the end of an event sequence that you tried your best and were willing to listen along the way and learn, You’ve done your job as a leader. That’s it. That’s all thats required. Whether you helped by calling out instructions for how an event works, Apple’d up on an event, called out a WP for an active event, or Comm’ed a map… it’s all good.

Just try. We can get into a zone of farming. We can get into a pride state where we think cause we know, everyone does, and kitten them if they don’t. We can get into a state of they didn’t help me , I won’t bother to help them. But just try, and keep trying, and when they hurt you, take a break and try again.. In my experience….it really is worth it.

leftyboy.9358:

Still it’s like pulling teeth to get folks to even apple on events or give any kind of guidance.

What do you mean with “apple”? Is this a misspelling or some slang term that I am not aware of? I really just don’t get what you mean with this.

Gehenna.3625:

leftyboy.9358:

Still it’s like pulling teeth to get folks to even apple on events or give any kind of guidance.

What do you mean with “apple”? Is this a misspelling or some slang term that I am not aware of? I really just don’t get what you mean with this.

Apple= /mentor. given through an HoT mastery that’s pretty easy to get. It will allow you to /mentor or click on left arrow on top left side of screen, and give an apple over your head that’s seen on the map. Shows where events are currently, or the general population of map (if enough are doing it). One of things given in HoT to bring people together.

I have both tags, but nowadays I never tag up. I’ve tried to lead in HoT, but it’s like trying to herd cats. I can generally stand most abuse, but the combination of people ignoring everything I say and then yelling all kinds of stuff at me when the event fails eventually eroded my interest in trying to lead.
I admire the rest of you that still tag up, you’re all good people and deserve more thanks than you’re probably getting.

I always use my mentor tag for a few minutes when I call out certain things that people might be interested in seeing. Toxic Seedlings I come across, events that start… I haven’t been abused for doing so but really the only reason I don’t keep it up all the time is that it’s so obnoxious sitting over the top of my character’s head it often gets in my way when playing. :P

I do know one thing, when there are daily JP/Minidungeons to be run in lower-level areas, I often see the Mentors parked on the map directing everyone to them to help them out and that’s awesome to see.

leftyboy.9358:

Gehenna.3625:

leftyboy.9358:

Still it’s like pulling teeth to get folks to even apple on events or give any kind of guidance.

What do you mean with “apple”? Is this a misspelling or some slang term that I am not aware of? I really just don’t get what you mean with this.

Apple= /mentor. given through an HoT mastery that’s pretty easy to get. It will allow you to /mentor or click on left arrow on top left side of screen, and give an apple over your head that’s seen on the map. Shows where events are currently, or the general population of map (if enough are doing it). One of things given in HoT to bring people together.

Ahh ok, yeah, I’ve seen a few people with an apple above their head now that you mention it. Is that the same as the commander marks you see on the map?

I’m quite willing to help people. Last night for example I spent several minutes trying to explain to someone that there was no way to summon a GM in-game and walking them through how to contact Support step by step.

But most of the time, for normal maps and events, I find people don’t need that kind of support. Even on Silverwastes I’ve stopped typing out a summary of the meta-event and what to do at each stage because I found people were doing fine without it (and if I did I’d get “lol we know”) so I restrict myself to things like pointing out that if we can get an “empty” map started we can taxi people in for the harder parts.

At times when I think there might be a lot of new people in game (like when free accounts came out, and when HoT was 50% off) I’ll go to a starting zone and offer to help people who need it and I’ve gotten very little response, and it’s usually people who need 1:1 help or detailed answers which aren’t appropriate for a tag.

If I do use the mentor tag I find people expect it to be marking the location of a special event – something like the bloodstone enemies, world bosses (when they’re active), not simply another generic event. (The one exception is when it’s the map for the daily events achievement, and then you need to be careful that you’re giving people enough time to arrive.)

Actual commanding – leading a lane in a HoT map or the WvW zerg is a whole other ball game that takes committed and knowledgeable players to do well. As much as I think there are lots of people who could do it and are too nervous to try I don’t think we should be encouraging everyone to do it all the time.

my experience of tagging has generally been very positive! I like going around the HoT maps, calling out what I’m doing (blue tag doing Mellagan’s Valor chain! purple tag killing frog champs, feel free to join and bring CCs!). So long as I stay chatty, people seem to bounce off my energy and for the most part I can usually get a nice group. I feel like people are always happy to find someone willing to lead.

