Quote Originally Posted by Starkiller View Post
As it turns out we cannot do this. For example, this morning I made one of my Retainers a Botanist. In order to have her use that class, I had to first unlock it. Then I attempted to send her out to gather Earth Shards, but was denied.

I could not send her out to gather an Earth Shard until I had gone out as a Botanist first and harvested at least one Earth Shard myself. So, it's not possible to send Retainers out on Ventures to hunt/harvest items that your character has not already obtained before.
dang... I just made one of my retainer as fisher. Since I don't really like it (because of real life issues too), was hoping my retainer can go in my stead. Oh well... lol

BTW, I wonder if retainer in future can be sent for gathering unyielded nodes like gold ore or darksteel ore for miner. I am a lvl 50 miner and I do have mined it before. Would've been kewl if that can happened.