So you just leveled up your gathering class to level 50. Congratulations. Now, what are you going to do? There are still twenty levels left to go, only now grinding and leves aren’t giving nearly enough experience anymore. What’s a gatherer to do?
Fortunately for you, you just unlocked your best bet at gaining a lot of experience with relatively little grinding. Collectables. Assuming, of course, you have completed the Main Story Quest The Better Half as well as the Sidequest Inscrutable Tastes. While it’s not a requirement, having Flight unlocked in the region where you’re going to be gathering is recommended. Gathering in Heavensward and Stormblood without flight is a pain in the butt, so do yourself a favor and hold off until you can fly.
Collectables are certain items you can find during gathering that you can turn into Rowena for boatloads of experience. They make leveling past 50 much less grindy. But they can be a little intimidating when you first start out.
As with the Big Fishing quest that I wrote about previously, you’re going to want to check your equipment before you start. Ideally, you’re going to want at least 600 GP and as much Perception as you can get. You’ll notice that my botanist is just shy of 600 GP, which is annoying, but you can scrape by with just 500 if you really need to.
The first thing you’re going to want to do is to check to see what Rowena is accepting to be turned in. Usually, she’ll be accepting Yellow Copper Ore for Miner and Old World Figs for Botanists. Fishers also have collectibles, but the way they go about it is a little different. I’ll talk about collectibles while fishing another time.
You’ll notice that the list has a number next to the items that you can turn in. These numbers are crucial. When you gather a collectible, you will get a score. If the score is lower than the minimum number it’s garbage. You need to be able to get the score at least over the minimum threshold, the higher the number the better.
As far as Mining and Botany collectibles go, the most profitable ones are found in Unspoiled Nodes. You will have had to collect from one during the level 50 class quest of your chosen gathering class, but in case you need a refresher here’s the rundown. An Unspoiled Node is a gathering spot that only appears for a short period of time. You can only find them if you use the ability Truth of Mountains for Miners or Truth of Forests for Botanists.
If you need help keeping track of when the node you’re waiting for is about to pop, I would suggest using the website Eorzea Time. Once it looks like it’s almost time, get in the general area. If you have your Truth ability running, you’ll get a notice once it pops that an Unspoiled Node is available. Follow the icon until you find it.
Once the node you’re waiting for has popped, it’s time to do the actual gathering. The first thing you’re going to want to do is to use Toil of the Mountaineer/Pioneer in order to clear away all these question marks. Then you’re going to want to pop your Collector’s Glove ability, otherwise, you’ll just end up gathering normally.
Now, you’ll notice that the gathering screen looks a little more like the crafting window at this point. The idea is similar. You’re going to want to boost the lower bar as high as you can without raising the wear past 30. At first, you’re only going to have the Methodical Appraisal and Discerning Eye abilities. Once you level up a little more, you’ll have a lot more options for how to go about this.
Methodical Appraisal will raise the rarity of the object (that bar at the bottom and by extension the score you get from the item) based on your Perception skill. The more perception you have, the higher your number will get.
Discerning Eye will increase the next Appraisal attempt by 1.5. For example, if you get 50 rarity for each Methodical Appraisal attempt, using this ability will increase the next Methodical Appraisal to 75 points. Granting you a total of 125 total rarity for the item. This would make it garbage though. Knowing that our end result is going to need to be at least 240 points, let’s solve for how many points we need out of one regular Methodical Appraisal skill. (x+1.5x=240) You’re going to need your Methodical Appraisal to increase the rarity by at least 96 points. Anything less, and you’re wasting your time.
For now, the only thing you can do is use a very basic rotation. Methodical Appraisal > Discerning Eye > Methodical Appraisal. Assuming you’re at least 96, this method should get you up over the minimum without getting the wear over thirty.
Appraisal attempts will use gathering attempts on the node, so that’s important to keep in mind while you gather. For the 240 turn-ins that isn’t as big of a concern as it could be, as more is better for the lower level items. For the higher level ones, you will really want to keep an eye on this.
Since the Yellow Copper and Old World Figs are a quantity over quality sort of turn in, the best thing to do is the rotation I described above in order to get the maximum amount of items you can.
As you level you’ll unlock more appraisal skills as well as the extremely important Utmost Caution. That will reduce the wear of your next appraisal by 10, which means you can use Methodical for free, and Instinctual for cheap.
Instinctual and Impulsive Appraisals are riskier than just going with Methodical Appraisal, but they have their own rewards that make them worth using. Instinctual Appraisal will grant up to 1.5 rarity. Potentially, you can get 3 rarity per Discerning Eye > Instinctual Appraisal. Impulsive Appraisal grants less rarity but has the chance to proc a free Discerning Eye. If your equipment isn’t very good, it’s likely that you’ll have to use these more luck based methods to get the most out of higher level nodes. The higher level turn ins require 480 rarity, but as long as you keep your equipment and stats high, and have a little bit of luck with procs you’ll be able to get those without much trouble.
