Botany - A Theory On The Finer Mechanics Of DoL

Let me first off start by saying I have no numbers or spreadsheet, graphs or charts to back up any of these findings. This is simply my observations as a 50 Botanist in my attempts at gathering.

Firstly, we all know trees move on a timed rotation (~1hr). Once the timer is up, the first person to complete their gather will force the node to move.

What I would like to add in my second point is how the gathering of items works over time. While SE introduced messages to help us find specific points through notching, this fine tuning has lead me to believe there is more to it than swinging a hatchet.

Each item is unique in DoL, yew log and yew log +1 are seperate items as far as the game is concerned. Each item has a 24 hour "cool down" timer from what I have found.

The more of an item you get in a period of time the less of the item you will get.

On day 1 I had not gathered in several days, I was getting plenty of logs, both yew and walnut. By the end of the 1-1.5 hours of gathering, before "gather fatigue" was reached I could hardly pull down any more logs, even while notching at the correct spots.

The next day, rather about 18 hours later, I returned to continue gathering. As I gathered, my log count was still gimped compared to the previous day. However, when I did pull down logs they were almost all HQs, +1 and a lot more +2s. The day prior was almost entirely NQ logs.

This leads me to believe there is a 24? hour soft cap on items gathered while doing DoL, along with the gather fatigue impose as well.

Notes: I am 50 BTN gathering in Cedarwood. Pulled roughly ~120-130 logs in ~1 hour (walnut and yew) I alternated between 2 trees and a mining node.

If anyone else has similar findings about DoL, please share :)

I don't think many people pay attention as much as you do to the details of their DoL jobs, personally I didn't even know about the 1hr rotation (thought it became nearly exhausted after a certain number of uses) but good job analyzing and sharing information. I'm sure you'll help some people out.

First off, awesome job! Thank you for helping to progress the community ^^.

In regards to your observation, I have never noticed this. For example, when ranking up near Skull Valley, I was able to accumlate about 50 stacks of cedar logs (NQ) over a 36hr time period. I am curious if this is only applicable to certain items.

thanks, your thread has given an explanation on why i was getting barely any oak logs a couple nights a go. ive been grinding much more than i usualy do, pushing far as i can throught gathering fatigue and this is the first time that happens to me.

i noticed because was the kind of oak i was looking for, and i know pretty well now where i can find, even though i was getting lots and lots of iron nuts.

probably would have take me a long while to figure out what the heck happend that time.

Besides what you said with yields im sure im not the only one who has noticed this is that every tree is a type, and trees of the same type have the same yields, assuming there in the same general location. so you can actually log down the positions of certain trees with certain yields so you can roughly get only what you want. i tried to start a log on that but it just seemed way too much of a hassle
It also seems to me your rank vs the "optimal rank" or such of the item itself also has an effect on the rate of the item being HQ when you pull it up. like when i log in say a grade 2 area on one char with 25 botany or so it will have a much higher rate then a rank 10, but im sure you might have had similar findings as well

When I was a lower level and SPing I would get mahogany logs from time to time, but never any HQs. As I finished BTN in Iron Lake there were mahogany trees and towards the end of BTN I was pulling down HQs, sometimes several at a time.

So yes, your rank not only plays a part in how many attempts you get but also the quality of the yield as well.

First point I agree with entirely. When entering a new area for DoL, if nobody has been hitting nodes, your first task is always to reset the nodes that you will be harvesting so they are fresh.

In a busy areas, I'm curious if the life span of a node is a function of how many harvests its taken, it is without a doubt more then one or two people hitting the node can overcome.

Your second point however, I don't believe is the case, and more so a result of the moon phases, and the fact that the moon is on a >24 hour rotation, if you are harvesting during the same RL time, on back to back days, you are actually seeing opposite moon phases. This will drastically effect your results.

This is my PoV, as a 47 BTN, 46 MIN, 32 FSH, who has also walked away from a single harvesting session with 140 yew logs.

Moon phase has significant effects on DoL, as it does with many things in FFXIV.

140 being 1 tree and 2 mining nodes? If that's the case I can believe it as you would be gaining gather cap on BTN a lot slower.

Yesterday between walnut and yew I got about 160 total logs in one sitting doing 2 trees and a mining node.

Yah, Coerthas grade 5.

1 yew tree, 1 mining node, and 3rd node would varry depending on where the first two nodes fell. Sometimes a scythe node, or quarry, or other close spawned mining node. (never a second tree however)

I only mentioned it as it seemed to be part of your statement of credibility in your OP.