Skinning Leveling 1-300 Guide - WoW Classic

By Wowhead Updated: 2024/11/23

SkinningSkinningLeatherworkingTailoringBlacksmithingSkinning Overview in WoW Classic

You must have a Skinning Knife in your inventory to use Skinning.

You can only skin a corpse after it has been looted completely. If another player has killed a skinnable mob, loots it out, and leaves, feel free to skin it. If it doesn't show as skinnable but you know it normally is, it just means that player did not loot it out.

Skinnable mobs don't look different, but will show up with a tooltip that says "Skinnable" at the bottom of it can be skinned. If "Skinnable" is in red, it means it's beyond your current skinning level to skin.

Best Professions to Pair with SkinningBest Classes to Learn SkinningSkinning Trainer Locations in WoW Classic

Apprentice - Skinning can be learned at level 1 for

Journeyman - Skinning can be learned at Skinning 50 for

Expert - Skinning can be learned at Skinning 125 for

Artisan - Skinning can be learned at Skinning 200 for

Alliance Skinning Trainers

Balthus Stoneflayer: The Great Forge, Ironforge /way 39.8, 33

Eladriel: Craftsmen's Terrace, Darnassus /way 64.2, 21.8

Helene Peltskinner: Goldshire, Elwynn Forest /way 46.2, 62.2

Maris Granger: Old Town, Stormwind City /way 67.8, 49

Radnaal Maneweaver: Road to Darnassus, Teldrassil /way 42, 50

Wilma Ranthal: Redridge Mountains /way 88.8, 71

Jayla: Silverwind Refuge, Ashenvale /way 50, 67.2

Horde Skinning Trainers

Killian Hagey: Rogue's Quarter, Undercity /way 71, 59.4

Kulleg Stonehorn: Camp Mojache, Feralas /way 74.4, 43.0

Malux: Shadowprey Village /way 23.2, 69.8

Mooranta: Thunder Bluff /way 45.2, 43.6

Rand Rhobart: Outside Undercity, Tirisfal Glades /way 65.6, 60

Thuwd: The Drag, Orgrimmar /way 63.2, 45.2

Yonn Deepcut: Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore /way 45.6, 57.8

Dranh: Camp Taurajo, The Barrens /way 45.0, 59.0

Leveling Skinning 1-300 in WoW ClassicSkinningWhat You Can Farm with SkinningLeather and HidesSkinningLeatherworking

Type of Leather

Mob Level

Ruined Leather Scraps

6-15

6-17

11-25

16-35

16-35

25-45

25-45

36-63

40-60

46-63

46-63

Farming Scales

Deviate Scale and Perfect Deviate Scale are both skinned and dropped from Deviates both outside and inside Wailing Caverns. They are used in Pattern: Deviate Scale Cloak, Pattern: Deviate Scale Gloves, Pattern: Deviate Scale Belt.

Slimy Murloc Scale drop off all Murlocs within the level range. They are needed for Pattern: Murloc Scale Belt and Pattern: Murloc Scale Breastplate.

Red Whelp Scale are only obtained through skinning, not through drops, and only from the red Whelps of the Wetlands. They are only used in Pattern: Red Whelp Gloves.

Thick Murloc Scale are found from murlocs in three zones: Hillsbrad Foothills, Dustwallow Marsh, and Stranglethorn Vale. They are used in Pattern: Murloc Scale Bracers and Pattern: Thick Murloc Armor.