Fortunately for you, you just unlocked your best bet at gaining a lot of experience with relatively little grinding. Collectables. Assuming, of course, you have completed the Main Story Quest The Better Half as well as the Sidequest Inscrutable Tastes. While it’s not a requirement, having Flight unlocked in the region where you’re going to be gathering is recommended. Gathering in Heavensward and Stormblood without flight is a pain in the butt, so do yourself a favor and hold off until you can fly.
Collectables are certain items you can find during gathering that you can turn into Rowena for boatloads of experience. They make leveling past 50 much less grindy. But they can be a little intimidating when you first start out.
As with the Big Fishing quest that I wrote about previously, you’re going to want to check your equipment before you start. Ideally, you’re going to want at least 600 GP and as much Perception as you can get. You’ll notice that my botanist is just shy of 600 GP, which is annoying, but you can scrape by with just 500 if you really need to.
The first thing you’re going to want to do is to check to see what Rowena is accepting to be turned in. Usually, she’ll be accepting Yellow Copper Ore for Miner and Old World Figs for Botanists. Fishers also have collectibles, but the way they go about it is a little different. I’ll talk about collectibles while fishing another time.
You’ll notice that the list has a number next to the items that you can turn in. These numbers are crucial. When you gather a collectible, you will get a score. If the score is lower than the minimum number it’s garbage. You need to be able to get the score at least over the minimum threshold, the higher the number the better.
As far as Mining and Botany collectibles go, the most profitable ones are found in Unspoiled Nodes. You will have had to collect from one during the level 50 class quest of your chosen gathering class, but in case you need a refresher here’s the rundown. An Unspoiled Node is a gathering spot that only appears for a short period of time. You can only find them if you use the ability Truth of Mountains for Miners or Truth of Forests for Botanists.
If you need help keeping track of when the node you’re waiting for is about to pop, I would suggest using the website Eorzea Time. Once it looks like it’s almost time, get in the general area. If you have your Truth ability running, you’ll get a notice once it pops that an Unspoiled Node is available. Follow the icon until you find it.
Once the node you’re waiting for has popped, it’s time to do the actual gathering. The first thing you’re going to want to do is to use Toil of the Mountaineer/Pioneer in order to clear away all these question marks. Then you’re going to want to pop your Collector’s Glove ability, otherwise, you’ll just end up gathering normally.
Now, you’ll notice that the gathering screen looks a little more like the crafting window at this point. The idea is similar. You’re going to want to boost the lower bar as high as you can without raising the wear past 30. At first, you’re only going to have the Methodical Appraisal and Discerning Eye abilities. Once you level up a little more, you’ll have a lot more options for how to go about this.
Methodical Appraisal will raise the rarity of the object (that bar at the bottom and by extension the score you get from the item) based on your Perception skill. The more perception you have, the higher your number will get.
Discerning Eye will increase the next Appraisal attempt by 1.5. For example, if you get 50 rarity for each Methodical Appraisal attempt, using this ability will increase the next Methodical Appraisal to 75 points. Granting you a total of 125 total rarity for the item. This would make it garbage though. Knowing that our end result is going to need to be at least 240 points, let’s solve for how many points we need out of one regular Methodical Appraisal skill. (x+1.5x=240) You’re going to need your Methodical Appraisal to increase the rarity by at least 96 points. Anything less, and you’re wasting your time.
For now, the only thing you can do is use a very basic rotation. Methodical Appraisal > Discerning Eye > Methodical Appraisal. Assuming you’re at least 96, this method should get you up over the minimum without getting the wear over thirty.
Appraisal attempts will use gathering attempts on the node, so that’s important to keep in mind while you gather. For the 240 turn-ins that isn’t as big of a concern as it could be, as more is better for the lower level items. For the higher level ones, you will really want to keep an eye on this.
Since the Yellow Copper and Old World Figs are a quantity over quality sort of turn in, the best thing to do is the rotation I described above in order to get the maximum amount of items you can.
As you level you’ll unlock more appraisal skills as well as the extremely important Utmost Caution. That will reduce the wear of your next appraisal by 10, which means you can use Methodical for free, and Instinctual for cheap.
Instinctual and Impulsive Appraisals are riskier than just going with Methodical Appraisal, but they have their own rewards that make them worth using. Instinctual Appraisal will grant up to 1.5 rarity. Potentially, you can get 3 rarity per Discerning Eye > Instinctual Appraisal. Impulsive Appraisal grants less rarity but has the chance to proc a free Discerning Eye. If your equipment isn’t very good, it’s likely that you’ll have to use these more luck based methods to get the most out of higher level nodes. The higher level turn ins require 480 rarity, but as long as you keep your equipment and stats high, and have a little bit of luck with procs you’ll be able to get those without much trouble.
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