The gatherering thread (Botanist/Miner/Fisher)

[Kami]

I propose we regroup questions and thoughts regarding gathering in this thread.

Ill start, I just turned Bota 50 leveling mostly from leves, bought some good lvl 50 gears and got some questions :

- I can't seem to find a way to gather crystals, all i'm getting are shards even on the supposedly crystal spots. Pretty sure i'm missing something dumb here..

- What kind of gathering AND perception should you aim at ? Is 50 all about perception ? Is there any particular cap to hit for some reason ?

[Raldo]

Note: The following does not apply to Fisher.

1) The gathering log tells you plainly where you can gather crystals. Only about half of the gathering points in the designated area (usually 2 of 4 gathering points, if I recall correctly) will actually have the crystals though.

2) I'll have to get back with you on Gathering, but Perception you'll want to hit 320, and GP you'll want to push to 580~600.

Gathering: With the best HQ gear, but very very few melds, I have an 89% gather rate on Unspoiled nodes. Hopefully I'll remember to post what # I have when I can next check. I'd like to push it further so I'd stop missing as much.

Perception: I stopped at exactly 320 because the returns weren't worth it past that point. 320 will allow you to be able to gather HQs from unspoiled nodes. I've heard from someone who pushed their Perception to the mid-330s and their HQ rate was still 1%. Lets face it, the base HQ rate doesn't matter for unspoiled nodes, we're going to be relying on our abilties.

GP: 600GP is the actual number you're shooting for, but since you regen 5GP with every successful chop, 580 is the bare minimum you can have to get two 300GP abilities off on an unspoiled node. I roll with 585, since that allows me to miss a swing. Is it possible to stack enough GP to get up to 650/700? If so, then you could do that if you want to use a +Gathering% ability, but remember, the more GP you rely on for unspoiled nodes, the longer you're going to be standing there doing nothing waiting for your GP to regen.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Even HQ rate for nodes you're way overleveled for cap very low (15% iirc? 20 if the +5% bonus is on the tree/node) so Perception doesn't matter too much beyond the minimum needed for HQ.

My typical routine for unspoiled nodes was (100 GP +Gather thing) > (300 GP +1 attempt / 300GP reveal out of reach) but I only really have blue tool and HQ AF with no melds so my Perception is relatively garbage. If you don't have the 320 perception yet you don't really need more GP, imo.

[Zimbabwe Justice]

I don't suppose you guys have any suggest BTN leveling spots?

[Raldo]

Option 1) Leves

Option 2) Level-appropriate nodes

Do you really need to be told that? Or perhaps you just need to know where the leves are located? If so, head here.

Don't forget that the GC Manuals that can boost your XP gain.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Or perhaps you just need to know where the leves are located? If so, head here.

First post has the locations. Just don't have which specific leves are which type yet.

BTN/MIN leves are kind of crap except the Evaluation kind, which is only marginally less crap. But it's still faster than raw leveling. If you don't need the mats in a particular range I'd do leves. But in the mid 20s and 30s you might want to farm up crystals and dyes.

Late Edit: Also never do FSH leves unless you have nothing else to use them on. FSH gains xp so fast in comparison to its sister DoLs.

[rina_inverse]

bah, i just read this thread after I meld all my gear
so, 350 perception doesnt matter. at all
Im still getting 15% my first unspoiled node

question to Raldo, how do you get like 580 GP?
tier IV materia only give like 4
my current GP is 400
so I need around 50 tier IV materia melded?

[Seravi Edalborez]

It's been awhile and can't check but I thought I had somewhere around mid-500s GP just with HQ AF, and GP accessories (think I don't even have Militia wrists yet) with no melds. Wouldn't need much more from materia. To only have 400 you'd basically have to not be wearing accessories I think.

[rina_inverse]

yes im not wearing any gathering acc for now
ok gonna craft em then

[Niiro]

Full HQ AF and HQ accessories puts me at 573 with no materia or food.

[arus2001]

My basic leveling tactic has been to gather 99 of everything new, then cry a little at the AH when I see the RMT have 5x the amount up for pennies.

Just wish crystal gathering was more player-friendly because I've pretty much depleted my wind/lightning stock and the +yield abilities cost too much to use often.

[Raldo]

question to Raldo, how do you get like 580 GP?

