Thanks for all the info Allard. I've been having a hard time leveling my BTN/WVR combo. I find both pretty tedious, and so far I would just rather get levels in THM or do quests. Maybe once I have less to do I'll work on gathering more? I also feel like I should have done something else (MIN and goldsmithing maybe?) as WVR doesn't seem to make very much good stuff.
Botanist is imo the worst of the gathering classes to level for 'useful' purpose other then if you are planning to be a carpenter or culinary. The only use you get from weaver is some raw stuff in harvesting and almost all of those can be obtained more easily by killing the right monsters. It is a complimentary gathering class to weaver, but like leatherworker the real complimentary class is a combat class. I started leveling botanist mainly for the lvl 25 ability because EXP pace is murder at certain levels and any help I could get was needed, now I use it constantly on my Carpenter but till I did that I got little to no use out of it. It sounds like with housing botanist should be a lot more useful then (Tend gardens, getting raw wood for houses and furniture), but right now? Its really only useful for a couple classes.
Is this most easily done via leves? I remember back when the game came out you did leves and then used "tree finder" or whatever to find resource points...Same process now?
Its always 'better' to do it by leves, but some leve ranges benefit from it more then others. The grade of the nodes directly affect your EXP and the higher you get the less EXP from that node grade, the problem is you don't get the next grade seeker ability till every '8th' level (lvl 8, lvl 18, lvl 28, lvl 38) but you get a new leve range every 5th level (5, 15, 25, 35) so that means there is a good 3 levels where the only way to competently hit the highest grade node for maximum EXP is through leves. Then at the later levels that EXP bonus at the end is going to be your main source of EXP. Leveling gathering classes is not a linear experience, its a fluctuating curve, a curve that drives off the deep end toward the end when you find you don't have grade 6 nodes to use XD. The final 3-4 levels of a gathering class is just murderously tedious. Thankfully I actually need some items so I was just leveling it up slowly while getting stuff for my BSM and GSM.
Basically other then EXP bonus change on leves (which make a world of difference) and 1.5* the original EXP per success, there hasn't been anything changed to gathering since the launch. It sounds like the mechanics of gathering (and hopefully how it levels) is changing in 2.0, but if you want to level it now, there is no doubt, it is tedious, which is why I suggested leveling up a crafting class along with it, at least then you can feel like you are getting something more from it other then just leveling it up to get money later.