On the flipside, leading is tiring! Sometimes I just want to follow someone else and shoot things, and not just because I don’t know how event chains work. Tagging up feels to me like a responsibility because you’re not just rallying people to an event – you’re also managing the moods and expectations of a mixed group that might comprise experienced event farmers and complete HoT newbies trying to cope with jungle combat.

I would love it if more people tagged up at events, but at the same time I understand why the apples and doritos are not more liberally sprinkled across maps. I think this is a good thing! I like that leaders are uncommon enough that someone who’s willing to step up WILL get recognition. I like that when someone calls out in map that they’re doing an event chain, they can almost always get together a group of pugs tired of aimless solo wandering, eager to group up around a decisive rallying voice.

Gehenna.3625:

leftyboy.9358:

Gehenna.3625:

leftyboy.9358:

Still it’s like pulling teeth to get folks to even apple on events or give any kind of guidance.

What do you mean with “apple”? Is this a misspelling or some slang term that I am not aware of? I really just don’t get what you mean with this.

Apple= /mentor. given through an HoT mastery that’s pretty easy to get. It will allow you to /mentor or click on left arrow on top left side of screen, and give an apple over your head that’s seen on the map. Shows where events are currently, or the general population of map (if enough are doing it). One of things given in HoT to bring people together.

Ahh ok, yeah, I’ve seen a few people with an apple above their head now that you mention it. Is that the same as the commander marks you see on the map?

There are some differences
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander

Apples, /mentor- is a way of getting people used to taking on leadership roles. But even if you don’t currently think you’ll ever get a CommTag (dorito), you can still be of great help by using mentor and other things I listed, to help org maps. U’ll learn as you go as long as you’re willing to learn and ask questions.

Gehenna.3625:

leftyboy.9358:

Gehenna.3625:

leftyboy.9358:

Still it’s like pulling teeth to get folks to even apple on events or give any kind of guidance.

What do you mean with “apple”? Is this a misspelling or some slang term that I am not aware of? I really just don’t get what you mean with this.

Apple= /mentor. given through an HoT mastery that’s pretty easy to get. It will allow you to /mentor or click on left arrow on top left side of screen, and give an apple over your head that’s seen on the map. Shows where events are currently, or the general population of map (if enough are doing it). One of things given in HoT to bring people together.

Ahh ok, yeah, I’ve seen a few people with an apple above their head now that you mention it. Is that the same as the commander marks you see on the map?

The way it’s used is basically the same – it’s a map marker that follows the player around.

But Commander tags have extra functions – they allow you to form a squad of players (with a dedicated chat channel, like a very large party) and then divide them into smaller groups, assign leaders for each group and everyone in the squad can see what everyone else is doing.

Mentor tags are more widely available but only really appropriate for marking a spot on the map, or a player willing to lead a group.

I seldom tag up for anything and I do have the commander tag. It usually gets used as a marker when I find a bounty and there is a guild running the bounty hunt. I did spend a couple of hours using it for the ley line escort stuff and was fortunate enough to have a fast typist giving the explanation of what was going on & what to do. If somebody asks a question in chat, I don’t give the “google it” or “wiki it” that some think is a good response. (Don’t even get me started on the alt+F4 morons but I got a nice collection of them on the block list.) I answer the question or even go as far as to look it up and then tell them about the /wiki feature. A lot of people, especially the new ones don’t even know about the /wiki thing.

Let’s establish one thing straight up: The worst component of any MMO is the players.

You have people with commander tags raging out on people with mentor tags, being abusive, ignorant, hateful. That’s one reason why people won’t function as mentors.

You have new players who absolutely refuse to learn about the game on their own and want everything explained to them as they do it. That’s completely unacceptable. There’s a massive wiki. Use it and inform yourselves first. Mentors shouldn’t be there to explain basic things. They should be there to explain subtleties, quirks, strategies – things that come with experience.

