WoW Forever Skinning Guide

WoW Forever Skinning Guide Quick Overview:

• WoW Forever includes five new Skinning materials, mainly used in the endgame sections.
• Skinning in WoW Forever is available right in the starter area.
• Skinning naturally pairs with Leatherworking. Professions like Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Tailoring occasionally use Skinning materials, but to a small degree.
• The best Skinning Races in the game are Dwarves and Trolls thanks to inherent bonus damage against Beasts.
• The best Skinning Class in the game is Hunter. Druid, Shaman, and Rogue are also good options.

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WoW Forever Skinning Changes

Skinning is actually one of the least changed professions in WoW Forever, and you can probably guess why that’s the case. It’s not like there is much to change about the way it works — you kill mobs, get materials like leather, hide, or scales from them, and move on.

The core concept stays exactly the same, so all Forever really does is introduce some new materials to add variety. That includes:

• Fel Hide
• Fel Leather
• Pristine Scale
• Pristine Leather
• Pristine Hide

Just like with any other profession in Forever, you are also able to craft a few Campfire items. Camp Chair provides 2% Critical Strike. Field Guide also provides 2% Critical Strike, while additionally allowing you to Track Beasts. Finally, Trapper’s Workbench gives the same 2% Critical Strike as well as access to one trap.

Leveling Skinning in Forever

In WoW Forever, you get to learn professions right in the starting area, so obtaining a Skinning Knife is not going to take you much time. After that, you can start skinning everything that doesn’t move anymore.

Well, that’s not exactly true. First off, not all mobs can be skinned — only Beasts, Dragonkin, and a few other specific creatures are actually eligible. Secondly, there are level limitations, with some mobs being too powerful for you to skin. According to WoWHead, the formula is pretty simple.

• Level 1-10 mobs can be skinned at all times since the requirement is as low as level 1 Skinning.
• Level 11-20 mob Skinning level requirement is calculated like this: (mob level - 10) x 10. So, a level 20 mob will require 100 in Skinning.
• After that, all mobs follow the same basic formula: mob level x 5. That means that Skinning a level 37 mob will require 185 in Skinning, while a level 46 mob will demand at least 230.

I believe that the devs made it this simple on purpose, so that it’s easy for you to remember which mobs are worth killing.

Efficient Skinning Leveling

Unlike other gathering professions, Skinning doesn’t really require you to stray away from your quest objectives to activate random nodes scattered around the locations. You get Skinning XP by skinning mobs that you would be killing anyway, and that makes it arguably the easiest profession to level up — or at least the most convenient and straightforward one.

As you can imagine, the breakpoints for your Skinning are also going to be far more natural than with any other gathering profession — as long as you keep consistently skinning the fallen enemies, of course. You generally shouldn’t find yourself in a situation where your character is ready to tackle higher-level enemies but cannot skin them yet. It isn’t necessarily as seamless in-game, and sometimes you might need to stick around for a bit longer here and there, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

So, what’s the most efficient Skinning route from 1 to 300? Well, I’d say it doesn’t really exist, since leveling Skinning simply shouldn’t be your first and utmost priority — questing and character leveling come first, and it’s not like you will miss out on opportunities to use your knife anyway.

Still, if you want some actual numbers, then here’s a short breakdown.

Skinning Levels 1-75

You start by completing a Skinning quest and leveling the profession up to 75 in your starting zone: Durotar, Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, or Zephras Isle for Horde and Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil, or the same Zephras Isle for the Alliance. You’ll have a lot of stuff to do, so there shouldn’t be a lack of opportunities for Skinning, and the early levels come easy as well.

Skinning Levels 75-150  

Your first breakpoint comes at Skinning level 75 — and the only reason for that is that you won’t be able to progress after it without Training further. For the record, level 75 Skinning allows you to interact with beasts up to level 17, which is just a bit awkward, but it will be your first nudge towards getting prepared for higher-level areas featuring mobs around level 20.

Loch Modan, Northern Barrens, Westfall, Silverpine Forest, and a few other same-level areas are your home for that period. Keep up until you reach level 125 Skinning, get more training, and prepare to move to Ashenvale, Southern Barrens, Duskwood, Wetlands, and so on to progress to 150.

