Eventually I'm going to buy Legion, and it comes with a level 100 boost.
Leveling a character to level 60 gives you a boost in your professions in addition to all the other bonuses for boosting to level 100.
With the release of Warlords of Draenor, professions seem to be rather easy to boost on their own, you can craft Draenor related items to boost a new profession fairly quickly using just the auction house and some gold (apart from Mining, Herbing, and Skinning).
So since professions can be "bought" with gold in this way now, I was wondering if it is mathematically worth leveling a character up to 60?
Leveling costs X hours of leveling, Y hours of profession making, and Z gold.
– Boosting from level 60, Y = 0 hours and Z = 0 gold because you don't need to use any money or time on professions, but you need to use time to level
– Boosting from level 1, X = 0 hours because you don't need to spend any time leveling.
I was wondering, how much time (on average) would you need to spend to get to level 60, and
how much time would you need to spend (at level 100) to make the amount of gold needed to "purchase" your professions (again on average).
Best Answer
There are a few unknowns here that will impact the answer, so it's impossible to give anything exact (though I'll give my 2 cents at the end); this is especially true in regard to leveling, which will depend significantly on how "good" you are at it. However, the following questions and information may provide useful direction:
X: LEVELING
Y: PROFESSIONS
Z: GOLD
All that said, I think the question that matters the most is: what are you planning on using this character for? If you're looking for a new class to play, I think there's a lot of value in leveling, if only to ease into the class. If you're looking to do end game content (particularly if you want to get started (and complete?!) the legendary questline, then boosting is the way to go.
That's how I, personally, have answered the question. I level mostly as a "change of pace", so if I'm going to boost I boost a level 1. The amount of gold basic level 100 questing offers plus the passive garrison mission income tend to fairly quickly offset the cost of leveling the professions myself.