I have looked and not found anything on this subject, If you know of a conversation please direct me to it. If not then here goes. Currently max harvesting skill is 460 unmodified. With this skill you can harvest any node in the game (to my knowlage). So what then is the benifit of using Cloak of the Harvester (for example). It adds +25 to all harvesting skills so effectivly increasing your skill to 485. If you can already harvest with 460 skill does increasing the skill to 485 increase the speed at which you harvest or the drop rate of rares, or does it do absolutly nothing?
In a post ages ago, Domino indicated that there are two harvesting 'tables'. The second table having a better chance at rares and large pulls. The better your harvesting skill, the more likely you are to end up on the 'better' table. The overcap skill isn't so you 'can' harvest, but to increase your chance at rares. You've probably noticed that you get more rares when you harvest zones below your harvest skill then you did when you were 'at' that level. This is an aspect of this overcap bonus.
It does increase your chance for rares. But the effect in the current tier is minimal at best, because even with every +harvesting skill imaginable, you can't make it very far into the bonus table for the current tier. If you have it, wear it, it does help. Is it worth you time to go get it just for +harvesting skill, probably not. And the bonus'provided from the bonus table at the current tier are completely dwarfed by harvesting AA and harvesting potion bonuses.
What isn't clear about the overcap harvesting skill bonus is if it is a curve and every point moves you a little further along, or if its a stairstep, and you need atleast 50pts over to get the first bonus. I suspect its a hard step, and wearing anything over cap appies no bonus unless you have a total of +X (50?) points over the cap for the node. I doubt there is anyone left on the EQ2 team that could even answer that question though, so good luck.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...=374729#4255316 For each node in each zone, when you harvest it, there are different result tables set up that tell the game what to give you when you harvest. Your skill level determines which table you use.For example, using entirely invented numbers, let's imagine that there is a root node in a level 30-40 zone and you go and harvest it with a gathering skill of 190.The game sees that the root node points to two result tables. Let's call them: T4_roots_base_result - required skill 140 T4_roots_bonus_result - required skill 189 The "base" table might tell you that you have a 70% chance of getting 1 root, a 20% chance of getting 3 roots, an 8% chance of getting 5 roots, a 1% chance of getting an imbue, a 0.7% chance of getting a rare root, and a 0.3% chance of getting a rare root + 10 common ones. The "bonus" table might tell you that you have a 60% chance of getting 1 root, a 25% chance of getting 3 roots, an 10% chance of getting 5 roots, a 0.5% chance of getting an imbue, a 0.8% chance of getting a rare root, and a 0.7% chance of getting a rare root + 10 common ones. (Yes, the numbers probably don't add up to 100%, I just invented them on the spot.) Now we know that if your skill is under 140, you can't harvest the node at all. And we know your skill is 190. So the RNG rolls a number between 140 and 190. If it gets 140-188, you use the "base" result table. If it gets 189+, you use the "bonus" result table. Clearly, as your gathering skill increases, your chance of using the "bonus" result table gets better. (This is where +harvesting skill items affect your results, they increase your chance of using the bonus table.)As of GU37, you get to start using the "bonus" table at level _8 (so, 8, 18, 28, 38, etc.) You're still not guaranteed to use it, but you have a CHANCE to use it. Previous to GU37, the level at which you could start getting the bonus was much higher, so that you didn't even have a chance to get the bonus table until you had entirely outlevelled the tier. In T6 and T7 prior to GU37 we still couldn't even start using the bonus level at level 70 with 350 skill, so we've been harvesting off the "base" table all this time. Now we will begin to have a chance to use the "bonus" level, so yes, we'll get slightly better harvesting results in T6 and T7 than we were before, but it's actually about the same results as we would eventually have got as the level cap raised and we continued to level up.My empahsis.
Ulrichvon wrote: It's both. It's a hard step to get started. If base harvesting for a tier is 300**. And the bonus table starts at 375**. Then it does nothing for you until you hit 375. Once you've crossed 375**, each point moves you a little further along. **< Completely Fake Numbers. Domino went out of her way to Not give us any actually useful numbers. In the past we have been told that the beginning of the bonus table is far enough away from the current tier's base requirement, as to be difficult to reach. But we don't know what that means. Nor do we know if the current TS dev has continued the same pattern Domino was following. Heck T10 may or may not even have a bonus table, or it may be unreachable, or it may be trivial to reach, no way of knowing.....
