Test server, able to stand at wood, bushes, and root nodes and just get skillup on same node without ever pulling an item from 10/600 to 232/600. Other zones nodes give items, rocks don't appear to be bugged in Barren sky. From 10 to 232 in about 5 minutes seems a bit faster than was intended... nice tho Oh and the character is a Wood Elf if that makes any difference, they get a bonus to gathering and foresting.
When you are below the skill range for the zone, you have an increased chance of harvesting nothing, but also a better chance at getting a skillup. I know it feels odd, but it is as-intended.
Heh, back when I was a player, I had quite the "fun" time when I realized one of my crafting army didn't have much fishing skill when working on the KA crafting timeline, and she was fishing up a ton of nothing in the Crypt of Dalnir for quite a while and dodging deadly goos at the same time. It was an interesting way to skill up, but not the preferred way to do so safely!
I had just never run into a node that would let me pull on it over a hundred times with multiple bountiful harvest yet no items.. first time for everything
The Barren Sky nodes are in fact broken, though perhaps (?) not exactly as described here. I have repeatedly run into the situation where low-adventure-level toons doing gathering obsession cannot harvest from them, while having absolutely no issue harvesting in the Bonemire & TT. Very annoying, since Barren Sky has several safe-ish harvesting areas that would otherwise be very handy. I have reported this (possibly more than once), but nothing had changed by the time I took my next toon through. I have no way to test it now, short of starting a new tradeskiller (not happening lol), since the problem is transient, and goes away one your level is "high enough". I have no idea what "high enough" actually is in this context. For anyone who wants to contend that its "just a matter of harvesting skillz", let me repeat: the toons this happened to could harvest in the Bonemire and TT without any issues.
In this case high enough is 228-232, since test has the level 120 baubles for adventure and tradeskill its easy to test it as the bauble maxes everything except harvesting which is odd in and of itself, I do find it a small blessing in that respect. Boss lady says its not a bug, I can live with that.
Barren Sky nodes have been broken since DT (iirc) and Tarinax (100% broken). How long does it take to fix this bug lmao