Scorpid Scale are only collected through skinning (no drops). These are skinned primarily in Tanaris, Blasted Lands, and Burning Steppes, although at far different level bands. 40 Scorpid Scale are required to learn Dragonscale Leatherworking, as you'll need to make 2 Tough Scorpid Breastplate and 2 Tough Scorpid Gloves. They are also needed for the Tough Scarped series: Pattern: Tough Scorpid Gloves, Pattern: Tough Scorpid Leggings, Pattern: Tough Scorpid Breastplate, Pattern: Tough Scorpid Helm, Pattern: Tough Scorpid Shoulders, Pattern: Tough Scorpid Boots, Pattern: Tough Scorpid Bracers

Heavy Scorpid Scale are skinned only, and there are only two zones where you can find the right scorpids: Burning Steppes and Silithus. They are needed for the Heavy Scorpid Set: Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Shoulders, Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Bracers, Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Helm, Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Gauntlets, Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Vest, Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Leggings, Pattern: Heavy Scorpid Belt

Notable Dragonscales from Skinning Mobs

The best lower-level outdoor camp for Green Dragonscales is the same Swamp of Sorrows camp you will use for hunting Worn Dragonscales. They are needed for the Green Dragonscale Set: Pattern: Green Dragonscale Breastplate, Pattern: Green Dragonscale Leggings, Green Dragonscale Gauntlets

Blue Dragonscale are skinned from elite dragonkin in two outdoor zones only: Azshara and Winterspring. They are needed for the Blue Dragonscale Set: Pattern: Blue Dragonscale Breastplate, Pattern: Blue Dragonscale Shoulders, Blue Dragonscale Leggings

Red Dragonscale is farmed from elite Red Wyrmkin only in The Wetlands. It is used in Pattern: Red Dragonscale Breastplate and Pattern: Chromatic Cloak

Notable Skins and Scales from Endgame Mobs

Black Dragonscale is farmed from the elite Black Whelps, Drakes and Wyrmkin of the Burning Steppes. In addition, they can be skinned from elite Black Dragonkin mobs in Blackrock Spire and Blackwing Lair. They are used for Pattern: Black Dragonscale Breastplate, Pattern: Black Dragonscale Boots, Pattern: Black Dragonscale Shoulders, Pattern: Chromatic Cloak, and Pattern: Black Dragonscale Leggings, as well as the Warlock class quest Doomsday Candle.

There are only four mobs that produce Devilsaur Leather, and all four are elites found in Un'goro Crater. The set Pattern: Devilsaur Gauntlets and Pattern: Devilsaur Leggings is highly desirable for many melee.

Pristine Hide of the Beast is skinned from The Beast in Upper Blackrock Spire and requires 310 Skinning. This is needed for several quests that reward epic loot: Breastplate of Bloodthirst, Cap of the Scarlet Savant, Leggings of Arcana.

Scale of Onyxia is skinned from the raid boss Onyxia and requires 315 Skinning. This is needed to craft Onyxia Scale Cloak, essential for the Nefarian encounter, as well as Onyxia Scale Breastplate.

Brilliant Chromatic Scale drop from Chromaggus and the whelps before the Warchief Rend Blackhand encounter in Upper Blackrock Spire. This is needed for Chromatic Cloak and Chromatic Gauntlets.

Core Leather....loot the hounds! Core Leather only drops from Core Hound Trash and Magmadar in the Molten Core raid. This is used for many items:
Blacksmithing: Dark Iron Boots, Dark Iron Gauntlets

Leatherworking: Chromatic Gauntlets, Corehound Belt, Corehound Boots, Molten Helm, Core Armor Kit

Tailoring: Core Felcloth Bag, Bottomless Bag

Quest NPC: Bonnie Stoneflayer <Light Leather Collector> 58.0, 76.0

Alliance Commendation Signet on Repeat: x1

Mob Levels: 6-20; 11-20 (best)

Best Zone: Westfall

Ruined Leather ScrapsLight LeatherMedium LeatherMedium LeatherThe Alliance Needs Medium Leather!The Alliance Needs More Medium Leather!

Quest NPC: 58.7, 75.0

Alliance Commendation Signet on Repeat: x5

Mob Levels: 16-35; 21-30 (best)

Best Zone: Stonetalon Mountains, Wetlands

Medium LeatherHeavy LeatherThe Alliance Needs More Roast Raptor!Thick LeatherThe Alliance Needs Thick Leather!The Alliance Needs More Thick Leather!

