Shard are becoming a problem.

[Kenji1134]

The simplest solution would be the following...

For every 50 gathering (stat), increase base shard yield by 1.
For every 100 gathering, increase base crystal yield by 1.
For every 150 gathering, increase base cluster yield by 1.

So offhand, to do the highest tier of gathering ventures, my retainer needs 383 gathering. Throw in some gathering food, and we should be able to hit 400 without much trouble.
This means that a very well geared, lvl 50 gatherer would get (with 350 gathering to make it easier)... +7 shards, +3 crystals, +2 clusters, on top of the current yields of 1 apiece.

This would go a long way in alleviating the shard/crystal issue for 2 reasons.

1. The base rate of obtaining shards would keep pace with the rate of shard consumption during leveling, and at endgame, provided better gathering gear.

2. Bots and Farmers...
They dont mind if you ban them because they can gather shards at lvl 1. Now suppose that we, the normal players could now gather shards 5-6x FASTER than the lvl 1 bots. Their profits would take a significant hit, since the stable value of shards would drop by a factor of 5, and they would now need to grind up to 50 in order to keep up with the new supply rate... and it will hurt a lot more when they get banned at 50 than at 1.