I'm pretty certain the chances of obtaining the shards will be based on the XP drops, and it won't be based on whether that XP gets added to your current XP. There should be nothing to worry about if you're already 200m XP. After all, if you have 200m Fishing XP, you can still catch fish, right?
I'm quite happy with the way it's being implemented. It gives everyone a wide range of chances to obtain shards, whilst also relying on players playing the game (i.e. players with hundreds of accounts can't abuse the mechanics). The odds of finding shards may be an annoying factor however. If they're as rare as skill pets, then we could see many unhappy players. On the other hand, if they're as common as geodes from Mining, for example, then maybe that will be too common. Perhaps a healthy rarity will be on par with Tetracompass Piece drop rates.
~A~
12-Nov-2021 20:58:58