Guild Wars 2

Is it my imagination or is the use of a Consortium Harvesting Sickle (the infinite use one, for those unfamiliar), faster than regular sickles?

A few times today I bent down to harvest a node and a second or so after I began another guy waltzed up, waved his sickle and was off and running before I even stood up out of the animation. I saw the goofy water and vines animation as I rose, so I’m pretty sure his harvesting wasn’t aborted each time.

It sure looks like it’s measurably faster. And if so, it begs the question: does this extra speed qualify, technically, as an in-game advantage (something most want kept out of gem store items) vis a vis quicker, less risky, harvesting in areas where mobs effectively guard nodes? To me, it appears the user barely has to stop to accomplish the harvesting…much like teleporting bots appear to do…before moving on which makes them far less susceptible to being attacked during the process.

I recall the entirely valid complaints about the original animation being slower, so I wonder if this extra speed was a quick way to pacify those affected. Or is this indeed just an optical illusion?

Yes it is much faster! I can’t wait to purchase the other 2 harvesting items

It IS faster, by about 1/4 of a second. (I and a guildy tested this on a plant node, with me using the sickle and him using the normal version.) There is also less of an aftercast effect than using normal sickles, which means the guy with the Cons. Sickle can run off almost immediately afterwards.

Thanks for the confirmation. Wish I’d known/noticed this before it fell off the gem-store shelves, as I generally focus my gathering around plant nodes. Oh well, it shouldn’t be long before the 3-Pack shows up in the store again. Once the unlimited axe has had its time in the store, there’s no way the group will be left to languish indefinitely when they have $$$ written all over them.

The time before the harvest is slightly faster. The big difference is that the regular sickle has this long execute animation after the harvest; you can move cancel out of it, but if you don’t you’ll feel like you’re spending much, much longer on each harvest.

The difference between the two, as mentioned, is around a quarter second. It is certainly noticeable, albeit not something that I personally consider a big deal.

I noticed the speed difference with the sickle—very nice! I just hope they make all unlimited use items available permanently in the store. I didn’t buy them for all my alts and I would like to be able to over time. It will benefit players, mostly through convenience, and it will benefit Anet monetarily. It sounds win-win to me.

It is not an in-game advantage as it offers no increase in combat ability. Your numbers will not be any higher than someone who didt buy the sickle.

I think for sure it is inevitable that unlimited use harvesting tools will return but not that we would get the same ones back (I can’t see the molten pick axe making a return) which would suggest new animation effects and possibly different speeds.