So, let's start by introductions. I am running a DC on Beholder with lvl 20 on mailsmithing, platesmithing and leatherworking (yes yes, Tailoring will be done before launch) and this is my first post in what I hope will be a series of profession related posts and guides. I always thought myself starting the guide with general 1->20 effiency guide, but I realised that 1) I most likely need to code a calculator for most efficient route from given startpoint. 2) People are quite efficient with their profession leveling as it is. Given this, I decided to attack the most common misbelief in Neverwinter since "Opening boxes is worth it in the long run".
**Introduction: Leadership leveling**
The leadership is a profession for earning additional Gold, experience points, Astral Diamonds and chests that hold common consumables, profession resources enchants or runestones. Leadership is the only profession that does not need any resources/assets that you cannot make or buy from the profession vendor. This is the most common (mistaken) reason why leveling leadership is so popular, but we will get to that later.
It's largely known that leadership is the slowest profession to level. Given one mercenary and one slot doing the best task possible (Explore Local Area, 40exp/h) it will take a little over 3700 hours to get from 1-20. Even in the best possible situation (9 slots 18 heros) the time is still 260 hours (Protect caravan, Explore local area, chart the region and 100% bonus, totaling 660exp/h). That is more than 10 days of updating tasks every 30mins. To a quick comparison, even the slowest way (just gathering materials with one slot and one white dude) is only 2600h in any other profession. With fastest route (crafting armors) and 9 slots 9 grandmaster this can be as fast as 26h.
**Comparison: Leadership rewards vs tailoring**
Now, first reason people level leadership is the simple "Well I do it since it gives me free AD every few hours." While this is true, literally every other profession will give you AD so much faster. It gets funnier when you notice, that the more slots you have open, the more profitable other professions get. This comparison will be done with 3, 6 and 9 open slots, using best available assets. I will use tailoring as a comparison, to give leadership a change. let's pretend that you could buy 18 heroes at the same price as 9 grandmaster tailors (in reality, the difference is about 3 mil)
When using 3 slots, best task in leadership is Patrol the Mines, giving you a [Mining Claim] 10s and 120leadership experience for 4h. Since mining claims seem to go for 800ad in AH, assuming 3 slots, 6 heroes you would net 30s, 2160ad every 2h, thats 1080ad and 15s per hour (AH cut included). So how can we match this with tailoring? When writing this, a bolt of wool cloth costs 75ad on Beholder 150ad on Dragon (sorry no toon on Mindflayer, I'm a failure I know). Gather Wool Scraps and Weave Wool Cloth take 20minutes total and 60copper worth of thread. Assuming 3 Slots and 3 Grandmaster Tailors, you will net 24 bolts of woolcloths and lose 7s30c in a hour. Even with 75ad per piece, that is 1620ad/h (stupid auction house taking 10%). So you have to ask yourself, is sacrificing ~22 silver worth 600ad, to me it is.
Notable things, I don't know if anyone actually buys mining claims, but I know that wool cloth sells like there is no tomorrow, and you could easily get 100 per piece if you sell in nice quantities (I usually pay more so I don't need to open 100+ mails of single item). With 100ad per piece, you are looking at a whopping 2160ad per hour, double the rate of leadership. You also need lvl13 in leadership, but only 1 in tailoring. Not to mention the prices of assets. Also, tailoring will take only about 54minutes, not 1h to get to 24, just used 24 to make it easier.
So, time for 6 slots then, next best thing in leadership is Explore Local Area giving you 1x [Local Map] per hour. They seem to sell for around 175 per piece. Meaning doing this in 3 slots with 6 heroes gives you a 675ad/h (AH cut included.) Added to the mining claiming leadership will be at 1755ad/h.
Tailoring on the other hand does not suffer from the 3 task limit, since you can gather and weave as much as you like. In tailoring even lowest price for wool will give you 3240ad and lose you ~15s per hour. If we place wool cloth to 100ad/piece this will be as much as 4320ad/h
Lastly, we have the 9 slot (Although I know that there are only handful of players this far). The third best task in leadership is Protect Caravan, giving you 1 silver, 200ad and 40 leadership exp in 2h. Assuming 3 slots, 6 heroes for this task you will net a whopping 600ad 3silver per hour, increasing the total to 2355ad/h 18s/h. Tailoring will grow like always, giving a nice 4860ad/h at 75ad/piece or 6480ad/h at 100ad/piece with loss of ~23s/h.
**Conclusion on rewards**
So, we see that leadership is hardly worth it even if you invest double the amount than normal profession, you still end up on the losing side. This conclusion is really to just sum things up.
If we assume 30 gold is worth one key, and one key is worth 40k, the Patrol the Mines task will give one key per 200h, while tailoring will lose about half key in the same time. This adds 200ad/h to leadership (1280ad/h for 3slots) and subtract 100ad/h from tailoring (1520ad/h or 2060ad/h depending on price).
So the profits leveling don't cut the case for leadership, how about lvl 20 tasks. Unless the tooltip is wrong, even the epic [Very Large Chest of Goods] has chance for only blue material drops, and even the cheapest task for the chest costs 10k in materials, so no, not worth it by a long shot. Unless leadership gets drastic changes, I don't suggest it unless you are 20 in all the other professions (at which point, money is no longer an issue).
**Afterword**
So quite long start to a series. Please comment and give suggestions what profession related stuff you would like to see next. Hope this helps any of you.
**TL:DR**
Ugh, I know someone will need this, so here is a simple table:
**Leadership**
| slots | TASK | REWARDS/H |
| 3 | 3x Patrol the Mines | 1080ad 15s |
| 6 | 3x Explore local area | 675ad |
| 9 | 3x Protect caravan | 600ad, 3s |
Total: 2355ad, 18s per hour
**Tailoring wool at 75/piece**
| slots | TASK | REWARDS/H |
| 3 | 3xGather + 3xWeave Wool | 1620ad |
| 6 | 3xGather + 3xWeave Wool | 1620ad |
| 9 | 3xGather + 3xWeave Wool | 1620ad |
Total: 4860ad -23s per hour.