An easier way to get shards?

[Ashbury]

Ever since Heavensward, getting crystals and clusters were made incredibly easy thanks to aetherial reduction. I can send retainers to gather shards but at a really low rate per hour, when I could get the same amount of crystals by aetherial reducing 2 collectibles in 2 seconds.

Or am I missing something? Send retainer on a mission, and go gather myself while I wait. I could trade tokens from Diadem but now nobody does that place anymore.

[Ostwar]

Ever since Heavensward, getting crystals and clusters were made incredibly easy thanks to aetherial reduction. I can send retainers to gather shards but at a really low rate per hour, when I could get the same amount of crystals by aetherial reducing 2 collectibles in 2 seconds.

Or am I missing something? Send retainer on a mission, and go gather myself while I wait. I could trade tokens from Diadem but now nobody does that place anymore.

Plant them in your garden or FC gardens, they grow 75 shards per plant with grade 2 shroud soil in 24 hours.

[raela]

I have a medium house, so I plant shards with normal potting soil.. 19x50 in a day.

[Ayerinn]

Plant them in your garden or FC gardens, they grow 75 shards per plant with grade 2 shroud soil in 24 hours.

I use grade 1 shroud every day x 4 gardens - much easier to source than grade 2 or 3 shroud soil...you get 65 instead of 75 shards. Obviously if you only have a few apartment vases or whatever, you may want as many shards as possible so I would use grade 3 shroud for 100 per.

[Elamys]

Considering how limited housing is, "use your house" isn't really a good solution, though it certainly helps, since unfortunately, there really isn't a better solution other than letting your retainers gather them for you.

[Solarra]

Our FC has a lot of crafters so we solved the problem by planting shards in the FC gardens and storing them in the chest. We kept going until we had a good supply and then made sure to tell everyone they were available. It took a little time to set up but now it only takes a few minutes every to keep our supply of shards and seeds topped up.

If your FC doesn't have a house (or isn't the sort of FC that would do something like this) then I'd suggest using the 2 pots in your apartment and 2 more in your FC room, if you have one. If you use grade 3 Shroud you should get a fairly decent supply just from these but even potting soil will give you 50 per pot every day. Alternatively, try and find a friend who isn't using their garden.

[Jelly_Baby]

Honestly I just mine them, it really doesn't take too long to gather them yourself, plus each crystal/shard you gather has a chance to give multiple on the next hit and your abilities can gather multiple at a time too. On a few occasions you can get easily u to 7 shards from 1 hit, so unless you need a few thousand shards at any time, just set yourself an half an hour a side to gather a few hundred. Use them, then repeat so it isn't too mind numbing.

Harvesting clusters suck though, they are on timed nodes

[Ashbury]

I didn't know about the gardening option, thank you.

While I have a personal house that I can use for myself, I feel bad for other people that don't have that option. Kinda wish they would allow easier gathering through DoL, they added a bunch of abilities spefically to make old content easier to do with a lvl 70 gatherer.

[QT_Melon]

Considering how limited housing is, "use your house" isn't really a good solution, though it certainly helps, since unfortunately, there really isn't a better solution other than letting your retainers gather them for you.

No, but most players can get apartments or an FC room. You can put in 2 pots and get a good amount alongside a retainer. It can bring you up to a total of 4 pots if you have an apartment and FC room, so half a garden plot yield isn't too horrible.

[Ostwar]

Harvesting clusters suck though, they are on timed nodes

Two words, Ephemeral Nodes!