Another thing, your gathering(MIN/BOT/FSH) retainer can only bring back things you yourself have gathered at least once. This isnt an issue too often(its mostly annoying with timed nodes), as most people end up leveling their gatherers(at least miner and botanist) so they can get some of their crafting mats for free. Plus it lets you multi-task. You can go get one thing while telling your retainer to get a separate one you will also need.