Quote Originally Posted by Ksenia View Post
I used to think so too and like the OP I loathed the shard and crystal farming but in truth the methodical process of becoming a shard and crystal juggernaut can all be done above board with no need to exploit, bot or cheat.

You can have 8 retainer slots and that's per character. You can have 8 character slots so 64 retainer slots. By leveling 8 characters to 30 in either mining or Botany and taking them through MSQ to where they have a Grand Company and get all 64 retainers to level 30 in mining or Botany, you have a shard production potential of 64x60 every 40 minutes. Once you have all 8 characters in a grand company they can obtain ventures with some leg work, more than enough to sustain shard gathering for a few days. With crystals the numbers are halved at 64x30 every 40 minutes.

That's 3840 fire shards every 40 minutes as long as you have ventures in inventory to support it. In my case I have 32 retainers, not 64 and not all of them are botany or mining because I have 3 characters in Heavensward so I want hunting stuff as well. 20x60 and 20x30 per 40 minutes are my output potentials and it's all done using legit methods. It is unfortunate that they have reduced the game to this level of min maxing but when in Rome.
It's unreasonable to expect people to casually have 32 retainers much less have 64. It might surprise you, but some people only have 1 character and 2 retainers.