Quest NPC: Marta Finespindle <Thick Leather Collector> 57.0, 75.0

Alliance Commendation Signet on Repeat: x7

Mob Levels: 36-60; 41-50 (best)

Best Zone: Tanaris, Feralas

Thick LeatherHeavy LeatherRugged LeatherThe Alliance Needs More Purple Lotus!Iron DepositThe Alliance Needs More Iron Bars!Horde Skinning War Effort Quests

All leather quests require only 10 turn-ins as opposed to 20 for all other profession-resource quests, so you have to complete half as many turn-ins to earn the same number of Commendations.

The Horde get three quests with heavy overlap between them: The Horde Needs More Heavy Leather!, The Horde Needs More Thick Leather! and The Horde Needs More Rugged Leather!. If you are high enough level, you can target mobs that maximize the amount of Rugged Leather you get (for the 10-commendation turn-ins) but the Thick Leather you get as a potential secondary skin is useful for the 7-commendation turn-ins, so your skinning time is never wasted. If you're a bit lower, you can target mostly Thick Leather and get Heavy Leather as a potential byproduct. It wins all around.

While there are a number of ideal farms, there are enough secondary farms in less well-known places that you shouldn't need to compete too directly for spawn.

Heavy LeatherThe Horde Needs Heavy Leather!The Horde Needs More Heavy Leather!

Quest NPC: Skinner Jamani <Heavy Leather Collector> 36, 73.4

Horde Commendation Signet on Repeat: x5

Mob Levels: 26-45; 31-40 (best)

Best Zone: Stranglethorn Vale, Arathi Highlands, Desolace

Heavy LeatherThick LeatherThick LeatherThe Horde Needs Thick Leather!The Horde Needs More Thick Leather!

Quest NPC: Sergeant Umala <Thick Leather Collector> 34, 72.7

Horde Commendation Signet on Repeat: x7

Mob Levels: 36-60; 41-50 (best)

Best Zone: Tanaris, Feralas

Thick LeatherHeavy LeatherRugged LeatherRugged LeatherThe Horde Needs Rugged Leather!The Horde Needs More Rugged Leather!

Quest NPC: Doctor Serratus <Rugged Leather Collector> 35.1, 72.6

Horde Commendation Signet on Repeat: x10

Mob Levels: 46-60; 51-60 (best)

Best Zone: Un'goro Crater, Eastern Plaguelands, Winterspring

Rugged LeatherThick LeatherIncreasing Skinning Skill Beyond 300SkinningSkinning

Item

Skill Up

Source

Enchant Gloves - Skinning

Skinning +5

Formula: Enchant Gloves - Skinning zone drop in Arathi Highlands

Pip's Skinner

Skinning +10

The Beast in Blackrock Spire

Zulian Slicer

Skinning +10

High Priest Thekal in Zul'Gurub

Mobs That Require Over 300 Skinning

Beast

Skill Required

Item of Interest

The Beast (Blackrock Spire)

310

Pristine Hide of the Beast

Core Hound (Molten Core)

310

Core Leather

Onyxia (Onyxia's Lair)

315

Scale of Onyxia

Magmadar (Molten Core)

315

Core Leather

Nefarian (Blackwing Lair)

315

Black Dragonscale

Emeriss, Lethon, Taerar, Ysondre (World Spawns)

315

Dreamscale

Comments

Comment by marth354

A pretty decent guide. The only recommendation I would make is including the scales you can skin, i.e scorpid scales, silithid chitin, etc..., in the leather section. Since Leatherworking can make mail armor with them I am sure they will be useful for some people.

Comment by Sasdeadeye

Thank you for a good, well-written, comprehensive guide. My only recommendation to improve it would be to specify particular mobs that are good to farm, as opposed to just zones, and what leathers they may drop. There are always areas with a particularly high density of beasts that are easy to kill. Stranglethorn is awesome, as you mentioned, because most enemies are beasts. Anyway, thanks again and keep up the good work!

