Shell vs Point vs Blade

[frostbit]

I can see that I currently can choose to Track or Forage for specific materials: Blade or Point, for example. I also notice that soon I can also restrict my efforts to Shell.

Arent these skills redundant? My harvesting experience is admittedly limited, but so far every Blade or Point material has been a Shell and only Shells can be a Blades or Points.

Is this a throwback to the days of beta when the above was not true? I seem to remember Visc Sap used to be a Grip material, now it is an Armor Clip.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

[oloriun]

I can see that I currently can choose to Track or Forage for specific materials: Blade or Point, for example. I also notice that soon I can also restrict my efforts to Shell.

Arent these skills redundant? My harvesting experience is admittedly limited, but so far every Blade or Point material has been a Shell and only Shells can be a Blades or Points.

Is this a throwback to the days of beta when the above was not true? I seem to remember Visc Sap used to be a Grip material, now it is an Armor Clip.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

If you really want to get tracking for item parts then it doesnt matter as they will find shell. Also those skills for tracking shell arent actually in the game. They are planning on adding them - why, I have no idea as it seems pointless being that blade or point in a tracking brick will find the same thing ..

[syneris]

I think it's possible that at some point there will be mats that are only blade or only point and not both. Could be something to look for in the future

[frostbit]

Uh, after some more careful exploration (reading) of the skills I have determined I am a dumbass.

Its Minor Blade Prospecting and Shell Extraction.. The first restricts your prospecting to the given material while the second gives a bonus to extraction efforts. But it still seems that Point vs Blade is a little extraneous.

[lyrah68]

At level 50, you get the skill "with knoweldge", in MY opinion the SINGLE most important skill since basic prospecting. You SEE the icon of what it is.

Remember those pesky nodes with four or five different KINDS of materials all jumbled up together. THIS skill makes it so you know THAT node is shell, THAT node is fiber and OH there is my amber.

I seriously think that that skill is worth its weight in Dappers, Heck it is worth a Mectoubs weight in Dappers.

Now all I need is "for two nodes" and I will be able to pick between the two for the materials I want.

From what I hear, post 45 or 50, you WANT to spend as much focus as possible, due to MORE xp or something. Not my theory, I think that was Doubletaps guide or something like it.

[borg9]

From what I hear, post 45 or 50, you WANT to spend as much focus as possible, due to MORE xp or something. Not my theory, I think that was Doubletaps guide or something like it.

This was very true in the Betas/FBT ... however it was either a bug or exploited, and then removed.

DT will correct me if I am wrong (he knows all when it comes to harvesting) only the following effect you XP

The power of you prospect (you could argue that this mean amount of focus, but it amounts to 25% of you extraction XP)

The ql of the item extracted, the higher the ql of the item pulled the higher the XP.

A small bonus for each additional item pulled in the same extraction.

Key driver to this is the ql, grade has no effect (ql10 basic = ql10 supreme in XP terms)

Remember as with all skills the max XP for an extraction is 3k.