Gathering Question (User Interface)

[Niwashi]

On a PS3/PS4 controller, that indicates the item you'll harvest. You use up/down buttons to set it to the item you want and then X to activate the mining action. I assume it's comparable on PC with keyboard/mouse. A player who prefers the mouse could click items directly (so wouldn't really need a selection indicator) while a player who prefers the keyboard could use up/down arrows to select and enter to harvest the selected one.

(I'm speaking from knowledge on the PS3/PS4 part of that comment, but from conjecture on the PC part.)

[Nuker]

The keyboards numpad can be used to move through menus, 8 is up, 2 is down and so on. In gathering you can click on the option you want to farm (e.g. mining copper ore, you select copper ore on the first node) then for each point after, get close get close to the node, press 0/ins on the numpad to select the node, again to open the menu and a 3rd (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th depending on the node) press to mine the item

I can't say why ctrl+clicking bought the hand up for you as on mine it's up all the time when gathering as I use the above method to get through it faster.

Nuker...