TBC Classic Skinning Profession and Leveling 1-375 Guide

Skinning can be a very useful profession in TBC Classic as there are plenty of items and consumables that require leather to make. While leveling, it is very convenient to pick up gathering professions, since they do not require much time to train. With Skinning, you will also be able to skin what you kill.

Skinning can be used on Beasts, Dragonkin, Silithids, and very rarely on Humanoids. You can only skin a mob if the corpse has been completely looted. Skinning works great when paired with the crafting profession Leatherworking as it directly fuels its material needs.

In order to start Skinning, you need to purchase a Skinning Knife from any Skinning trainer or general goods vendor. You need this item in your inventory in order to skin a mob, but you do not need to wield it to skin.

You may also find that Skinning can be used to complement your goldmaking in TBC Classic. For more information on this among other methods involving alternative professions, please see our separate guide on the topic:

The skill levels you will need to train at are:

• Apprentice Level can be learned when first picking up the profession, starts from a skill level of 1, and goes up to 75. It also requires your character to be Level 5.
• Journeyman Level can be learned when you reach a skill level of 50 and goes up to 150. It also requires your character to be Level 10.
• Expert Level can be learned when you reach a skill level of 125 and goes up to 225. It also requires your character to be Level 20.
• Artisan Level can be learned when you reach a skill level of 200 and goes up to 300. It also requires your character to be Level 35.
• Master Level can be learned when you reach a skill level of 275 and goes up to 375. It the highest Profession Level and also requires your character to be Level 55.

You can learn Skinning from any Skinning trainer, which are found in capital cities. When you arrive at a major city you can ask any city guard for directions, and pick the Skinning trainer option under the professions section. This will mark their location on your map, allowing you to easily find them and get the Skinning skill.

To learn Skinning past 300 skill level you must travel to Outland and talk with a master Skinner. Alliance and Horde players can find their respective trainers at:

• [A] Jelena Nightsky at Honor Hold in Hellfire Peninsula, around coordinates (54,63).
• [H] Moorutu at Thrallmar in Hellfire Peninsula, around coordinates (56,38).

Skinning is very different from other gathering professions, since it requires you to kill a mob in order to interact with the skill. If you are behind in skill level, or want to power-level Skinning, then here are the best places to train Skinning at each skill level.

1-65

Look for Beasts in any of the starting zones as they will yield either Ruined Leather Scraps or Light Leather. Aim to kill and skin anything you have slain, or anything killed by others in the area. It is very common for people in starting areas to kill and not skin their own Beasts, offering you essentially free skill-ups.

65-150

Before continuing on to the next area, make sure to head to your local trainer and learn Journeyman Skinning, allowing you to reach 150 skill level. 150.

Here we will need to start looking for higher level mobs that award Medium Leather and Heavy Leather. Aim to kill and skin mobs around the Level 13-30 range.

150-225

The first thing we need to make sure we do before we keep killing and skinning away is to head to the nearest major city and learn Expert Skinning, increasing our cap to 225.

Now that we can train Skinning up to 225 skill level, we will aim to skin mobs that drop Heavy Leather and Thick Hide. Try to be killing mobs in the level range of 30-45 as these will almost always offer you a skill increase.

225-300

Make sure to take one final trip to your nearest city and visit the local Skinning Trainer to learn Artisan Skinning, increasing your maximum skill level to 300.

We will focus on mobs around Levels 45-50 until we get to 250 Skinning, as this allows us to gather Rugged Leather. From here, focus on whichever mobs you can kill the fastest while also still getting nearly guaranteed skill-ups on each skin. The closer you get to 300 the higher the Level of enemy you will need to kill, but you can also choose to farm easy-to-kill mobs for a longer period of time.

Be sure to head to the appropriate trainer shown above to unlock Master Skinning, increasing your Skinning skill level cap to 375.

300-330

Hellfire Peninsula offers a multitude of lower-level Beasts, having plenty of boars and ravagers to skin all throughout the zone. You will want to stay here until at least 330 skinning, and staying even a bit past that is fine.

330-375

After reaching 330 skill, we will head to Nagrand as we can now skin all of the mobs we will be killing. Head to the northern side of Nagrand and proceed to kill and skin all Talbuks and Clefthoofs around you.

Clefthoofs in particular have a special drop, Thick Clefthoof Leather, which is an expensive endgame crafting material. You may choose to solely focus on killing and skinning these for the sake of pure moneymaking.

When your Skinning skill reaches 350, you will be able to skin the vast majority of mobs found in Outland. You can choose at this point to head to a higher-level zone for these last few skill-ups, or simply stay in Nagrand and finish it off; the difference in speed is very minor.

Throughout your adventures in Outland while skinning you may have come across a few rare or unique skinned leathers. These are typically used in gear crafting or endgame consumables and can be quite profitable when farmed.

• Fel Hide — Are most commonly obtained alongside normal leathers when skinning Demon-based mobs. These are used by Leatherworking to make items such as Fel Leather Boots and Fel Leather Leggings
• Thick Clefthoof Leather — Has a chance to drop when Skinning a Clefthoof mob. These are needed for a few Leatherworking patterns such as Nethercleft Leg Armor.
• Nether Dragonscales — These are a great goldmaker as any Leatherworker specializing in Dragonscale Leatherworking will need many of these to craft their gear.
• Cobra Scales — Can be difficult to farm as there are a very limited number of mobs they can be skinned from. These are most commonly used for physical DPS leg enchants, such as Nethercobra Leg Armor.