Can we just remove shards from the game?

Does anybody seriously like shards? Would crafting somehow be unbalanced without them? I think the answer is no to both. Shards are mainly just a reliable source of income for RMT bots.

Shard gathering never gets any faster, but we keep using more and more shards to craft as we make higher level items. It's making shards get consumed at a far faster rate than they can be replaced, so now low level crafted items cost more to make than to buy from a vendor. Meanwhile, the RMT bots continue to benefit.

Can't we just get rid of this already?

I agree 100% with this. When I need to buy shards I know I'm supporting RMT, and I feel sick about it. But because of how low they charge for them, they've cornered the market on them. No non botter would ever sell them for as low as GHFDHJ HGFYKJM does. Therefore almost no non botter even bothers gathering them.

They need to either remove shards like suggested here, or give us new abilities to gather them faster. The latter would encourage me to actually gather them myself, but as it stands now I would rather watch paint dry.

Bump because this needs more exposure. Myself and the OP can't be the only ones who feel this way.

lol why so serious? No not really. I always mine shards and make profit from it. Do not assume everything on market are from these botters. Because I'm sure I'm no bot!

Don't like shards? Don't buy or don't use it. Simple.

for shard don't need high lvl mine or bota, and in this game you can have all prof you need... i mine by myself shard.. always no money from me to gil sellers X°D

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Originally Posted by BamDeafPie

lol why so serious? No not really. I always mine shards and make profit from it. Do not assume everything on market are from these botters. Because I'm sure I'm no bot!

Don't like shards? Don't buy or don't use it. Simple.

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So serious because this is a serious issue. I'm on your server Bam, and recently even had the pleasure of partying with you (Big fat LOL @ that bard who didn't have Foe on their bar). But go to the markets now and look at who is selling shards. 99% of the names are "Asdljgfah" or some variation. You may be part of the 1%, that doesn't mean this isn't an issue.

I don't like shards, but I love crafting. Therefore I have to buy them. I craft in high quantities, so if I were to gather all my shards myself, there would be no time for anything else. That, and I absolutely hate farming shards.

Let's be honest here. There is nothing you can do about it. Either have botters sell shards cheap or gather them yourself. Pretty sure SE won't bother to do anything with like that.

You realice that the higher crafter recepies will eventually require crystal and cluster to make? This only affect the growing crafter population and not to a grand extend. Also the bot may have a big chunk of the markert because like you said some people rather buy them than gather them, for whatever the reason. There are also abilities that let you gather shard/crystals/cluster faster and the bot dont use them. If SE make the shard gathering even faster the bot will benefit too of it and the market will probably sell them for 1gil.

Odd has a good point. The purpose is to play the game to have fun. Some people may not like gathering at all, and nobody likes paying money, especially for something as trivial as shards, and doubly especially not to bots. Yet crafting is literally gated behind obtaining something that may not appeal to everyone. The other option is to find elemental sprites and hope for drops or travel areas looking for high payout leves, but that's an even slower gathering process.....

I think if people had an option that makes gathering shards either faster or more fun (a daunting request indeed), it would reignite crafting/gathering AND cut into botting profits. Pray to the 12 for shards, make crystals and clusters breakable again, find some while fishing, carbonize some element in the open world while on a combat class (like at a lake or at a tree), make a higher yield for gathering skill, maybe be able to use a company's workshop (fen-yll, sunsilk, or the blacksmith one) for a gil fee for an hour or two with no shard cost..... be creative.

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Originally Posted by Myrhn

You realice that the higher crafter recepies will eventually require crystal and cluster to make?

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As a master of the hand, yes I realize this. Do you realize that even as someone with all DoH at 50, I still make things of all levels, constantly? If I want to make a stack of level 43 ingots/cloth/leather/whatever, I need 500 of the respective shard. Also, anything that uses crystals and clusters usually isn't crafted in massive quantities, so you don't need a ton of them. I've never bought those from the markets before. As a master of the land, my only issue is with gathering shards. Not crystals. Not Clusters.