Which Glyph, Leather or Gathering?

Trying to decide which brings the best economic return? Any data on this?

leather seems a bit lackluster to me, of course it's an extra, so you have nothing to lose.But I personally found the double gathering speed a lot more useful.mining two nodes of iron in the time of one, seems like more gold than finding a piece of leather on one node.

I tried out the leather one. It’s pretty good but it’s worth depends on you harvesting in maps that give the best value. Speedy harvesting is always useful though.

Leather then do your gathering with a mesmer ;)

If you have PoF the just drink some coffee

I put the industry glyph on my lumberer and now elder wood farming is great!

The real question is how you are going to use the tool.

The speed gathering boost is only really useful if you're going to swap between multiple characters and gather from the same nodes. Flax Farm, Rich Iron/Platinum, Elder Wood Farm, etc. are great with the speed boost because it really cuts down on the time spent. The less time spent, the more you can gather, the more money you make.

But... if you're just going to wander around the overworld while doing other things, then the speed boost doesn't matter much. Gathering from a single node faster amounts to very little if you aren't doing it on an assembly line. You'll want to go with the additional resource glyphs here.

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:The real question is how you are going to use the tool.

The speed gathering boost is only really useful if you're going to swap between multiple characters and gather from the same nodes. Flax Farm, Rich Iron/Platinum, Elder Wood Farm, etc. are great with the speed boost because it really cuts down on the time spent. The less time spent, the more you can gather, the more money you make.

But... if you're just going to wander around the overworld while doing other things, then the speed boost doesn't matter much. Gathering from a single node faster amounts to very little if you aren't doing it on an assembly line. You'll want to go with the additional resource glyphs here.

This is exactly why I picked the leather one. Even when I'm farming materials I don't do it at a rate where cutting a second or two off each harvest matters and I do it as little as I can reasonably get away with. I'm far more likely to be gathering because I happen to be passing a node and I'm not in a hurry to get to my destination. And even if the speed boost matters seeing an extra item in the list on the right feels more rewarding to me than being vaguely aware I'm doing it a bit faster.

But if you're the type of person who has dedicated node farming characters and a set rotation to get through them as efficiently as possible that speed boost could be extremely valuable.

Each tool has a separate Glyph, right now I have Unbound Magic, Leather and Cloth. So it all depends on what I am gathering/harvesting/mining as to what extra I will get.

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:The speed gathering boost is only really useful if you're going to swap between multiple characters and gather from the same nodes. Flax Farm, Rich Iron/Platinum, Elder Wood Farm, etc. are great with the speed boost because it really cuts down on the time spent. The less time spent, the more you can gather, the more money you make.

I use the Consortium sickle so that I get the effect of Industry (the Consortium sickle is faster than other sickles) AND one of the other glyphs. Then Industry on the pick and the other other glyph (I don't count Flight as worthwhile...) on the axe.

Like this:

• Consortium Sickle, Leather. (Equivalent to Industry+Leather)
• Some pick or other, Industry. (For clearing rich veins quickly)
• Some axe or other, Cloth.

Exchange Cloth and Leather as you see fit.

EDIT: one other character just spent 130K karma on volatile sickles, and has UM on a permanent tool for pick and axe.

As far as money? Glyph of Bounty for everything. Even in my home instance, I get a return of half a gold from my garden nodes every day. Every day. Doing nothing but dailies and my home instance, I get a return of three gold and some silver before I log. If you want to be especially greedy, use bounty on your harvesting tool, leather for lumber, and Watchwork for mining, but only use this combo in your home instance. Outside it? Use bounty on everything except rich metal nodes. You can't get extra strikes on those. ?

If and when I farm maps, getting three or four extra hits on a node adds up quickly. Think about that. If you get an average of two extra hits on each flax farmed, that also adds up.

The side benefit is that you'll also get extra consumables and currency if you farm special nodes like bloodstone. Again, it adds up fast.

When I tested Glyph of Bounty's extra strike rate, I earned 25 gold just farming the newest map in or around three hours. And that was from randomly running around the map. And here's a big hint: extra strikes mean an extra chance to get those special drops like coral orbs. They sell for 25 silver a pop. When I was done in the newest map, I had twelve of them. That doesn't include orbs from metal nodes that sell for similar prices.

Your call, but it's now become impossible for me to use any other glyph.

Hope this helped.

Edit: Just did the two flax farms. Got 55 flax seeds. They sold for 1 gold, 38 silver, and 5 copper. And this took five minutes . . . including killing mobs and farming other nodes nearby.

Choose well. ;)

I would never get the bounty one since it simply acts a speed bump for me. Instead of "chop, chop, chop, run to next node" I have to check if an extra swing is required and then checking if the node is exhausted so I would need to interrupt the gather.

Bounty is only useful for plant nodes.

@"Khisanth.2948" said:I would never get the bounty one since it simply acts a speed bump for me. Instead of "chop, chop, chop, run to next node" I have to check if an extra swing is required and then checking if the node is exhausted so I would need to interrupt the gather.

Bounty is only useful for plant nodes.

Keep in mind, the question is about a return in profit. Not speed. That said, the 'Unbound' gathering tools allow players to gather everything in one go if speed is a concern. For example, even if a node gives six strikes total from one metal node, you'll get all six with one touch of 'F' and gather everything in one animation. :)

Edit: I must admit, the ones for logging and mining seem a bit buggy at the moment. Even so, I'm okay spending three more seconds on any node if it gives me three or four more hits. Simply choose a fast animation tool.