Probably not the most interesting of all the professions available to a player, but as a gathering profession skinning shouldn't be underestimated.
My partner is a skinner (and Leatherworker) and ever since she learnt the profession, every (and in reality I would suggest its around 99.9%) beast that she's come across thats 1. dead and 2. skinnable has had their pelt removed.
Skinning - The Basics
As a gathering profession, its one of the easiest to level. You never need to travel out of your way to be able to doing your skinning - generally the corspe is pretty close to your feet when it dies and its just an extra click after looting to skin. One bonus of this is that a corpse cannot be skinned until its been completely looted - which forces you to collect ever item off a body. I call this a bonus because I feel every player should auto loot every body and sell the greys to vendors for coin.
Some would disagree with my last statement - as greys filling up (sometimes limited) backpack space means more visiting to vendors etc. Well tough - copper is copper and it soons adds up. Plus remember that often grey items are worth more than other loot - I often pick up a grey drop when raiding which has been left behind by someone - and smile when auctioneer shows me it'll vendor for 3g.
Skinning - For Money
The money to be earnt by skinning comes via three sources:
To maximise the amount that is earnable using skinning there are some simple rules:
Finally - Skinning at a maximum level gives a 40 point crit bonus which isnt to be sniffed at (thats around 43 DPS for the hunter with her gear)
My partner is a skinner (and Leatherworker) and ever since she learnt the profession, every (and in reality I would suggest its around 99.9%) beast that she's come across thats 1. dead and 2. skinnable has had their pelt removed.
Skinning - The Basics
As a gathering profession, its one of the easiest to level. You never need to travel out of your way to be able to doing your skinning - generally the corspe is pretty close to your feet when it dies and its just an extra click after looting to skin. One bonus of this is that a corpse cannot be skinned until its been completely looted - which forces you to collect ever item off a body. I call this a bonus because I feel every player should auto loot every body and sell the greys to vendors for coin.
Some would disagree with my last statement - as greys filling up (sometimes limited) backpack space means more visiting to vendors etc. Well tough - copper is copper and it soons adds up. Plus remember that often grey items are worth more than other loot - I often pick up a grey drop when raiding which has been left behind by someone - and smile when auctioneer shows me it'll vendor for 3g.
Skinning - For Money
The money to be earnt by skinning comes via three sources:
- Skinning to sell the leather - probably the most obvious source of income. You skin then you sell. Its not just leatherworkers that require leather either - its used widely across many professions such as blacksmithing, engineering and tailoring.
- Skinning to supply your second profession - the most obvious 2nd profession to accompany skinning is, of course, leatherworking. Being able to supply the majority of the mats for a crafting profession increases the profit that is obtainable from that that profession.
- When killing beasts you get the drops as well - which mostly comes in the form of meat (although you will of course get the other random items/trash you expect to get from other mobs). Some meats are worth more than others - and often the best prices are to be found from old world drops - bear flank sells for 1g a pop on my server and can be farmed along with thick leather in Winterspring and Felwood. Of course everyone needs chilled meat and rhino meat for the Dalaran cooking dailies, so the prices of these are always going to be high.
To maximise the amount that is earnable using skinning there are some simple rules:
- Skin everything even when not farming
- Know your areas - there are many areas which have a greater population of skinnable beasts. There are many such areas across Azeroth - but if there is an Nesingwary Expedition around you knows its a good area (STV, Nagrand and Shalozar respectively)
- To make good money from skinning you will need to farm - which can be a trifle boring - or you can double your earning potential by picking your dailies based on which will give the best skinning. For example some of the Sons of Hodir dailies provide plenty of borean leather, if you are grinding out Wintersabre rep you'll end up with a stackload of thick leather and so on.
- Violet Hold! Get 3 emblems and a couple of stacks of borean leather. Bonus!
- Arctic Fur - from my experience the 'frost lotus' of skinning, has the same chance of falling off a beast in Borean Tundra as it does off a beast in Icecrown - its around 1% and its wonderful when it happens. However I would NOT recommend you start farming for Arctic Fur - you will go insane! There are only two 100% drop rate guarantees for Arctic Fur - Anub'arak and Icehowl in ToC.
Finally - Skinning at a maximum level gives a 40 point crit bonus which isnt to be sniffed at (thats around 43 DPS for the hunter with her gear)
1 comment:
Good round up, well written,
My main (lvl 80 Rogue) has max skinning and leatherworking.
I have just created my first DK and taken Enchanting (mainly to DE all the useless quest rewards on the grind to 80). I have not yet decided a 2nd profession so I look forward to reading your veiws on other professions.
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