You have players, veterans and new alike, who absolutely, 100% refuse to listen, cooperate, or function in any way in a group capacity. The solo jerks, the lone wolves, the jaded, stupid, hateful, ignorant and selfish players who shouldn’t be allowed to play an MMO because they have no regard for anyone else’s play experience.

Here’s the bottom line. It’s a multiplayer game. You need to have some semblance of social skills to play in order for the game to be enjoyable, and more often than not, players lack even basic social skills.

Honestly, even if I had a commander tag I wouldn’t bother using it, because whether I gave orders, cajoled, kissed kitten or gave out gold, people just won’t listen or do what’s necessary. Things get done in spite of players, not because of them.

Well, for me personally I enjoy helping other players, but I don’t have access to the commander tag because I don’t particularly enjoy core Tyria content. I could use the mentor tag, but it seems to be party-only and while I recognize that you don’t really need a formal squad to lead in this context, it seems strongly preferred by other players to the point where some of them will get nasty with you for using a mentor tag in this way.

I’m not sure I have any suggestion to work around that. If you’re going to have two tags, they need to be different, right? But the problem with the mentor tag appears to be that it isn’t the commander tag.

i want to help but i seriously don’t care about “best build bla bla” crap, the whole reason why the mentor tag is in the game is absurd.
i have seen ppl asking for help but expect me to show the end game ropes at level 5, that’s not how this works.
also, i don’t do the whole best build crap because if ppl don’t learn such stuff them selves they will suck as a player in the end, they should learn what each stat does and see what works best for them.

so like i said, i like to help but don’t expect me to carry you to the end game, i might take it slower but you learn a ton more then chasing zergs.

James Quall.6029:

I tell them please for the love of god stun these frogs and lead them away from the octovine you’re killing us, they don’t and another lane has to come in and help.

From my experience running octovine, the Frogs counter armor far harder than armor counters frogs – it takes a full rotation (KB, Pull, and Chill) to break their defiance bars in the first place, and most of the time after the bar’s broken, they’re unhindered and fully immune to CC anyway. And they do way too good a job at breaking the Armor’s defiance bars in return – and stunned and broken armor can’t move triggerblossoms and stop the stonebreakers.

I personally don’t tag up because I don’t see the point when there are players who will belt out commands when not tagged. Just go to AB and you’ll see what I mean.

I’ve only been playing for about a month and I love to see those Mentor tags on a map. I always check to see where they are and what is going on. Also, they are great sources of information about the game. Please, don’t let the buttheads in the game discourage you. There are so many people who can’t feel good about themselves unless they are tearing someone else down. Ignore them, they are sad and miserable people. You folks are doing a great service to the game and its players, especially the new ones.

I dont tag up in DS because I don´t know all the events in between. I don´t do it often enough to learn it.
I don´t tag up in Silverwaste or Auric Basin because it is plain unnecessary for the meta events. Everyone who can´t figure out how Silverwaste works after running it for 10 times in a row does not need a commander, he needs help of other kind.^^
I tag up for small events sometimes, or at events I am absolutely sure of how they work and where I think people really need the tag.
I used to tag up for WVW, but with my server being assigned to other servers now, I was relieved of that obligation.

If someone asks for help in map chat, I usually try to help if I can. Sadly that excludes most HoT maps as I don´t remember how I got to the HP the need in the first place.

I don’t find the OP’s issues all that often, but there is however, too much tagging and not enough communication about why they are tagged and not enough responses to questions asked by players on maps where there are tags. It infuriates me.

For me, its this abuse of tags that annoys me most. When I purchased my commander tag, I did so because I wanted to be useful, help people and have it there for real reasons. Nothing annoys me more than tags and now apples who are all over a map not speaking, not guiding, not doing a single thing. There’s an unwritten social moral code one should follow when tagging up in my opinion and there are too many abusers of this code. For example:

1) When you tag, you are responsible for answering queries, reliable and proper communication. Explain fully (no matter what) mechanics, ways to undertake the event you’re tagging for. Where there are events that require organised groups one should be fully coordinated with the other tags with the same level of communication.
2) If you arrive on a map and there is an apple or tag already there and the event only requires one tag, please don’t be an idiot and tag up as well. This undermines the person who already tagged up, steps on toes and is quite rude. No one is interested that you have a tag, it’s not a fashion statement, people just want proper coordination and communication to achieve the events’ goals.
3) If there is a tag already up and they are not communicating, you should give them ample opportunity to respond, perhaps send them a whisper and say that you are going to take over commanding if they don’t reply. Then tag up if necessary.
4) Tags for GMs shouldn’t interfere with other event tags. Make it clear on the map that’s what you’re doing if there are other events going on.

