Abstract: According to calculations made based off of WoW-Profession. It appears the most expensive crafting prof to level is Enchanting. This does not take into account any profit made by the fruits of said labor, however.


Article:
With the new changes to Disenchanting in instances I've noticed some use the argument of leveling cost for enchanting.

In one thread I did a quick series of calculations on how much it would cost me now and how much it did cost me to level my enchanting in Northrend. However, I added a disclaimer that I did not know the cost of leveling the rest of the professions. That got me thinking. Just what is the true cost of leveling a profession in WoW?

So I decided to find out.

This experiment of mathematics operates under the following assumptions:

• You were max rank in TBC. Low level items vary too much server to server, and people start the leveling at different times. Someone who leveled X in Vanilla and kept it to today will have a different pre-wrath cost.


• That you level from 375 to the listed level around mid-3.2. Costs varied from time to time. Cobalt Bars once went at 150g/stack at launch on my server, for example.



• You lack a gathering profession so you buy these from the AH. This is done as even if you have a gathering profession this is profit lost in leveling your crafting profession. Just instead of losing gold you have you are depriving yourself of potential gold.



• You get no profit in leveling these profs. This is to find the cost of leveling these profs. The recouped gold depends on your skill at using the AH and how many corners you cut.



• Sub-assumption of above, you do not utilize your crafting profs if you have more than one for maximum synergy. No disenchanting your greens tailors for Imbued Frostweave. No Boubouille's guide for you JC/Enchanters.

However, Leatherworkers get to use that 1608 Heavy Leather they craft going from 390 to 405 in later recopies.


These assumptions, mainly the last two, are because people tend to exaggerate. Amazing, I know right? So this will hopefully will be equally worst case scenario for all of the crafting professions.

There is no cost gathering profs other than time. So they aren't included in this analysis.


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My procedure was this.
1) I used WoW-Profession to give a standard power leveling path. WP usually does pretty well in streamlining their power leveling guides. It's somewhat well known so this is a guide many would use to power level their profs.

I used a spreadsheet to calculate the costs of each prof based on item costs.
2) I decided to use Wowhead for it's “average buyout” feature. This should be an average of many, if not all, server prices. Each server is different. Feel free to compare with your server.

3) I worked out all the calculations and did the cell linking first. Then I filled in the item list hidden away from all the figures so I couldn't tell how the competition was going. Here below is my results.

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Results:

Enchanting (450) – 5095g

Tailoring (440) – 2078g – Note, this is where the WP guide says “hehehe... good luck sucker”. By my estimates, making the BoE epic gloves cost 423g/glove by WoWhead figures making the last 10 points cost 4230g alone if you go that route.

If you make bags you run into the RNG gods. It could range from 240g to infinite gold depending on just how unlucky you are.

Blacksmithing (445): 1880g – Note, at 445 the recommend recipie turns green. It is either sell epic items for tip/fee or rely on the RNG. Either way advancing beyond 445 becomes unjustifiable speculation as it could cost 0g or, in theory, infinite gold.

Leatherworking (440) – 1505g – Note, put here as the last ten points almost certainly would cost more than 22g.

Engineering (450): 1527g – Note: seemingly starts at 350, but these mats are used later on and would have been the raw mat materials in another prof. This balances out as extra levelups would be wasted.

Jewelcrafting (450) – 1194g

Alchemy (435) – 783g (to 435) – 1158g (assuming 25g/flask cost to make to 450) – Note, guide stops at 435 stating to make the flasks you and your guildies use. Thus the 450 figure is speculation.

Inscription (450) - 376g



Now, I was expecting Engineering or Black Smithing to win this in cost. I have max level BS, Eng, JC, Ench, Skinning, Mining. I don't care about the new DE function one way or another. So this was an idle curiosity on my part.

Before I am attacked and the anti-”DE Roll” forumers go off running about remember these things:

1)This does not include profits from the made goods.

2)All of these, except for engineering, (including Enchanters with Vellums) can now minimize this costly blow through selling off products. Not likely at cost, but enough so.

3)If leveled intelligently these should be the worst case numbers. A guild enchanter will have a much lower cost of leveling if the guild members offer him the excess leveling crafted items.

4)The Wowhead data doesn't account for infinite dust prices diving after the hotfixed. According to figures I am seeing on my server the cost of leveling Ench would drop down to 3659g. This also drops Tailoring down to 1502g

So in the coming months Tailoring will go from second most expensive to the cheaper half of the list. Maybe even third cheapest if the DE Roll decimates the market like the doomsayers claim. Ench and BS would likely become near tied.

So old guard Enchanters will be bitter, but any future ones should be jumping for joy about this hotfix and coming patch.

That's pretty interesting thanks for running that.

I would've thought smithing would be near the top too. It was really expensive in BC.

Enchanting up there doesn't surprise me. All the more reason to make mats more widely available, to bring the cost of skilling it up in line with the others.

One thing ill throw out there for people to chew, since for some reason there seems to be this urban myth that enchanting levels itself if you DE quest greens: If you were to DE every singe green quality quest reward from Icecrown, stormpeaks, and sholazar basin, and by some insane streak of luck they all gave you 5 dusts per DE you would still be more than 100 dust short of going from 375-450. Mind you that you will stil need to come up with 200+ greater cosmic essence.

I was wondering how you would handle the 445+ tailoring hurdle in your costing. It is sort of cheating to not include it but I do understand why, Note I suspect my tailor may well sit at 445 till cata in the hope fof new 440+ plans.

The base issue of course is the synergies that can occur, After making 20 pairs of pants for BS in the first month of wotlk. Hmm those cost me 120g for 20 pts, Current AH value of DE mats 300g. What! my maths must be wrong. Check maths, do a couple of sample stacks to see if the market is soft. Yea I ended up making a lot !of pants, as such the net cost of BS 375-445 was zero.

