Suggestion - Increase the Quantity of Shards in Higher Level Nodes

[Nutz]

To the OP, there are actually level 30 nodes where you can gather 16 shards

In any case, It's frustrating that you never bother gathering shards while leveling (because they are all level 1 and provide no appreciable exp) and they don't get (much) faster to gather by the time you're level 50 with all BiS gear and melds. I'm not a big fan of putting them back on regular mobs, but it would do. I'd prefer a tiered system based on node level. level 1-25 nodes, for example, yield 1 as they do now, then 30-45 yield 2, and level 50 nodes yield 3. Possibly in addition to that, change the ward skills to be multiplicative rather than additive (x2, and x3 after trait -- won't affect crystals and clusters at this time because they always yield 1 by default). This way at level 50 you could gather at most 45 shards from the attempt +1 nodes using a wards skill. Other nodes without ward skill would yield 12 (or 36 with ward skill).

[Aldracity]

Man I'm late to this necro...

I'd rather have the higher-tier Shard items (not Crystal/Cluster) have reduced Shard costs. Mostly the Refined/Component recipes - change the costs to 1/1/2/2/3 instead of 1/2/3/4/5 or something.

It feels like the system was intended for lower tier items to be leveling gear while the higher tier stuff was intended as progression jumping, but currently the shard costs on ~i30 - ~i50 are so steep that you end up getting bottlenecked horribly, even if you're just trying to solo Leve n' Log your DoH. I mean, I cleared my Main Scenario, decided to level up BSM, and got bricked at around Lv 35 because I ran out of shards. Thankfully, at the time the shard farmers were still around, but with shard costs at 10x those times and a swarm of new players due to the free trial...I don't think I want newbies to get spooked by mere leveling.

[Covenant]

As most gathers know one can gain a +1 bonus on tier 2(lvl 30 nodes) on crystals.

As OP states, level 50 nodes should have an additional +2 bonus to shards.

I'm not sure about gather's caps, but a further refinement based on skill lvl could give additional bonus to gather(2 and 3 stars)

Barring that, I would like an action that "shatters" crystals and clusters at gp expense. At what cost? maybe 10-25gp cost with a random reward quantity based on tier. For example, tier 2(lvl 30) could grant(1-3 shards) and tier 3(lvl 50) grant 2-4, finally clusters lvl 50 could possibly grant 3-5?

I know this unfairly tilts the game towards higher lvl players as far as selling goes, but honestly lvl 1-30 players shouldn't become millionairs of lvl 1 crystals shards.

Everyone Hates farming cystals Shards(except sadist).

[TomTom1968]

I started crafting heavily after 2.3 was released to progress in desynthing. I also finally got my DOH to have enough Materia to start with iLevel 70 tools in order to be able to craft 3-star items. To make 50 of each item you need for your Level 70 tool (which needs HQ crafting of 50 to 100 other items in advance), it is just insane how many shards I have burned in the last weeks.

500-1000 on a daily base, crystals not included. Although I ONLY run shard ventures with 2 of my retainers and spend an hour daily to farm shards on my own, it is just not enough. It is never enough. Needing 4 or 5 shards from 2 sorts is too much. When the Game was launched, there was no need for so much mass crafting - but now there is so please adjust the system, SE.

If you are spirit bonding, trying to over meld your DOH and DOL, after Level 70 tools (or Level 75 tools through Desynthesis), you need a hell lot of time just because of the shards. And it is ridiculous that a retainer brings back as much shards as crystals. 30 crystals is ok, but I would see 100 shards in 40 minutes per venture as more reasonable. I can gather 250-300 shards in the same time using skills and potions so how lazy are our retainers although they are well equipped?