Need shards? Gather? Market? Give up?

So, as of 2.3 Shards are skyrocking in prize. Bots/RMTs probably gaining a massive profit in gil to sell. Since the shard consume is huge with the goal of reaching 100 in desynth with one (or three) crafters and shard gathering is still tedious, how shall i (we) proceed?

The 40+ crafts need about 12 shards average. Those are gained with 3 normal gathering spots. For one craft...puh. And to get to 100% with a crafter, i'm sure i need about 500 crafts. Maybe even more. In comparison to the actual craft material, which reach from 2 to 6 materials, shards seem to be more important.

I think that its possible that shards will be the most expensive materials in the near future. Making them interesting for players to gather. But i still can only imagine, that bots will dominate.

Am i reading to much into it? Are the 1000 or 9999 shard seller players? Do invisible gather bots exist which gather all 4 shards with one swing and teleport to the next spot? (read it somewhere on reddit, i think)

Do the devs/SE have a solution but need some time to implement it? Enable shard drop on mob kill? Make shards craftable as in 1.0? Lessen the need of shards?

I think i'm gonna wait and consume as little shards as i can for my needs. Dungeons and so on seem to me to be more fun to do atm. (And i really like the crafting part)

Edit: I wouldnt really care about the prize of the shards, if it wouldn't end up in a RMT pool.

(sorry if bad grammar is present.)

The most time effective way of harvesting shards that I've found is spamming the lvl 50 single player Timeworn Maps (Boar, Goat, Toad). If prices are climbing like you say then the maps are probably very cost effective. Aside from shards you also get the gil and other materials. Extremely difficult to not make your money back on every chest.

I see. I Didn't consider maps. Will check it out.

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I see. I Didn't consider maps.

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Not a lot of people do, I only realised how many shards they pumped out by running them for other stuff.

Maps got expensive now too :D
I guess my retainer will gather some shards.
Does anybody know if Cul can desynth fish for shards?

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Originally Posted by Levi

Am i reading to much into it? Are the 1000 or 9999 shard seller players?

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I have sold 9999 shards to get my novus materia, so yes I am human :)
I gathered those all in 1.x

I should have leveled all to 50 before 2.0 - dont like the 2.0 ressource grinding but i like the 2.0 crafting mechanics

Use retainers, especially for crystals.

Use the respective gather skill for that type of shard and you can gather 12 - 15 per spot. Maps are good also. Shards already drop from mobs, the elemental types. Get the non-crafter members of your FC to drop shards in the FC chest for you.

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Originally Posted by Levi

Maps got expensive now too :D
I guess my retainer will gather some shards.
Does anybody know if Cul can desynth fish for shards?

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I didn't even know you could buy maps. Why not just farm one yourself? There's level 45 or 50 nodes for almost every shard (sans Lightning it seems) so you can kill two birds with one stone.

It's tempting to assume people selling that many shards are botting but maybe they find it an easy and steady income while they're getting their treasure maps? I honestly don't know. I actually was thinking of making a CP focused set of gear so I could stack Ward and King's Yield but I don't know if they stack.

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Originally Posted by Levi

Does anybody know if Cul can desynth fish for shards?

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Yes but mainly water shards. Dunefish and skyfish give more than water. I think it's earth and wind not sure. The return they give you plus the rate of catch makes this a not so viable source.