So, I'm back with more questions.

I now have BTN and MIN at 51, and all DoH classes except ALC and CUL at 50-51. The struggle at this point is that my gathering gear isn't that great (since I don't have all the end-game gear from ARR) and to make any new HW gathering gear, I have to be able to gather Coerthan Tea Leaves at a reliable rate so that I can level LTW. It seems to be a punishing "chicken and egg" problem here. It's very, very slow gathering tea leaves in present gear, yet to make other gear I have to have mounds of tea leaves.

The gear on the MB is hideously expensive. It's not that I can't afford it, but this should NOT be the only way to get started in HW gathering/crafting content. The gear is apparently not sold by a vendor, and there is no other catch up mechanism that I've seen.

Any advice from those who have "been there, done that"? There is one vendor in Ishgard that sells the tea leaves at 1400+g each, but is this really how this goes for newer players who weren't around to get the end-game gathering/crafting gear in ARR, or am I missing something?