Good idea to have mining/botany retainers while working on my first 50?

[Spawnie]

I believe once you equip them with basic gathering gear, they go from getting 20 shards an hour to getting 60 shards an hour. haven't tested minimum amount of equipment, but lvl 10 gathering gear gets 60.

Additionally, at a certain point the time needed for getting 60 shards goes from 50 mins to 40 mins. not sure when that baseline is.

my retainers currently are 60 shards in 40mins for that reason i changed all 4 of my retainers to miner/botanist (240 shards/40mins) lol just to help with shards while im leveling crafters lol so more or less at best output atm then?