I know some of you will laugh at this and some of it probably sounds really snooty and too much for such a mechanic, but there is a social moral code that most commander tag holders abide by and there should be a way of reporting troll tags. There is nothing more frustrating when a big map meta event is corrupted and confused by too many tags. Squads have helped a lot with this, because people will simply join the squad of the commander(s) who are using their tag appropriately and use squad chat to discuss and understand the event.

At the same time, it is highly irritating when someone tags in an area such as Dry Top and travels around the map like a flea, not providing waypoints in chat, and literally trolling and abusing the symbol over their head for what? Is it funny to them? I don’t understand.

The sign of a good commander is when you are followed and whispered often “are you tagging for x, y and z? Can I join you?” I am thankful I follow such people and I am proud to be one of those who is also followed. There is nothing more satisfying (to me) than actually helping, coordinating and organising a large event to successful completion.

Finally, people need to comprehend that there are always new players to maps. What has been said about the Silverwastes above is complete nonsense. I will still tag and I will explain the mechanics. If people know the mechanics, they need not read chat, I am writing it for potential newer players and more often than not, a veteran learns a couple of things also. People forget all too easily that just because you’ve done something 10 or more times, doesn’t mean everyone there has.

I have both kinds of tags but I never tag up. If someone is doing an event incorrectly I’ll let them know what they should be doing. If someone has a question I will answer it. If they still choose to do the event wrong then there’s nothing more I can do. I never see a need to tag up and rather just let someone else do it. I don’t want randoms joining my party/squad. I don’t want people following me around. I just want to log in, play, then log off.

The only event I ever tagged up for was Dragon’s Stand. Having to tell people what to do constantly (it was still fairly new back then) and coordinating groups of players was irritating and detracted from my playing experience (even though I was successful each time).

to me the tags are useless, they are more a way to show of on how fast you can farm and zerg rather then actual skill.
i don’t need a tag, my actions speak for themselves.

I have no objection with someone providing a tag for silverwaste, i just think that it is really self explanatory. If you can be a Lemming(following the first Lemming), you can and will understand that map very fast:
1. The orange bar moves.
Oh, I was there when a fortress was liberated, and it moved? Maybe that is connected? If I am not sure, I look at it at the next fortress I liberate.
2. kitten in the ground.
Oh, there is kitten in the ground, and the map tells me that champions are set loose in the underground. Connection.
3. Keys, shovels and chests.
Oh, I have a shovel with two skills. One is the shovel itself, the other a searchlight. Not that complicated if you ask me.
4. Running, running, running.
Oh, everyone runs to the giant quest ring at the end of the map. Maybe I should too? Lane 1 is so self explaining that people go afk there.
5. Champ train.
See Lemming behavior.
6. Maze event.
See Nr. 5.

The only thing really needed in an explanatory way for SW is with legends and body parts, and the second one is a non tag thing.

AB is even more easy, there are directions where gates are attacked. If you know how a windrose works, you know how the meta event works. If you can follow an active example(aka a person shooting longbow 4 at the explsoves for example), you can soon storm any direction. And again, east is so easy that people go afk there too and the problem for them is to return to the map in time.

So in my humble opinion, you have to follow a HP train tag in a HoT map from the start because you will never figure out by yourself how to reach it when you try to catch up in the middle and you don´t know how to reach it. In such an instance, it is really needed and the commander needs to know his stuff.

Edit: H O L E is censored, really?

leftyboy.9358:

I don’t really care if I get trolled on this.

Almost one year in on HoT. We were given mentor tags. We were givien expanded comm abilities. Still it’s like pulling teeth to get folks to even apple on events or give any kind of guidance.