Comment by Arwynge

Nice overview. Regarding the section of Quick Facts, if I'm not mistaken, the requirements for Expert and Artisan is not only the skill level stated (125 and 200), but also a character level of 10 for Expert and 25 for Artisan (i.e. lower than the production professions, but still not 0); perhaps you might want to add that. In the section on How to Skin "queue" have mistakenly used instead of "cue."

Comment by Tigerfeli

Wonderful guide, thank you.

A small suggestion to improve the guide, could you please make a table of where the earliest profession vendors are for each race to get the Skinning Knife? That would really help people getting started.

Comment by thaarael

I'd say - you should consider adding Duskwood map as alternative for Hilsbrand (for Alliance players), due to Worgens abudance. You can skin those in Classic, they come in great numbers, are skinned for both Medium and Heavy Leather, and due to popularity of quests here, you will always get something to scavenge in addition to your own kills. It is viable also due to proximity to STV, so at lower levels (around 30) you can roam between those two places if spots in one are overcrowded (or Horde partisant rogues get out of controll in STV), and you will still get decent skinning run. Also, due to Worgens being humanoid-type opponent, you can count on bonus lot from chests in their area, which can net you some usefull potions and decent greens for sale.

Comment by Sindragozer

Just found this guide when i was checking where to learn journeyman skinning :D
Great guide Quissy! Thanks for the info!
Also, you can skin critters. I didn't know that until a minute ago. I've been killing a bunch of critters and skinning them for super easy skill ups.

Comment by BadRNG777

This is a bit of a specific tip, but if you are a druid you can level 1-75 quickly by farming the critters in Moonglade. Deer and rabbits both give skill ups until then, and there are a huge amount of them around the zone along the roads. 1-75 took me a bit less than 20 minutes, each critter dies in a single moonfire and you never need to wait for respawn.

You can ignore the squirrels. I guess squirrel leather is just not fashionable in Azeroth.

Comment by Benkkku

A bit frustrating to run all the way to Hillsbrad Foothills to find out you can't actually skin anything with 100 skinning over there. The minimum for a lvl 21 bear is 105 skinning.

Comment by NotJackSmiles

The map for the 250-300 section is of the Hinterlands, not Ungoro.

Comment by drelicharcz

I appreciate the amount of effort that has gone into this guide, but it is lacking.

I reached 100 in skinning in Loch Modan as shown and travled to Hillsbrad Foothills. I can skin nothing there! I don't have the skill.
I then traveled to Welands as shown and again I can skin nothing there!

The smalest of Tigers in Stranglethorn requires 155 and the guides says 150!

Comment by thaarael

Another useful side note - you would want to consider farming Wyrmkin type of Dragonkin mobs, as those are, as far as I noticed, only non-dungeon mobs that can give you more than one leather per skinning. Not sure if this applies for all, or only of those in 40s range, but as far as my experience goes, Wyrmkin in both Dustwallow (black ones) and in Swamp of Sorrows (green Wyrmkins and Scalebanes) have approx. 50% chance of give two leathers (either Heavy or Thick) instead of one if Leather is skinned. As those are, at least for now (Phase 1) non-elites, and Green Scalebanes gives Green Dragonscale too (and thus Black Wyrmkins in Dustwallow should give Black Dragonscale too), this makes them very desirable farming objective in 40-45lvl bracket.

