So I took advice from some guides regarding picking up items for gathering professions early on, and have myself a copper scythe, copper mining pick and copper axe.
In some areas though, whenever I gather I end up with 'ruined ore' or 'ruined wood', which when hovered over for the tooltip in the inventory screen suggests I should get better tools to prevent wasting gathers.
How many different levels of cools are there, and where can I get each level of tool from?
Is it worth getting these early on or are they generally a waste in the lower level areas?