How does Aetherial Reduction work on Collectible items?

I'm having some problems using this skill, I've unlocked and I've got Collectible items I don't need... yet... there's nothing for me to use it on which is baffling. Did I do something wrong or missed something?

I got this Collectible "Whilom Catfish" which has a Collectability of 290 which is too low to turn in so I thought I could reduce it but I can't as using the general action Aetherial Reduction doesn't have it on its window or there's no option on the item itself to do it.

I even have the Pearl Sprouts at 396 collectability as well and a few other items like the Light Kidney Ore and Sorcerer Fish too, but I really don't understand this.

What am I doing wrong? How do I use Aetherial Reduction on these items?

Not sure about fishing. Most aetherial reduction item are from ephemeral nodes.

ONLY from Ephemeral Modes? Not any Collectibles? That's... sort of stupid. >_>;

There's no point in keeping these Collectibles than as I can't turn them in.

Lower collectables item can be lower to normal item. Not really wasted.

Yeah, but I kinda wanted to break them down into crating materials at least.

Most fish can't be reduced via aetherial reduction, I am sure someone has a list of which fish can.

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Originally Posted by VirusChris

ONLY from Ephemeral Modes? Not any Collectibles? That's... sort of stupid. >_>;

There's no point in keeping these Collectibles than as I can't turn them in.

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Yea, Aetherial Reduction was designed only for Ephemeral items.
I don't think it's stupid that Aetherial only works on Ephemeral, but I think it's really stupid that they created things like Pyrite, Limonite, Kidney Ore etc, which are COMPLETELY useless in any kind of crafting. So if you get enough collectability, you can turn them in for Blue Scrips, but if you don't, then they're totally useless even if you turn them into NQ with that lower quality function.

I thought the collectable system was created so that they can create less useless items. Yet, they created a bunch of these useless items, which is mind-boggling.

There are a few fish that are Collectables and that can be used in Aetherial Reduction the same way, yielding ice and water crystals/clusters and seaborn aethersand. Here's more information: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...eduction-Tread

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Originally Posted by Caimie_Tsukino

I don't think it's stupid that Aetherial only works on Ephemeral, but I think it's really stupid that they created things like Pyrite, Limonite, Kidney Ore etc, which are COMPLETELY useless in any kind of crafting. So if you get enough collectability, you can turn them in for Blue Scrips, but if you don't, then they're totally useless even if you turn them into NQ with that lower quality function.

I thought the collectable system was created so that they can create less useless items. Yet, they created a bunch of these useless items, which is mind-boggling.

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A good number of those items don't award blue scrips at all. Other than offering an opportunity to practice gathering collectibles, their sole purpose is to award XP and fast-track the journey to level 60.

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Originally Posted by Keldion

A good number of those items don't award blue scrips at all. Other than offering an opportunity to practice gathering collectibles, their sole purpose is to award XP and fast-track the journey to level 60.

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Basically.

http://i.imgur.com/cMpQOMZ.jpg

That's a 4-node harvest I was able to set up on miner going from 59 -> 60 earlier. Over a million exp every 12 in-game hours. Is most of that stuff useful outside of leveling? Not really.