@EDIT
OK, I went to Dustwallow to check again, also checked drop rates on WoWhead, and apparently (and sadly) you cannot skin Black Dragonscale from Firemanes there, which is sad, and skin rates for Worn Dragonscale are lower than on Swamp of Sorrows, which is even sadder. However, in same time Firemanes seems to give double amount of leather more often than Greens in SoS, and are easier to farm for physical damage oriented classes due to their lower armor (as 45lvl Hunter, with 100 DPS and 215-245 base damage with 2.30 speed I was dealing 30-40 more damage each hit to Firemanes than to Greens). That makes Firemanes in Dustwallow excellent spot for Heavy/Thick leather farm, both for crafting and for sale - also due to fact that other skinnable mobs in Dustwallow are around level 40, in opposition to ~36 in SoS, and thus give only Heavy and Thick leather, so you don't have to worry about too much waste with Medium.
As all those dragonkins are non-elite right now, and farming them is much more time effective than other mobs in this level range, I'd say that you really should reflect that in guide :)

Comment by Nohjtar

Great guide! However, I believe the guide is missing the Horde skinning trainer at Camp Taurajo.

Comment by Cambrius13

This is a damn fine guide, Quissy. Thank you! :)

Comment by FourteeTwo

If Ruined Leather Scraps stop dropping at level 15, then I want to be in East Loch Modan, not West.

Comment by Terlanna

Hi,

Can a Druid go over 305 skinning in classic?
Since we can't use daggers and swords?

Comment by Rayearthx

Aerie Peak is also wrong, it starts at 205.

Comment by Sarniezz

An ok beginner guide, but a better way would've been: Skinning level / Mob level. For example, upon reaching 210 skinning, you can start skinning level 42 mobs. Etc. Then just list locations with those level mobs.

Also, a useful thing to know is if you multiply the mob level by 5, you get the Skinning lvl required to be able to skin that mob. So if it's level 45, multiply by 5, minimum skinning level required would be 225.

Comment by hollyw

"Don't forget to learn Artisan Skinning at 200." Great idea - maybe you could have mentioned WHERE?

Comment by LeroyII

The Scorpions, Hyenas, & Basilisks in Tanaris are good for skinning up to level 325. They drop mostly thick leather with some heavy leather.

Comment by Savistik

Unfortunately, I did not check the character level requirements in SoD for Journeyman and Expert. However, as of this writing in Season of Discovery:

Character Level 26 and Skinning Skill 125 - Required to train Expert Skinning
Character Level 41 and Skinning Skill 200 - Required to train Artisan Skinning

Comment by Coldbear

This guide is sorely lacking, including in regards to where to start if you decide to switch to Skinning after leaving your starting area.

For Teldrassil, these are the mobs you need: Ruined Leather Scraps#skinned-from;0-2-10+1;q=teldrassil click on the mob listing for locations.

The guide is also lacking what level you can skin which mobs at. See other comments. Hint: make a targeting macro:

/tar elder
/tar feral
/tm 3

Comment by damienstarr1

I noticed today that skinning mobs up to lvl 23 can also give light leather. I was lvl 18 with 130+ skinning and still receiving light leather from mobs in Hillsbrad.

Comment by 123user

Up to Skinning 100, you can find out the highest level mob you can skin by: (Skill/10)+10.
Example: (50/10)+10=15, meaning at 50 skill you can skin mobs up to level 15. This formula applies to mobs up to level 20.

From Skinning level 100 and up the formula is simply: Skill/5.
Example: (175/5=35), meaning at 175 skill you can skin any mob up to level 35. Past level 20, this is the only formula you'll need.

Please include these formulas in the guide! They can save people lots of trouble, as they can simply look up what level the mobs in their next zone will be, and they can easily see if their Skinning skill is high enough to be useful there.

The guide is also missing Primal Bat Leather, Primal Tiger Leather, Thin Kodo Leather, Naga Scales, Raptor Hides, Enchanted Leather, Warbear Leather, Frostsaber Leather, Chimera Leather, Shadowcat Hide, Green Whelp Scales and Black Whelp Scales. Some of these are major flaws, some minor, but this requires updating. In my opinion it would also be worth fixing the stated level ranges for the different leather sources, as every single stated level is wrong by at least a few levels.

Skinning Leveling 1-300 Guide - WoW Classic

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