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So, since I started mining, I've been switching to DPS mode and killing anything near the mining node before equipping miner gear and gathering, until I saw someone mining while stealthed in a video. DoH!
(In WoW, some classes have stealth, but it ends when you perform any action, such as gathering.)
The stealth is a common feature for all DoL classes and makes life so much easier.
In WoW you gather on your combat classes, so you can easily handle any attacking mobs. In FF14 you have a very fragile gatherer class, which is why they gave us tools like Gathering Stealth. To be fair they've also done a fairly good job on node placement so you rarely have to deal with mobs to reach your materials.
Stealth is an innate skill that all DoL have. It does have its limits so a low level gatherer can't gather from nodes in a zone with mobs much higher in level without significant risk. However, it might still be in your best interest to kill mobs near a gathering node if it drops things like skins, hides, fleece, etc. It will also give you a few minutes before the mob respawns to roam freely without stealth, which greatly slows your movement speed.
I've been known to kill enemies on my miner/botanist with the help of my chocobo…
I've used stealth to sneak into difficult areas, then change back to my DoM.