Skinning Levels 150-225

Once 150 is unlocked, you are finally able to skin level 30 mobs, so you’re free to move into a new set of locations, namely Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains, Thousand Needles, Riverglades, Badlands, and more. There are many opportunities to progress your profession here, and quite a lot of other stuff to do, so expect to stay here for a bit. Don’t forget to train before you cap at 225.

Skinning Levels Beyond 200

From now on, you don’t have to even remember to regularly train your profession, so even that tiny bit of friction is gone. Skinning Level 200 enables you to go into areas with level 40 mobs, so travel across Feralas, Tanaris, Hinterlands, and Searing Gorge.​

After you reach 250 in Skinning, proceed to level 50-60 locations like the Un’Goro Crater, Blasted Lands, Eastern and Western Plaguelands, Felwood, and Winterspring. At some point, you will inevitably hit 300. Good job!

Making Gold with Skinning in Forever

Skinning is a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to making money. On the one hand, there’s literally nothing easier than simply collecting material from the mobs you kill — no backtracking, no awkward travel time, just pure efficiency. On the other hand, the materials you get probably won’t be valued as much as the stuff you get from Mining, for example.

Leatherworking specialists sure need your stuff, but Engineering and Blacksmithing are very likely going to be more popular. While these two have some use for your materials, leather, hides, and scales are secondary to them at best. The same goes for Tailoring, which means that Skinning is surprisingly versatile in terms of what it can offer, but the demand is not as high as with some other gathering professions.

Speaking of which, there’s nothing stopping you from focusing on two gathering professions simultaneously. Admittedly, it kind of ruins the idea of seamless progress, since both Herbalism and Mining will require running around to random locations to activate nodes, but you shouldn’t completely write these two off.

Finally, saving gold can be just as good as earning it sometimes. If you play one of the classes that benefit from Leatherworking, then you will be able to craft your own gear, meaning there will be no need to spend lots of gold on it.  

Best Race and Class to Learn Skinning in Forever

Both races and classes aren’t as important when it comes to leveling Skinning, since you will go around the world killing thousands of mobs regardless of your choices. However, if you’re truly all about that 100% optimization, then here are some considerations for you.

For races, the choice is pretty simple: you pick Dwarves for the Alliance and Trolls for the Horde, since their Big Game Hunter and Beast Slaying racial abilities are going to provide you with a noticeable damage boost against Beasts, saving you a bit of time in the long run.

As for classes, the situation is a bit different. You obviously want to pick something that can handle solo leveling and is good at killing mobs quickly. Another thing here is Skinning itself — how useful is it for your class? If you plan to play it as an alt character for resource gathering, the second question is not as important.

However, if you’re going all in on Skinning with your main character, all of the previous considerations inevitably lead you to some predictable answers.

Hunter is probably your best choice, since Skinning fits you like a glove, and you can learn Track abilities to help you locate the enemies who will provide the required materials, like Track Dragonkin, for instance.

Aside from that, Druid, Rogue, and Shaman are all good choices since they’ll want to craft their gear with Leatherworking, which is fully reliant on Skinning materials.

Forever Skinning Equipment

WoW Forever isn’t exactly rich in Skinning Equipment. First off, as you can expect, there are two Enchants — Enchant Gloves – Skinning and Enchant Gloves – Advanced Skinning — providing +5 and +10 Skinning skill bonuses, respectively. Aside from that, you get two items to work with.

Keen Skinning Knife is a Horde-specific reward item that provides +3 Skinning skill as long as it is equipped. It is a level 18 Dagger that you can get for completing Unwelcome Guests.

Cartilage Shapers are level 33 gloves that provide +4 Skinning Skill when equipped. They drop from Lyn the Ignored with a 36% chance.

As usual, profession-related skill-increasing items aren’t super impressive on their own, and are mostly good for reaching the breakpoints a bit earlier.

My issue with these two, however, is that each one on its own isn’t even enough to raise your skill up a single mob level. I’ll remind you how the formula works: your Skinning skill allows you to get materials from mobs as long as it is at least their level times five. Five, not four from Cartilage Shapers, or three from the Keen Skinning Knife.

As if it wasn’t awkward enough already, Keen Skinning Knife is a low-level item that occupies a weapon slot, and that’s the last thing you want to do in the later stages of the game, where this bonus would’ve been the most useful. Of course you can constantly equip/unequip it, but that’s hardly an optimal solution. I really hope that devs do something about it, but for now it just feels backwards.

