How "hard" or "annoying" is research?

[Vaarsuvius]

Research is a time / money sink as any other trade skill

In my experience as a mage on blue, most of the time the words/ components you need will most probably drop off mobs 5-10 levels above your level.... So unless you have a main/ alt or someone to collect those for you, you'll have to rely on buying them from other players in EC or check every vendor around caster guild/ bank

Then again, you can just buy those skill points, but they're like 50-60pp per when you reach 180+ Research