Petition: Increase Shard/Crystal/Cluster yield while gathering.

I apologize if this idea has been presented before, but...

My FC is getting low on catalysts and as I'm out gathering, I've been thinking -- I would like to see an easier way to gather these materials. I can understand that gathering clusters is meant to be limited, and I usually can't be bothered to watch the in-game clock for the node to become active, especially when I'm in queue for an instance. Though, for shards and crystals (at least), I would like to see a method to gather them in abundance. I think it's a little ridiculous that, at Lv.50, I'm only able to obtain one per swing, and occasionally make use of the proper elemental ward to obtain just a few more at a time.

(Sorry, double-post for character limitations.)

My suggestion is to make use of the HQ Rate. I know we can't gather "HQ crystals" or what-have-you, but instead, maybe we can strike a "sweet spot" and obtain maybe 5 to 8 crystals, 12 to 15 shards? Something to make this a little less of an excruciating process.

I get that there are guildleves and beast tribe quests that reward shards, but if we're after a specific element, I can't think of a better way to stock up. So I'm open to ideas, suggestions, or if nothing else, a Like to get this idea taken into consideration. Thanks!

Hi,
Beast tribes don't give shards anymore (2.2 notes)
Treasures map do give shards but random type.

You can have your retainer go after specific shards if they are miner or botanist.

I like your idea, but they could at each trait increase for the wards increase the number of shard you can gather.
- When wards work on Crystal you could have +3 for shards
- When wards work on Clusters you could have +4 for shards

As side note you can Edit your post to bypass the limit ;)

If they just lowered the cost of the elemental wards from 400 to 100 or 150, that'd be good for me.

I also like the idea of critical yielding extra NQ items for the stuff that can't be HQ (like shards/crystals/soil/seeds)

Something really needs to be done about this. I agree, why should a level 1 miner/botanist yield the same amount of shards as a level 50? I don't even count the elemental ward abilities, or the kings yield/blessed harvest II, because they are too few and far between to really make an appropriate difference that leveling a class to 50 should give.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thaliss

Beast tribes don't give shards anymore (2.2 notes)
Treasures map do give shards but random type.

---

I see, I haven't done any beast tribe quests since the update. Highest tier treasure maps do reward a large volume of shards, but true, the type is random and isn't always reliable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thaliss

You can have your retainer go after specific shards if they are miner or botanist.

---

Is this method worth the trouble of leveling your retainer though?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thaliss

As side note you can Edit your post to bypass the limit ;)

---

Thanks for the tip!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aerolol

If they just lowered the cost of the elemental wards from 400 to 100 or 150, that'd be good for me.

---

That would also work out nicely. As it seems currently, we're only getting that increase every 3-5 minutes if gathering is continuous.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kimura410

Something really needs to be done about this. I agree, why should a level 1 miner/botanist yield the same amount of shards as a level 50? I don't even count the elemental ward abilities, or the kings yield/blessed harvest II, because they are too few and far between to really make an appropriate difference that leveling a class to 50 should give.

---

Exactly. Shards are the most used catalyst, I understand how they are mostly obtained as a reward from quests, but it just seems like gathering shards at Lv.50 is a joke. Why even make it an option if the gain is so miniscule? What I'm more concerned with are crystals and clusters. A lot of the endgame crafters use these types of catalysts, but gathering them takes a couple hours or more to get a decent haul.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SevariaClarenille

Is this method worth the trouble of leveling your retainer though?

---

Lvl 1-5 ventures retainers gather shards at first it takes 1 hour but now that my retainers are lvl 25 (or was it equipment) they take 40mn. Have yet to see if they can gather crystal at higher level and if the time can be reduced further.

I think it's 30 shards per venture will have to check again.

Not the most efficient method but retainers not 50 yet :)

used in the region of 10000 fire shards in the last week and 8 thousand ice shards. so definatly bump this thread

Clusters should stay limited (You can get 90 / cycle if you have both Miner and Botanist, and shorter supply benefits gatherers which encourages more gathering)

Shards need the help more than crystals, as crystals have very limited use at the moment.

Personally, I'd say use the Carbonized Matter in a recipe that lets you break down clusters into crystals, and crystals into shards.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SevariaClarenille

Though, for shards and crystals (at least), I would like to see a method to gather them in abundance. I think it's a little ridiculous that, at Lv.50, I'm only able to obtain one per swing, and occasionally make use of the proper elemental ward to obtain just a few more at a time.

---

It's even worse than this for crystals. While harvestable resources typically have a cluster of four harvesting nodes for a "tier", crystals are only available from two of the four nodes. So if you've decided that you want to harvest a bunch of one particular crystal, every third node that you use up needs to be a node that doesn't even have crystals.