[Gathering Skills to Max?]

You can only craft 5 items at most, and they all take ca2 min, so thats 10min withouth your companion. When you get a second companion things get alot easier, third even better and so on.

 

I used mine as soon as I hit town or gathering quests, it went smoothly and I used items I crafted, I did find a good schematic for chestarmor so I was glad I could craft it right away.

[Archeolgy nodes still completely broken]

Has it ever crossed your mind that it's recently gathered and thats why you cant harvest? This is my experience from beta because sometime I could, sometimes not (same spot/crystal)