It just seems crazy to me. Why wouldn’t U want to give back on experiece and knowledge u’ve gained to help the next generation come in , stay exited, and help those after them?

I’ve tried for almost an entire year to at least get folk to put up those mentor’s on events while they’re active, to ask people to point out wp’s of current objective: to show map is active and to show people where things are happening currently, to no avail.

Idk if people are just scared to mentor , or just like forget u I can’t spend a second to help anyone, I got another chest to open?

It’s just seems crazy to me. With the tools anet has given us to take on some kind of role in leading and 95% of folks just look for a comm or say screw it.

tdlr: why not help someone outside yourself. Just takes a few seconds in many instances, and you help everyone including yourself???

There are a plethora of players who help others, explain events, comm tag, mentor tag…

There are also a lot of players who don’t want to help either and that’s ok.

There are players who may also be tired of answering questions when there is an entire wiki available… I’ve seen way too many people rely on others for in game information when they should have done their own research.

leftyboy.9358:

It just seems crazy to me. Why wouldn’t U want to give back on experiece and knowledge u’ve gained to help the next generation come in , stay exited, and help those after them?

Why would I do that? I have access to mentor and commander tags and I rarely use them. More importantly, I find them counterproductive.

If someone has a question, I’ll answer the question (in detail, if they need it). If “important” events are up, I’ll mention them in /map and link a landmark. If people have trouble finding them, I’ll describe how to get there. (If they have continued trouble finding their way, I’ll invite them to my party.)

I can do all of that without feeling obligated to wait until people show up or micromanage how long my tag is up. I can help more people without a tag than I can with.

In contrast, whenever someone says, “[event] on me” or “[node] on me”, I find that I waste time trying to find the tag, figure out where they are in relation to where I am and how to get there.

Commander & apple tags are great for extended activities with the same group of players. They are useful during some meta events and for certain hard-to-find locations. They are not, however, necessarily the most useful option when helping others, whether new or veteran.

tl;dr

All who can lead need not apple.
Not every tag can help the lost.
The veteran that is helpful might not Dorito.
Tall sylvari are, erm, something that rhymes with ‘lost’.

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Was going to add my two copper, but this post pretty much says it all.

I personally don’t because why would i want to become a focal point for others mistakes.

Everyone in this game is quick to judge and ignore. So rather than put myself through that i opt out. Yes i have a tag, yes i’ll use it when its necessary, but outside of WvW and Raids that is seldom the case.

Thank the idiots of snobbed commanders with ego problems, who have the opinion, that nobody other than them “may lead” people and that people with apples are “no real commanders” …

These kind of people are the reason, why lesser and lesser people activate their apples to help out, because mentors have enough of it from these pitiful people to be badmouthed, only because they feel themself beein cut on their kittens that someone else who hasn’t payed several hundreds of gold for a stupid pixel icon can lead many people better then them…

Whenever I activate my apple (because I like to lead for example alot Auric Basin’s Meta, because of its kind of Mission Flair it gives to coordinate 4 Squads at the same time, I always hear at least 1 or 2 people in Map Chat every few runs complaining about, that there are too many “apples” everywhere.
Good, this impression has become better over time, the idiots became lesser to more of them moved either on, or became inactive ect. but the “damage” that they and their idiotic childish behaviour thad showed in the early days of the release of HoT is still there in the heads of many helpful mentor players, because these players want to have just fun and help others, not get ****ed off by other people just only because they have not the right icon over their heads in their eyes

In the end, both modes casn be used in exactly the same way – to draw attention from many other people to brign them to follow you around, because they can see exactly where you are and where you are moving towards too on the minimap, just with the difference that mentors have not the dsame access to commander tools to lead people, which is a reason why people think mentors are inferior and thus its “more likely” that leadership under a mentor will fail, because they can#t command others in a squad as effectively as like a commander could do….

Thats the kind if impression I got several times by now by the kind of logic with that people argumentate against mentors…
I suggested in the past, that ANet should improve the Mentor System through the Masteries..theres still alot of more potential behind the Mastery System with that the Mentror System could get improved I think.

