WoW Forever Skinning Leveling Guide (1-300)

Skinning levels on beasts you have already killed. Loot the body, then skin it. The level of the beast sets the skill you need, and from level 20 up that is 5 times its level.

From level 11 to 20 the rule is 10 skill for each level above 10. The cap rises in 4 ranks, and a trainer teaches each rank once you reach its skill.

Training a rank only raises the cap. The skill itself still comes 1 point at a time from the beasts.

1. Buy a Skinning Knife from a vendor. It works from your bags, so you never equip it.
2. Learn Apprentice Skinning from the trainer of your starting area, or take Pelt Collecting for Beginners as an early quest reward. That book teaches Skinning without a trainer visit.
3. Kill beasts and skin each one after you loot it. In the higher bands a point takes several beasts, so skin everything that fits your skill.
4. Go back to a trainer at 50 for Journeyman, at 125 for Expert and at 200 for Artisan.

Skinnable creatures are mostly beasts and dragonkin. Some worgen and yetis also skin, so read the tooltip before you move on.

Follow the rows from top to bottom. Each row is a skill band, the beast levels that still give skill in it, the zones to hunt and the leather you bring home.

Skill and beasts	Zones	You skin
1 to 75 Level 1 to 17	Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, Teldrassil, Durotar, Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades or Zephras Isle	Ruined Leather Scraps Light Leather Light Hide
75 to 125 Level 17 to 25	The Barrens for the Horde. Darkshore or Loch Modan for the Alliance.	Light Leather Medium Leather
125 to 150 Level 25 to 30	Wetlands, Ashenvale or Hillsbrad Foothills	Medium Leather Heavy Leather Heavy Hide
150 to 205 Level 30 to 41	Stranglethorn Vale, Thousand Needles, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh or Badlands	Heavy Leather Thick Leather
205 to 260 Level 41 to 52	Feralas, Tanaris or The Hinterlands	Thick Leather Rugged Leather Turtle Scale
260 to 300 Level 52 to 60	Un'Goro Crater, Winterspring, Silithus or Eastern Plaguelands	Rugged Leather Rugged Hide

The beast levels follow the rule from the 1st table, so the zones of your questing level carry the skill along. Skill-ups come less often in the higher bands, and you skin several beasts for each point.

Skinning a beast needs only the skill, so a high-level character can still level it in the low zones. The WoW Forever leveling guide has the questing route these zones sit on.

The starting-area trainers teach Apprentice only, up to 75. The trainers below teach every rank to 300. The 2 trainers on Zephras Isle serve both factions, and the island is covered in the Skyborne guide.

Alliance trainers

Trainer	Where
Maris Granger	Stormwind City (72.2 62.5)
Balthus Stoneflayer	Ironforge (39.7 32.3)
Eladriel	Darnassus (64.2 22.1)
Helene Peltskinner	Elwynn Forest (46.3 62.3)
Jayla	Ashenvale (49.9 67.2)

Horde trainers

Trainer	Where
Thuwd	Orgrimmar (63.2 45.4)
Mooranta	Thunder Bluff
Killian Hagey	Undercity
Dranh	Camp Taurajo, The Barrens (45.1 59.1)
Kulleg Stonehorn	Feralas

Both factions

Trainer	Where
Mendalass Tattermend	Zephras Isle (43.3 43.4)
Ishlee Breezewhisper	Zephras Isle

Alliance Apprentice trainers: Riley Peltskinner in Elwynn Forest, Brighid Stormflayer in Dun Morogh (29.2 67.6) and Terunne Bearshaper in Teldrassil (59.4 38.7). Horde Apprentice trainers: Kagil in Durotar (40.8 67.9), Nawka Wildsong in Mulgore and Margaret Weaver in Tirisfal Glades.

Skinning adds 3 camp objects. Each one needs a Campfire nearby, and placing any camp object puts all of yours on a 1-hour cooldown. The buff lasts 1 hour. The camping guide has the full camp rules.

Object and skill	What it does	Materials
Camp Chair Skinning 20	2% critical strike for everyone sitting nearby. The chair buff does not stack with Moonkin Aura.	3 Light Leather, 2 Simple Wood
Field Guide Skinning 140	Teaches Track Beasts to anyone who reads it. It also gives the Camp Chair buff.	3 Medium Leather, 2 Slimy Murloc Scale, 1 Fine Thread
Trapper's Workbench Skinning 300	Holds 1 trap. It also gives the Camp Chair buff.	2 Simple Wood, 4 Heavy Leather, 1 Iron Bar

Bonus Skinning lets you skin beasts above your trained skill, 1 beast level for every 5 points. 2 Legacy perks in the Professions tree help too.

• Bountiful Harvest adds to the Scarce materials you gather from Mining, Herbalism and Skinning.
• Working Overtime raises your chance of a skill-up from any tradeskill.
• Enchant Gloves: Skinning adds 5 Skinning, and Enchant Gloves: Advanced Skinning adds 10.
• The Keen Skinning Knife adds 3 Skinning.
• Cartilage Shapers add 4 Skinning.

Skinning gathers leather and hides, and a crafting profession turns them into gear. Leatherworking uses every leather and hide on the route, and the Leatherworking guide follows the same bands from 1 to 300.

Without a crafting profession, the leather goes to the auction house. Skinning sits next to Herbalism and Mining as the 3rd gathering profession, and the WoW Forever professions guide compares all of them.

Pick Skinning in the profession list on the order page. A Pro takes it from 1 to 300 on your level 60 character, every trainer visit included.

Still leveling? On a 1 to 60 order, Skinning is an add-on, and the booster skins along the route. The leather it gathers stays on your character.