Until you get to level fifty you won't need to worry about the Unspoiled Nodes (the gathering nodes that appear at set times during the Eorzean day). Detailing all the high level stuff is a huge post on its own so for now I'm just going to lay out the basics.
Gathering revolves around two key numbers: the % chance to successfully gather a material and the % chance that material will be high quality when you gather it. The stat Gathering increases the likelihood of successfully gathering the item; likewise the stat Perception increases the likelihood you will get a high quality item.
There are three ways to gain experience: harvest regular nodes for materials you can use or sell. This is the slowest method but but depending on the materials you farm you can still make a little money on the side. Additionally, any time you gather an HQ material you gain a large boost in experience for that gather attempt. You also get more experience the more times you gather without missing.
Leves are the next (and most preferred) method and will net you the most experience for time spent, but you don't get anything of value to sell other than the leve reward. Of significant note is that none of the leve gathering nodes have materials you can HQ. What this means is that if you are leveling via leves and not gathering regular mats the perception stat is entirely useless.
Finally, once per day you can turn in items listed by one of the GC NPCs. The value you get from these turn ins is quite large and can even be increased: with each new day a random number of the listed turn ins will be marked with a star, doubling their exp reward. Beyond that if you turn in HQ materials you will double the experience reward again (this can be done whether the item is marked with a star or not).
As mentioned above your GC will sell fairly cheap consumables that will buff your experience gains for a set amount of time.
The mechanics of Gathering are very simple: you have abilities that influence your gather rate and abilities that influence your HQ rate and a set amount of GP to budget in using them.
Gathering revolves around two key numbers: the % chance to successfully gather a material and the % chance that material will be high quality when you gather it. The stat Gathering increases the likelihood of successfully gathering the item; likewise the stat Perception increases the likelihood you will get a high quality item.
There are three ways to gain experience: harvest regular nodes for materials you can use or sell. This is the slowest method but but depending on the materials you farm you can still make a little money on the side. Additionally, any time you gather an HQ material you gain a large boost in experience for that gather attempt. You also get more experience the more times you gather without missing.
Leves are the next (and most preferred) method and will net you the most experience for time spent, but you don't get anything of value to sell other than the leve reward. Of significant note is that none of the leve gathering nodes have materials you can HQ. What this means is that if you are leveling via leves and not gathering regular mats the perception stat is entirely useless.
Finally, once per day you can turn in items listed by one of the GC NPCs. The value you get from these turn ins is quite large and can even be increased: with each new day a random number of the listed turn ins will be marked with a star, doubling their exp reward. Beyond that if you turn in HQ materials you will double the experience reward again (this can be done whether the item is marked with a star or not).
As mentioned above your GC will sell fairly cheap consumables that will buff your experience gains for a set amount of time.
The mechanics of Gathering are very simple: you have abilities that influence your gather rate and abilities that influence your HQ rate and a set amount of GP to budget in using them.
V'aleera's Wiki - https://wiki.ffxiv-roleplayers.com/pages...eera_Lhuil
V'aleera's Tumblr - valeeralhuil.tumblr.com
V'aleera's Tumblr - valeeralhuil.tumblr.com
