I.... don't think I've ever had a clothier survey in Shadowfen. Blacksmith, woodworking, alchemy, enchanting. That's about it for me in all these years.

robertlabrie wrote: »

I don't know what the actual range is because at this point I just go back to the way shrine, port out and port back to reset it. Seriously, this is one of the worst.

Go slightly north, then right, up the ramp into the camp above the node. Stay on the upper plateau but to the back edge (there's another tent back there). This is the shortest reset.

You can jump over the roots and do it without pulling any of the enemies in the camp (but I usually kill the two right at the top of the ledge so I can jump straight back down to the node)

I have no idea what the reset range might be for any given map. I just hop on my mount and ride off a good distance, turn around and when I approach if it reset, harvest again. Else I repeat but go a little bit further away. Haven't had too many issues with this approach. If all else fails, run to the wayshrine, run around it and head back. Never had a map, that I can think of, not reset by doing that.

JavaRen wrote: »

If I don't want to mess with riding I preview a house I don't own, when you exit and return to where you started the survey (or map) will be reset.

That used to be my standard method as well. But with loading screen times having become long for me for some reason, it's quicker to ride some distance away and then return. Figuring out hiw far away I need to ride is the challenging part.

I've listed out the "shortest" reset (or at least what I use as landmarks when collecting them myself), it's on one of the tabs in my writ rewards/refining spreadsheet in my signature.

No guarantees it's actually the shortest, just the best I've found in collecting around 30,000 surveys over the past 8 years.

I've found the "port to a house" strategy is never quicker, and I have some nodes where somebody else is collecting and I see them doing that, and I'll collect 3 or 4 surveys in the time it takes them to do that. There are a few where it's viable however, and I'll use it, especially since that strategy does enable me to do something on my other screen while I'm in the loading screen.

tmbrinks wrote: »

I've listed out the "shortest" reset (or at least what I use as landmarks when collecting them myself), it's on one of the tabs in my writ rewards/refining spreadsheet in my signature.

No guarantees it's actually the shortest, just the best I've found in collecting around 30,000 surveys over the past 8 years.

I've found the "port to a house" strategy is never quicker, and I have some nodes where somebody else is collecting and I see them doing that, and I'll collect 3 or 4 surveys in the time it takes them to do that. There are a few where it's viable however, and I'll use it, especially since that strategy does enable me to do something on my other screen while I'm in the loading screen.

Thank you for that! I'll definitely be checking that out, as I've got hundreds of surveys hoarded away, spread out by zone among all of my alts

I should also mention...

Plentiful harvest has been bugged for years on Live. Only giving 40% instead of 50%

They made some changes to "stage 1" of plentiful harvest not giving 10%

I tested with 50% and actually appeared to get the 50% drop rate (297/600 doubled, 49.5%), which was enough to definitively say it's not 40% on PTS...

so might be worthwhile to just save surveys until U40 drops for the extra materials... I know I am.

edit: to add link to PTS thread
PTS Plentiful Harvest Test - U40