I only have +15GP through materia. Like the others said, you can get most of what you need through accessories (some of mine aren't even the best, but they're close). I max-melded my belt and my neck, but then I realized how little it even mattered.

Also, to follow up on my first post, my Gathering is at 337 and I have an 89% gather rate at Unspoiled Nodes, so you'll probably want to shoot higher than that, though that number is sufficient for the most part.

[blowfin]

Just wanted to mention how awesome food is for gathering when leveling up, I don't leave home without my rabbit pies.

[Berabouman]

My basic leveling tactic has been to gather 99 of everything new, then cry a little at the AH when I see the RMT have 5x the amount up for pennies.

This. I've switched to crafting instead of gathering as my main gil maker mainly because of this. I mean, why fight the system? (until SE does away with them, like they should)

Just wish crystal gathering was more player-friendly because I've pretty much depleted my wind/lightning stock and the +yield abilities cost too much to use often.

I get the feeling they made crystal gathering the way it is so that fresh players can just go right out of the gate and gather for gil if they needed it. It's something anyone can do at any level, and since it's boring no one really wants to do it, but if they do that there are no crystals, which means crystals are worth more, so...supply and demand basically.

[arus2001]

The fact it's so fucking tedious is why it pretty much screams, "BOT ME!" I can understand giving lowbies something to cash in on, but there comes a point in crafting where you're seriously using a node or two worth of crystals per synth. Given not all mining locations are created equal in terms of terrain and distance between points, some crystals are harder to gather by default. And while I haven't personally timed how much I can gather in an hour, somewhere between 2-300 attempts feels right. Could pretty much burn through the accumulated crystals in less time than that.

I'm of the mind the crystal abilities should cost between 50-100 GP. since you get the ability that grants +1 yields to a point, you have no reason to use those again because they cost the same while the latter works on everything on top. I dunno, maybe the 40-50 nodes are better about this with node bonuses, but you can guarantee when/if SE does address the bot problem, crafting is going to stall with crystal shortages for everyone. Peoples' fear of gil sinks with repair costs apply here, too. If we start looking at 50g+ per crystal, the economy will bleed out gil at a significant rate in AH fees from both buyer and seller.

Now that I think about it, I'd be okay with the crafts getting special synths to break down larger crystals into the previous tier. If I could turn 1 2nd tier into 5-10 1st tier, I wouldn't mind gathering them so much since the 2 of 4 nodes they'd spawn at would potentially guarantee 40+ shards.

[Deadgye]

I'm about to hit 47 on botanist myself and I have a question regarding unspoiled nodes. Does each unspoiled node only contain one item type, and is it's location on the list static or dynamic? It currently takes me three hits to get past the out of reach so I'm wondering if I should pretty much focus on getting to 50 for the ability first before even paying attention to them.

[Cairthenn]

With the exception of Cluster nodes and Minions, each has a single item and it's always in the same spot. You don't lose anything by going for them now, but you probably won't hit the HQ threshold (320), and making the items reachable is much more hassle. Personally, I waited.

[aers]

The fact it's so fucking tedious is why it pretty much screams, "BOT ME!" I can understand giving lowbies something to cash in on, but there comes a point in crafting where you're seriously using a node or two worth of crystals per synth. Given not all mining locations are created equal in terms of terrain and distance between points, some crystals are harder to gather by default. And while I haven't personally timed how much I can gather in an hour, somewhere between 2-300 attempts feels right. Could pretty much burn through the accumulated crystals in less time than that.

At wind shard mining nodes I can generally hit like 1.1k wind shards/hr if I hate myself and want to do that. Never done crystals but with only 2 nodes having crystals and no double yield node its probably something like 500/hr? And you're competing with the gilseller bots that teleport between nodes. Fan-fuckin-tastic.

I somehow tolerated leveling mining to 50 and botany to 39 before I gave the fuck up on gathering shit.

[Hellfury]

I see a lot of people arguing that 1% seems to be the top % chance of HQ item (not counting the sequence ending in 100% chance), but ss

Spoiler: show

I only used Toil of the Pioneers, does it add to HQ chance ?

edit2:

Spoiler: show

Having used 0 abilities.

Spoiler: show

Having juggled abilities

[Raldo]

How much perception do you have?

I never said that 1% was the top HQ% for unspoiled nodes, I simply said it wasn't worth the investment to push your perception high enough to go beyond that. I don't know about you, but I can HQ stuff just fine with NQ ingredients.