The crafting grind

[Nyalia]

Also, to the people commenting on the number of items from the favor system - the average is 3. I've had runs of 1. I've also had runs of SIX. Last night, with three favors, I managed to get 14.

A few tricks - if a concealed node appears before the favor runs out, that node will stay. You don't have to mine the item itself before the favor runs out. If there are enemies in the area, watch for them as you fly to a node pair. If they are close to one node and facing the node, go to the other one first. Don't dismount until you are CERTAIN they aren't aggroed on you, and stealth immediately. Always mount immediately following the end of a gather. If an enemy is too close to a normal node and you don't think you can get to it without landing a ways off and slowly stealthing in, forget that node and go on to the next pair. The time to get to the next pair is less than the time it'll take you to deaggro, stealth in, or wait for the enemy to turn around. If you DO aggro, sprint to another node pair (or the other node of the current pair if it is undepleted and far enough away).

Having your choco out in tank stance is a double-edged gunblade. One the one hand, your choco can distract something that aggros on you, allowing you to harvest safely. On the other hand, you can't mount until your choco gets out of combat, so you're probably better off immediately deaggroing anyway, and deaggroing can be hard if your choco is in combat.

Also, for the Hinterlands BTN spot, when you're doing the node pairs near the raised platform, land on the platform above the node, stealth, and drop down. That way, you never have to worry about which way the enemies are facing, and while you mine, you can look around and see if you need to remain stealthed to get to the second node of the pair, or if you can destealth safely.

I've heard of people pre-depleting nodes so they are all one hit from being depleted before activating the favor. I tried this a bit, but I've NEVER found an item this way. Unless someone has successfully done this, I'm going to assume that if you access a node before activating the favor, that node won't count.

[MN_14]

I've heard of people pre-depleting nodes so they are all one hit from being depleted before activating the favor. I tried this a bit, but I've NEVER found an item this way. Unless someone has successfully done this, I'm going to assume that if you access a node before activating the favor, that node won't count.

I do this and can confirm that it definitely works. I've even gotten 4 concealed nodes in a row once.

[LineageRazor]

I've heard of people pre-depleting nodes so they are all one hit from being depleted before activating the favor. I tried this a bit, but I've NEVER found an item this way. Unless someone has successfully done this, I'm going to assume that if you access a node before activating the favor, that node won't count.

While I've not attempted depleting ALL the nodes before I get started, I routinely start by finding the "gathering attempts +1" node, working it down to the last hit, and then popping my favor. I can guarantee you that this can successfully produce a concealed node, as it has done so for me several times.

Now that you mention the idea, though, maybe I SHOULD pre-deplete more than just that one node; at the very least, I should do the other node in the pairing.