The trouble with shards

[Molly_Millions]

Why wouldn't they just make it so you can break down crystals and the such. Seems like that would fix all the issues.....or at least most of.

Not really, Crystals would just become more of a commodity in that case.

[Earthen]

Ya but it would reward getting gathering up, right now just for shard farming you need lvl 1 miner or botanist, and that's it. If you could more effectively get shards by mining higher level crystals, not only could you get some xp at the right level ranges (and its around the time you'll need some) you'd save tons of time. If a Crystal broke down into 8 or 10 shards, gathering classes could easily get enough shards to keep the crafts going for a much more reasonable effort. As it is you need to spend 30-45 minutes getting 500 - 1k shards every now and then (for some crafts, WVR is murder on shards while CRP is much more forgiving). If you could cut that down to 15 minutes for that many shards, it wouldn't feel so bad.

[Roin]

One thing I would hope they'd do is allow you to break the bigger crystals into smaller pieces like in FFXI. So Clusters -> Crystals -> Shards.

[Molly_Millions]

Ya but it would reward getting gathering up, right now just for shard farming you need lvl 1 miner or botanist, and that's it. If you could more effectively get shards by mining higher level crystals, not only could you get some xp at the right level ranges (and its around the time you'll need some) you'd save tons of time. If a Crystal broke down into 8 or 10 shards, gathering classes could easily get enough shards to keep the crafts going for a much more reasonable effort. As it is you need to spend 30-45 minutes getting 500 - 1k shards every now and then (for some crafts, WVR is murder on shards while CRP is much more forgiving). If you could cut that down to 15 minutes for that many shards, it wouldn't feel so bad.

Except that crystals aren't available at 100% of the nodes.

[Balaur]

Unlike other low-level gathered items like copper ore that sell for 4-5 gil each, wind/fire shards have never come down in price. 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.

You are not forced, you may simply do as you wish. You may convert your goods crafted into gil, or materia, then use that income to fund buying more shards. You may also obtain them through a Free Company. I leveled Miner almost exactly in step with Goldsmith for this reason, and yes while it does take longer, it means you are less prey to spending resources to level a craft up. With the new changes to gathering classes, it will be faster to level up using gathering/leves to do so. I suggest taking this opportunity.

[RhoddODduw]

One thing I would hope they'd do is allow you to break the bigger crystals into smaller pieces like in FFXI. So Clusters -> Crystals -> Shards.

They could maybe make it into a lvl 15/20 Miner ability. (Around/just after you get your sledgehammer)

'Crystal Bash' Grants the ability to break down Crystals in to shards. (10-15 shards/crystal depending on your perception)

And maybe have the ability to break down clusters -> crystals a goldsmithing ability for about the same lvl range. (again, maybe 5-10 crystals depending on your control)