Quote Originally Posted by Uriahnool View Post
I am now forced to take extra time to invest in a gathering class to support my crafting class - except I am not gaining any exp by using the gathering class as shards are very low level items.
IIRC, you can double your output with a trait/skill at later levels. And, as one node can grant you 4-5 shards (20-25 per cycle), it's not the worst grind. You could also craft at the mining node to take the edge off it.

I do agree though, there's a great deal of time wasted farming shards. You seem to get masses of the things from crafting quests so, if you haven't already, maybe pick up a few other crafting classes. I know one of the alchemy quests gives >250 lightning shards.