Mentoring isn’t something, that everybody should do, its somethign that only people should do, that are willing to help others, that have the neccessary grade of tolerance, that everyonre has to start once at somethign as like you did in the past too and were happy about it, if someone helped you out at something that was already more progressed than you at that time and could show you things and explain you thign,s that were new for you…

And god darn it, at the end it’s freaking regardless, how the icon over the head of somebody looks like, it just counts only that you had fun together.

Thats sadly something, that stil alot of people have to learn in their lives, but the youth of today has sadly forgotten what it means to have patience, tolerance and empathy I must realize sadly in the last years more and more oftenly again – their mentality about gaming seems to be kind of totallly different compared to gamers that have grown up with video games in the 90 ties…

This “we want everything and that now” generation of players is it, which caused change, why you see in the game lesser and lesser mentoring players.
The ****storm that oftenly comes, when bigger events fail, whos fault was it that it failed? In 99,9% of all cases you hear the masses complaining about the leader first, especially when the leader was “just” a mentor with an apple

Sure, these kind of experiences are a matter of change from server to server and are everywhere different..where onn one server mentors get treated like helpful half gods, you will find also alot of servers for sure, where people treat them like dirt, because they are just “wannabe commanders”

Everything seen already…

People forget way too quickly, that they are playing a game here and that the pixels with that they play together are more, than just only some polygons in action, but that also some real people sit somewhere in the world behind these polygons, which is something that dsadly oftenly lets people forget also all their manners under the fake protection of anonymity.
However, different topic, but a little part of the original problem behind this topic why more and more people “refuse” to help…simply alot of helpful people have also lost the interest to help others due to the bad behavior of people ,when that help ends up in “no success”

ANyways, there are also out there alot of helpful people, without that they need to have any kind of icon, be it apple or smurf hat of any color.
You need to search only for them and not to be kitteno ask for help, if you need some.
Then its most likely just a matter of time, until you get someone or many who are willing to help, or a whisper ort more of peopel who ask how they can help you.

And then theres always still the LFG which can be of great success, if you need help at something.

I personally feel that both kinds of tags should only be used if you are helping in some way. Be that leading, giving advice, or whatever. If using it for an event you hopefully will have done the event plenty of times before (at least for bosses) so you know where the gotcha points are and common issues to watch out for.

My favorite thing to do with tags lately is to use it on introductory maps while completing them. I shout out both general advice for GW2 (if you have a choice between a heart and an event when you are somewhere, do the event first) and stuff like ‘there is an event coming up at xyz in 30 minutes which will satisfy a daily’. It is not uncommon to be thanked along with people following me.

I have both tags and rarely tag up. I love to help people and do so. I do not like to lead people in general PvE.

I got my Apple by just doing Tyrian masteries. Easy enough for anyone to do, but it isn’t something that I would ever use. Not because I don’t like to help others (I do) but because of the players who treat it like a commander tag and want me to help them rather than letting playing the game.

Before squads I used my commander tag with my guild during missions, etc. I’m an officer there and bought the tag to help when we did guild activities. Now with squads I only use it if those generally in charge of guild activities are not there for some reason. In this case I will lead activities for my guild. I will also use it to start a squad if one of those activity leaders asks me to get the squad started.

I really do enjoy helping others, I just don’t want the headache that usually ensues by putting a tag on in general play. I don’t need a tag to help.

tl;dr – I like to help but don’t need a my tags to help. My tags are for me and my guild’s benefit.

Tagging up before HoT used to be less work. But now that just about everyone has a tag or apple and all the rewards are account bound, it just doubly encourages the selfishness of people and it is too much work for the effort.

jheryn.8390:

tl;dr – I like to help but don’t need a my tags to help. My tags are for me and my guild’s benefit.

That’s how I typically feel, too. I enjoy helping people in-game, but I rarely (if ever) tag up to do so.

i have tags but i dont tag up cuz theres no challenge in open world content when you drag a bunch of extra people to it and because if i/we finish the content too quickly someone will kitten about missing out

One thing that annoyed me about the squad rework was you can no longer be tagged up and in a party. In most cases this is fine but not for some bosses, like Teq. I was tagging up to help coordinate things and I am unable to jump into a party that needs people until I tag down again (right as everything starts so most likely I will be a bit busy).

leftyboy.9358:

Just for anyone new to gw2 who may be looking at this, I’ll also say that there are many people who will thank you for helping to go along with any negative you might see. And if anyone is ever cruel to you, you may also use the report function.

