600GP (Collectible Gathering Question)

[cgbspender]

Well,

I'm sorry to say, but... If your gear is "severely outdated", why didn't you change before melding ?
Also, following rotations blindly might not work. Your skills for collecting collectables items are based on perception. The more perception you have, the higher rarity you can achieve.

[Jpec07]

I'm sorry to say, but... If your gear is "severely outdated", why didn't you change before melding ?
Also, following rotations blindly might not work. Your skills for collecting collectables items are based on perception. The more perception you have, the higher rarity you can achieve.

...did you actually read my post, or just glance at it? The gear was upgraded before I posted this, and it still didn't get me close enough.

That said, I managed to get there! The food from the Gold Saucer has been a tremendous boon, and I managed to collect my way into the level 58 blue scrip set!

Now I'm just trying to figure out how to get to 565 Perception without going broke so I can do the last mining quest. I was (thankfully) able to meld my way closer, and now I just need to make sure I do everything in my power to make the stars align to get those three HQ Adamantite ores (yes I know I can just get them from the MB but I'm a stubborn old goat who wants to do it himself).

Only problem is that then I'll need to upgrade my painstakingly-pentamelded Titanium Sledgehammer. I may cry a little when that happens.

And thank you all for continuing to reply! Really great to get some insights into how to break into endgame gathering. It's surprisingly fun!

[SaitoHikari]

Now I'm just trying to figure out how to get to 565 Perception without going broke so I can do the last mining quest. I was (thankfully) able to meld my way closer, and now I just need to make sure I do everything in my power to make the stars align to get those three HQ Adamantite ores (yes I know I can just get them from the MB but I'm a stubborn old goat who wants to do it himself).

For higher Gathering/Perception, you'll basically want to upgrade everything to HQ versions of level 59/60 gear. Your primary and off-hand especially, the difference between normal quality and HQ for those is like 20-30 in gathering and perception.

Depending on your server though, this might be hugely costly. I was fortunate enough to be in a FC where people would craft that stuff for me for free if I supplied all of the crafting materials.

Once I upgraded though, I ended up with 590+ in both gathering and perception without food, although I also had all four of my accessories melded with +20 gathering and perception total.