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Q u o t e:
I was wondering how you would handle the 445+ tailoring hurdle in your costing. It is sort of cheating to not include it but I do understand why, Note I suspect my tailor may well sit at 445 till cata in the hope fof new 440+ plans.

The base issue of course is the synergies that can occur, After making 20 pairs of pants for BS in the first month of wotlk. Hmm those cost me 120g for 20 pts, Current AH value of DE mats 300g. What! my maths must be wrong. Check maths, do a couple of sample stacks to see if the market is soft. Yea I ended up making a lot !of pants, as such the net cost of BS 375-445 was zero.

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till the DE value on items drops... which is likely to occur when the change to DE in groups hits. might only be a 20% change but that brings it down to 270g value. Meaning you have to sell at 200g to be competitive vs the 250g that sold them quick. Not much of a loss... just 50g profit per pants (unless others cut down to a flat 180g on them)

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Q u o t e:


till the DE value on items drops... which is likely to occur when the change to DE in groups hits. might only be a 20% change but that brings it down to 270g value. Meaning you have to sell at 200g to be competitive vs the 250g that sold them quick. Not much of a loss... just 50g profit per pants (unless others cut down to a flat 180g on them)

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Blizzard self nerfed that particular Cobalt->dust method but even then by a couple of month in it was down to only 50% markup.

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Q u o t e:


Blizzard self nerfed that particular Cobalt->dust method but even then by a couple of month in it was down to only 50% markup.

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There are still items that are profitable, through out BS that sell well at various points to those leveling up enchanting. Margins on most can be tight with the fact many out level the areas for the mats quicker now, but they are there.

On my Server, post hotfix, you can actually get dust at 1.60g each by disenchanting the 2 cryst earth/green gem strat.

Well, you could. Seems my server is responding to the dust buff not by dropping dust costs, but increasing the cost of the mats for these JC items.

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Q u o t e:
On my Server, post hotfix, you can actually get dust at 1.60g each by disenchanting the 2 cryst earth/green gem strat.

Well, you could. Seems my server is responding to the dust buff not by dropping dust costs, but increasing the cost of the mats for these JC items.

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Luckily for me (unlucky for people leveling I guess) dust has basically not even moved an inch on my server.

Those numbers aren't really surprising. Blacksmithing is indeed quite profitable to level from 375 to 440. Getting to 375 in the first place is another matter of course, likewise with JC.

But this is only half the calculation right? You also have to add up the value of the finished products and subtract that off the total cost. Which I imagine would make Enchanting turn out profitable or close to it also, and probably have LW end up as the most expensive.

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Q u o t e:
Those numbers aren't really surprising. Blacksmithing is indeed quite profitable to level from 375 to 440. Getting to 375 in the first place is another matter of course, likewise with JC.

But this is only half the calculation right? You also have to add up the value of the finished products and subtract that off the total cost. Which I imagine would make Enchanting turn out profitable or close to it also, and probably have LW end up as the most expensive.

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Most of the enchanting recipies don't sell. So hardly profitable.

The only way leveling enchanting is profitable is doing 2-450 for tips with mats... good luck with anything under 250 being wanted.

This assumes that the goal is leveling the profession quickly, doesn't it?

In the course of doing dailies (collecting and disenchanting greens along the way), I leveled my enchanting to 450 without having to buy any mats, though it did take a while longer.

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Q u o t e:


Luckily for me (unlucky for people leveling I guess) dust has basically not even moved an inch on my server.

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They will eventually. Dust prices on my server dropped 25% almost overnight, and Abyss Crystal prices actually went up about 20%.

Enchanting is very costly to level from 1-450 (assuming you just mats from the AH).

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Q u o t e:
Most of the enchanting recipies don't sell. So hardly profitable.

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The ones I made all did. I think it helps to work out what to make to skill up by yourself instead of following some guide. They trick to being profitable in WoW is always to not be doing what everybody else is doing. Following a guide means you're buying higher demand mats to make lower demand end products, which is bad business however you look at it.

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Q u o t e:
The only way leveling enchanting is profitable is doing 2-450 for tips with mats... good luck with anything under 250 being wanted.

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Every enchant under 250 is so cheap you can do one daily quest and then enchant your bracers over and over and just write it off. Enchanting is not particularly expensive to level and I have done it 5 times.
Following guides can make it expensive to level, no matter what skill you're levelling, however.

Stopping early and assuming you don't sell items makes all of this a poor comparison.

The ability to sell your goods after the fact changes the cost of leveling a prof. Alchemy is basically free past 375. BSing is only "free" while you are making belt buckles.

I would think enchanting would be higher because the quest loot actually sells decently in BC and up. Most enchanters have to de that to skill up. Even then you won't have enough.

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Q u o t e:
I would think enchanting would be higher because the quest loot actually sells decently in BC and up. Most enchanters have to de that to skill up. Even then you won't have enough.

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Same as any other profession, the bars a BS uses to make his items could be sold instead, etc.

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Q u o t e:


Same as any other profession, the bars a BS uses to make his items could be sold instead, etc.

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But the item could be sold. I'm sure bs items vendor for more then what ppl tip on lower end enchants. You can de a 12 gold item and only get 2 g worth of mats, it's all rng. Where as with other crafting professions you always know the cost. Leveling my rogue and my enchanter char was a pretty big diff in gold in favor of the rogue.

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Q u o t e:
But the item could be sold. I'm sure bs items vendor for more then what ppl tip on lower end enchants. You can de a 12 gold item and only get 2 g worth of mats, it's all rng. Where as with other crafting professions you always know the cost. Leveling my rogue and my enchanter char was a pretty big diff in gold in favor of the rogue.

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Why work for tips when you can put them on the AH?