Skinning

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Skinning allows players to gather leather, Hides and scales by skinning certain mobs (beasts, dragonkin, Silithid, and, very rarely, humanoids). Not all mobs of each type can be skinned, e.g. birds cannot be skinned despite being beasts. Leather, hides and scales are used for leatherworking. Leather is also used for some blacksmithing, engineering, and tailoring recipes. Additionally, sheep can be skinned for [wool] (percentage drop), making minor amounts of wool cloth available earlier than it drops from humanoid mobs.

Skinning pointers:

in range of skinnable corpse

out of range of skinnable corpse

This is one of the better gathering professions, since a skinner can skin mob corpses left behind by other characters as long as they've looted all the items from the corpse. Unlike the mining or herb gathering, skinning allows very frequent practice when outdoor hunting resulting in a great deal of leather and very rapid training. You will typically be able to skin creatures much higher level than you can kill.

The skinning skill also grants the player [Master of Anatomy], a passive bonus to critical strike rating.

Skinning Training

Proficiency	Required	Potential	Cast
Apprentice	N/A	75	1.5 sec
Journeyman	50	150	1.5 sec
Expert	125	225	1.5 sec
Artisan	200	300	1.5 sec
Master	275	375	1.5 sec
Grand Master	375	450	1.5 sec

• Skinning does not have any character level requirements in order to learn the next skill proficiency level up through Artisan. Master skinning requires level 40.
• You need to purchase a skinning knife. You can find skinning knives at Profession-related item merchants (or simply at the General trader). Remember to keep the skinning knife in your bag at all times (if you want to gain leather/hides/scales from the beasts you kill).
• Instead of a skinning knife, both [Finkle's Skinner] (a main hand dagger) and [Zulian Slicer] (a one-handed sword) each count as a skinning knife. Either will save you 1 inventory slot by occupying your weapon slot while serving as both your weapon and as a skinning tool.
• Also, keep in mind that skinning most beasts will result in you getting leather or hide of some kind. Some exceptions are sheep, which sometimes give you wool (which is used for First Aid, Tailoring and Leatherworking), frenzy and other fish give you shiny fish scales, Dragonkin of various types (such as Black Whelps) which give you scales or special skins not found among other monsters or beasts, and the like.

Such 'uncommon' skins generally only have specific recipes (such as the Black Whelp Scales, which has a recipe that needs to be obtained independently as it is not taught by trainers found in major cities).

Skinning Past Your Skill Level

You can get enchants and certain weapons that increase your skinning skill above your current skill level:

• +5 Skinning: Enchant Gloves - Skinning
• +10 Skinning:
  • [Finkle's Skinner] - drops off The Beast in Upper Blackrock Spire.
  • [Zulian Slicer] - drops off High Priest Thekal in Zul'Gurub.

The enchant and weapon combined give up to +15 skinning. Dual Wielding the two weapons above while wearing enchanted gloves gives skinning +25.

Skinning Color Codes

Any skinnable corpse will have a color code on the "Skinnable" property when you move your pointer over it:

• Red: Not skinnable.
• Orange: Difficult to skin, may fail; high chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
• Yellow: Moderately difficult to skin, almost never fail; moderate chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
• Green: Easy to skin, should never fail; low chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
• Gray: Very easy to skin, should never fail; no chance of increasing Skinning skill level.

Up to skinning 100, you can find out the highest level mob you can skin by: ((Skinning skill)/10)+10.

From skinning level 100 and up the formula is simply: (Skinning skill)/5.

Suggested 2nd Professions

• Leatherworking. Make your own armor (Druid, Rogue, Hunter or Shaman; mail armor for hunters and shamans are available via the Dragonscale Leatherworking specialty), sell your wares, or get fodder for disenchanting.
• Tailoring. Some Tailor recipes require leather, such as bags and boots. Early access to wool by skinning sheep is helpful. In the long run, Tailoring/Enchanting is a stronger combination, but Skinning/Tailoring is a good way to start out.
• Mining or Herbalism. Having two gathering professions can ensure a strong income. Some people are willing to pay quite a bit of money for materials for crafting professions. Skinning is a nice companion, because it does not use the minimap resource tracker, freeing the tracker for the companion gathering profession.
• Enchanting. It's good to have as a second profession for any that don't necessarily need another to work.
• Blacksmithing or Engineering. Blacksmithing and engineering use some leather, but mining is a much better match for blacksmithing and engineering.

Suggested Classes and Specialties

Selling leather and hide can be profitable, but also useful if you take Leatherworking. All the classes listed here can wear leather armor. Leatherworking also produces Mail Armor items from scales obtained by skinning with attributes useful to hunters and shamans. There are three specialties of leatherworking which produce armor more suited for some classes than others:

• Druid (Tribal Leatherworking or Elemental Leatherworking recommended)
• Rogue (Elemental Leatherworking recommended)
• Hunter (Dragonscale Leatherworking recommended)
• Shaman (Dragonscale Leatherworking recommended)

Note as of TBC anyone can learn the Tribal, Elemental, and Dragonscale patterns below 300. After 300, you must specialize to learn the proficiencies.

Bonuses

Skinning provides a bonus to +crit based on your skinning level. See [Master of Anatomy].

What You Gather

Leather

In this sense, leather is collected by skinning beasts. These items can usually be used directly by the Leatherworking profession without prior processing or treatment. The type of leather is usually directly related to the level of animal being skinned.

See: Leather for details.

Hides

You get hides the same way you get skins, but the drop rate is lower. All of the standard hides require Leatherworking to cure the hides before they can be used as ingredients for crafting items.

See: Hide for details.

Scales

These are used in Leatherworking patterns and drop when certain mobs are skinned. Scales from high-level mobs are used to create Mail class armor with the Leatherworking skill which is useful for hunters and shamans at level 40 and beyond.

See: Scale for details.

Wool Cloth

[Wool Cloth] is used by tailors for patterns for cloth armor for characters in the teens levels through early twenties. It is also used by blacksmiths, engineers, and by first aid practitioners. Skinning sheep provides a minor, but early, source of wool cloth.

See also

• Getting Started and Tips for Skinning
• Frequently asked skinning Questions
• Skinning trainers

External links

For leveling guides please visit Tradeskill leveling guides

World of Warcraft Community Site 

Wowhead 

Voodex Gold-Making With Skinning