Yes, in general, the community is nice. So I think your title is perhaps a bit misleading- maybe a small fraction of veterans refuse to help, but not veterans in general.

But the thing is, if I got abused for being tagged up, even if I did report it, it would still make me think twice about tagging up again. I don’t need the conflict. I’m sure other people would feel similarly, especially if it was indeed a common occurrence.

A lot of people took a break from the game and have recently come back. I’m one of these people. I used to tag up all the time because I knew the content and was confident in my knowledge. Now, I’m not sure what’s different and what’s just the same as I left it, so I don’t want to tag up and misguide people.

The other thing I’ll add, I can see that there’s a difference in “priority” when it comes to Commander tags and Mentor tags. I have a commander tag myself and would use it if it didn’t require leaving my party/reforming it after tagging down. Just something annoying that didn’t use to be a problem. So I use a mentor tag instead for “pinging” events etc, but I dunno… it just doesn’t feel like it has the same impact as a commander tag (maybe that’s just my imagination though).

Finally.. I’ll add. It really is annoying when somebody tags up for the sake of tagging up. Say for example at The Shatterer. A few times now I’ve of commanders just tag up and not lead the event. People usually expect the commander to shout out times for pads/crystals, so if they don’t it’s not often somebody fills their place- it seems like it’s actually more likely for a randomer to shout out timings if nobody is tagged up at all. Needless to say, the events failed- people were all over the place… and in the end people were angry for the commander for not commanding.

The title of this topic is so misleading,

I was in CS months ago and the champ farm MENTOR had clearly went AFK and people where asking for someone to take over, after about 10 minutes I tagged up, we where in the middle of Melandru temple, the MENTOR who was on the map then showed up and started QQing HARD on the map, telling me how I should F-O etc as he was there first, when people who where on the temple with me told him he was AFK, he then got his friends to start the abuse too,

Since then I haven’t bothered tagging up for anything, I don’t need the hassle, people like that player who I encountered that day are becoming far to common these days, they think the tag gives them super powers, and when stamping their feet hard doesn’t work they call upon their friends to start the abuse too.

So you wonder why people don’t tag up to help anymore.

Being a vet does not always mean you are the best one to talk to. I once found somewhere wearing ‘been there done that’ and AFKing at a spawn location. I wound up tagging up so people would head in my direction and not try to rez him every time he died.

Anyway, I think it is a pretty good bet that vets in CT now who are not doing a champ train or boss want to help. The 1337 ones are probably doing the latest content in HOT (most likely BF), running fractals, or drooling over raids.

If most vets are like me they are not bothering to tag up because they are just exploring with a new character so do not want people assuming we are doing some structured thing. Assuming you are in a guild ask if anyone wants to do whatever and you will probably have some takers. Or you could ask in the Players Helping Players forum.

I avoid apple-tagging because I don’t need the stigmas, and most times, I don’t feel 100% capable of answering all the questions that might come my way.

My general strategy for rallying is to just ping the map obnoxiously until people show up. :P

Rauderi.8706:

I avoid apple-tagging because I don’t need the stigmas, and most times, I don’t feel 100% capable of answering all the questions that might come my way.

My general strategy for rallying is to just ping the map obnoxiously until people show up. :P

Only people in your party or squad would see your map pings, unless you mean you’re linking waypoints in chat.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Rauderi.8706:

I avoid apple-tagging because I don’t need the stigmas, and most times, I don’t feel 100% capable of answering all the questions that might come my way.

My general strategy for rallying is to just ping the map obnoxiously until people show up. :P

Only people in your party or squad would see your map pings, unless you mean you’re linking waypoints in chat.

And this is why I’m not a commander. XD

Must have been purely coincidence that poking a hero challenge in TD brought some folks to help out. I really should apple for that kind of stuff. Getting help for hero challenges isn’t always easy.