Gather skill progression / effects.

[Loko Loki]

Currently I see each lvl of refiner / crafter getting access to learn new recipes and faster production.

What effect does gathering progression have currently or what should it have down the road? Currently it seems that gathering lvl 1 and lvl 6 get the same type of resources and the same ammount. Faster harvesting of the node has minimal benefit as most of the time is spent running around to get to the hex, find the nodes, fighting the mobs near the node (especially if your XP is spent on gathering / refining / crafting) and back to town. It seems like I should only take lvl 1 and permanently stop unless I plan to dedicate running straight up to lvl 7. Then again having a choice to stop at lvl 7 for the same reason?

Thoughts? Is the gusher system going to really make you train more lvls if your not already planning on dedicated gathering?

[Tyncale]

I hope that the gusher system will change the landscape of current Gathering.

I expect dedicated Gatherers to run around with high level Harvesting Kits that will undoubtedly need high levels of skill to use, and try to find those gushers, alone or in a small group. I am not sure if we will get skills that make it easier to find such a gusher, but I hope that finding a gusher is equivalent to at least 4 hours of regular farming nodes, if not more. Gushers also pose a risk, since you will be in one location for some time.

I hope gushers are so profitable to a dedicated gatherer that most people will not even bother taking a single level of gathering, because the regular gathering of single nodes that we do now will be pretty much a waste of time compared to the amounts that dedicated, skilled gatherers will bring to the market.

If you have low skill, gathering takes forever, it makes you a target, you have to interrupt your journey and you may get like 2 resources from it, while prices are low because Dedicated Gatherers make the prices at the local AH. Running around for 4 hours farming regular nodes with low skill, without being able to use a harvesting kit will seem like a total waste of time.

And then there are outposts and PoI's, of which the devs said will actually provide for the brunt of the resource-flow; though this confuses me some, since I always figured that those were mainly for Bulk Goods. Which are a different beast then the ingredients we find in nodes. Hopefully they will not put high level gatherers with harvesting kits out of business.