 

 

Skinning Legacy Bonuses in WoW Forever

WoW Forever’s unique Legacy system features four bonuses that are applicable to Skinning with various degrees of usefulness.

• Working Overtime increases your chance to gain a skill increase from any tradeskill, which is obviously very helpful across your long journey from 1 to 300.
• Dedicated Study provides a small boost towards your lowest-level tradeskill or offers random Elemental Essences if you have already reached 300 in all 5 skills.
• Bountiful Harvest makes you significantly more likely to find Scarce materials gathered from Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning. Obviously, this talent is twice as effective if you focus on several gathering professions.
• Performance Bonus provides a chance to receive 100% additional Merchant's Favor when turning in a supply crate to the Azeroth Commerce Authority or Durotar Supply and Logistics.

Essentially, Skinning is no different from Herbalism and Mining and benefits from the same four Legacy talents.

Skinning Trainers in Forever

There are 23 Skinning Trainers in WoW Forever, with 10 of them belonging to the Alliance, 11 being on the side of the Horde, and the remaining two staying neutral. Remember that each faction has three Trainers who are only capable of teaching Apprentice Skinning, so you’ll have fewer options once you get higher levels in Skinning.

Here’s where you can find each one.

Alliance Skinning Trainers

Trainer	Teaches	Location	Waypoint
Riley Peltskinner	Apprentice Skinning only	Northshire, Elwynn Forest	/way 47.0 39.8
Brighid Stormflayer	Apprentice Skinning only	Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh	/way 29.2 67.6
Terunne Bearshaper	Apprentice Skinning only	Shadowglen, Teldrassil	/way 59.4 38.6
Balthus Stoneflayer	Up to Artisan Skinning	The Great Forge, Ironforge	/way 39.8, 33
Eladriel	Up to Artisan Skinning	Craftsmen's Terrace, Darnassus	/way 64.2, 21.8
Helene Peltskinner	Up to Artisan Skinning	Goldshire, Elwynn Forest	/way 46.2, 62.2
Maris Granger	Up to Artisan Skinning	Old Town, Stormwind City	/way 67.8, 49
Radnaal Maneweaver	Up to Artisan Skinning	Road to Darnassus, Teldrassil	/way 42, 50
Wilma Ranthal	Up to Artisan Skinning	Redridge Mountains	/way 88.8, 71
Jayla	Up to Artisan Skinning	Silverwind Refuge, Ashenvale	/way 50, 67.2

Horde Skinning Trainers

Trainer	Teaches	Location	Waypoint
Kagil	Apprentice Skinning only	Valley of Trials, Durotar	/way 40.8 67.8
Nawka Wildsong	Apprentice Skinning only	Red Cloud Mesa, Mulgore	/way 44.6 76.8
Margaret Weaver	Apprentice Skinning only	Death Knell, Tirisfal Glades	/way 32.6 65.6
Killian Hagey	Up to Artisan Skinning	Rogue's Quarter, Undercity	/way 71, 59.4
Kulleg Stonehorn	Up to Artisan Skinning	Camp Mojache, Feralas	/way 74.4, 43.0
Malux	Up to Artisan Skinning	Desolace, Shadowprey Village	/way 23.2, 69.8
Mooranta	Up to Artisan Skinning	Thunder Bluff	/way 45.2, 43.6
Rand Rhobart	Up to Artisan Skinning	Tirisfal Glades, Outside Undercity	/way 65.6, 60
Thuwd	Up to Artisan Skinning	The Drag, Orgrimmar	/way 63.2, 45.2
Yonn Deepcut	Up to Artisan Skinning	Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore	/way 45.6, 57.8
Dranh	Up to Artisan Skinning	Camp Taurajo, The Barrens	/way 45.0, 59.0

Neutral Skinning Trainers

Trainer	Teaches	Location	Waypoint
Mendalass Tattermend	Up to Artisan Skinning	Shen'dar Village, Zephras Isle	/way 43.2 43.6
Ishlee Breezewhisper	Up to Artisan Skinning	Valanaar, Zephras Isle	/way 59.6 76.0

 

 

Read our other WoW Forever Guides:

• New Zones
• All Dungeons
• Best Healer Tier List

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