Harvesting Rares
 

Is it true that you have a better chance of harvesting rares if all of your skills are maxed?

For example, I just commented in guild chat a little bit ago about how much of a crock it was that I wasn't finding very many severed oaks (like maybe 3 out of the 200+ pieces of briarwood I've picked up), but was finding more rares off of the other types of nodes. Then a guildie piped in and said that I had to max out all of my skills to increase my chances of finding rares.

So does that mean a low fishing skill could affect my chances of mining or foresting rares?? Seems kinda fishy (no pun intended :p) to me, but you never can know when it comes to SOE.

Thanks

No, maxed skills in other areas don't help. The former tradeskill dev (Domino) stated that directly. As for 3 rares for 200 pieces that is a pretty good rate for that tier.

If you are averaging out to 2.5 raws per pull that is 80 pulls. That means you are getting a rare every 26.66 pulls. There are 3 pulls per node if you have no bountiful harvest bonus. That means you are getting a rare every ninth node on average.

Silat

The harvesting skill bonus (ie Gathering, Foresting, etc.) is relatively minimal and is based on the appropriate skill -- if you have 600 Gathering and 450 Foresting, when harvesting lumber it looks at the 450 not the 600. Also keep in mind that at best that skill bonus just lets you roll on the "bonus" table, which has marginally higher chances of getting a rare or a 3/5 pull instead of a 1.

On a side note, double harvest chance is by far the more important stat for harvesting. If you have 50% double harvest chance, your rares per hour (or wahtevers per hour) basically increases by 50% because you're getting more free pulls. The effect of the regular harvesting skill is much smaller, as the difference between the normal and "bonus" harvesting tables.

Of course since those stats tend to come together anyway it's not too much of an issue. But if it's a choice between harvesting skill and double harvest chance, go for the double.