I have read a couple post now about how people are making alts, just to get into the "mail lottery" involved with hirelings.

I would to offer an alternative.

As of now every character can gather any resource from any node at any level in the game, should they so desire. Lets keep it that way, but add a passive bonus to specific crafting skills for gathering.
Example:

Advanced Mining (1/2/3) When mining you have a chance to mine tempering ingredients for blacksmithing.

Honing Stones - 5%/10%/15% (Orichalcum node and up)
Dwarven oil - 3%/6%/9% (Dwarven node and up)
Grain Solvent - 1%/2%/3% (Ebony node and up)
Tempering Alloy - 0%/0%/1% (Calcinium node and up)

You can still play the "mail lottery" with 8 characters is you want, or you can go out and actually gather the resources and have a chance at getting the items you need. Without needing to be in some large group doing end game pve content.

The node requirements are to add a little friendly competition to it, and to stop over farming of low level zones, so lower level players can gather there. Maybe even add a secondary requirement to unlocking the perk(s), that you must have mind a certain number of nodes as well as have a certain blacksmithing skill. The game already tracks the number of gathering nodes we hit anyway.