I'm not a big fan of the current gathering system at all, after leveling Miner and Botanist.

What bothers me the most is the very slow exp climb after level 40, and it gets much worse after level 45, where the EXP rate stays the same at this point.

The fact that you can effectively farm off grade v nodes at 35 bothered me, as well as getting your last ability at level 38. It's basically after this point, all it matters are stats as you level up. At this point it's like "Oh, hey. I can find and mine Grade V nodes, no need to rush in exp anymore" unless you REALLY want that level 40 and 50 achievement.

During the leves, what bothered me the most is the fact that sweat of brow gets activated RIGHT as I finish a leve. This happened to me very consistently, and it bothered the hell out of me. I can't tell you how many times I've seen "Sweat of Brow activated" and then "Assaying Iron Lake completed!" in the log. I felt trolled there. :|

I am looking forward to the big gathering overhall when 2.0 comes, because, seriously. this needs to be fixed. Badly.