Yikes gathering is way too confusing

[Solarra]

Remember you can now remove grade IV materia (and lower) from your gear with 100% success. For mining and botany I melded an even mix of gathering and perception, for fishing just enough gathering to keep the 'fish gets away' message to the minimum and the rest on perception. I bought the material with red scrips and just kept reusing it all the way from to 70. Melding everything gives a nice boost to stats.

I also found a couple of bargains on the MB where sellers appeared to be having an undercut war, so while I wouldn't normally advise buying gathering gear for levelling, it can be worth checking the MB from time to time. I got a level 70 BiS crafted chest for less than the material cost, which was a really lucky find.

For anyone still in HW, some leves now reward HQ gear, these items are usually very cheap on the MB if you don't want to use your leve allowance on low-level leves.