PROFESSIONS · 1 TO 300 GUIDE
Skinning
Gathering · Updated October 30, 2026
You skin the beasts you kill for leather and hides. It barely slows you down, since you're already killing them for quests. One of the best ways to earn gold while leveling, and the base for Leatherworking.
What to pair it with: Leatherworking (hunters, druids, rogues and shamans). It also pairs well with another gathering skill for gold.
What changes in Forever
- The basics don't change: the skill you need depends on the beast's level, up to 300.
- Each creature can be skinned only once, then it despawns (Blizzard set it back this way during the beta, as in the original game).
- Starter manual: an early quest lets you choose Pelt Collecting for Beginners, which teaches Skinning and gives +2 skill. Every starting zone also has a junior trainer up to 75.
- New materials: Fel Hide, Fel Leather, Pristine Scale, Pristine Leather and Pristine Hide, plus Scarce materials that drop as a bonus.
- Camp: Camp Chair (20, +2% critical strike), Field Guide (140, also tracks beasts) and Trapper's Workbench (300, also gives you a trap).
- Legacy: Working Overtime (better skill-up chance) and Bountiful Harvest (up to 100% more Scarce materials from Mining, Herbalism and Skinning).
From 1 to 300, step by step
| 1-75 | Bestias de nivel 1-15 character level 1-12 Your starting zone. Horde: Durotar (Mottled Boars in the Valley of Trials), Mulgore, Tirisfal. Alliance: Elwynn (Young Wolves and Timber Wolves in Northshire), Dun Morogh, Teldrassil. Skyborne: Zephras Isle. You need a Skinning Knife in your bags. Journeyman at 50 skill and level 10, from a full trainer. |
|---|---|
| 75-125 | Bestias de nivel 15-25 character level 12-22 The Barrens: Sunscale Scytheclaw, Zhevra Charger and Ornery Plainstrider (16-18), at the raptor camp west of Northwatch Hold. Alliance: Loch Modan (Elder Mountain Boar, Black Bear Patriarch, Loch Crocolisk, 16-17), Darkshore, Westfall, Redridge Mountains. Rule: up to level 10, skill 1; levels 11-19, 10 points per level (level 15 = 50); from 20, level × 5. Expert at 125 and level 20. |
| 125-150 | Bestias de nivel 25-30 character level 22-28 Wetlands: Mottled Scytheclaw and Mottled Razormaw (25-27) near Whelgar's Excavation Site. Also the southern Barrens, Hillsbrad Foothills and Ashenvale. If you're at the Excavation Site, there's also the new Whelgar's Excavation dungeon (24-29). |
| 150-205 | Bestias de nivel 30-40 character level 30-40 Hillsbrad Foothills yeti cave (Cave Yeti and Ferocious Yeti, 30-32), Thousand Needles (Shimmering Flats), Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Dustwallow Marsh, Badlands and Riverglades. Artisan at 200 skill and level 35: after that you don't need the trainer again. Riverglades (35-45) has boars, coyotes, crocolisks and vultures, but their levels haven't been published. |
| 205-260 | Bestias de nivel 41-52 character level 42-52 Feralas (best): the Feral Scar Vale cave in the south, with Feral Scar Yeti, Enraged Feral Scar and Hulking Feral Scar (43-46). Also Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Searing Gorge and Azshara. Horde from Camp Mojache; Alliance from Feathermoon Stronghold. |
| 260-300 | Bestias de nivel 52-60 character level 50-60 Un'Goro Crater (best): the western dinosaurs (Diemetradon, Pterrordax, Elder Diemetradon, Frenzied Pterrordax, 50-55) out of Marshal's Refuge. Then Winterspring, Silithus, Felwood, Blasted Lands and the Plaguelands. Level 60 beasts need 300. At 300, the account title. |
Trainers
- Ranks: Apprentice 1-75 (level 1), Journeyman 50-150 (level 10), Expert 125-225 (level 20), Artisan 200-300 (level 35).
- Horde: Thuwd (Orgrimmar), Killian Hagey (Undercity), Mooranta (Thunder Bluff), Yonn Deepcut (Bloodhoof Village), Rand Rhobart (Tirisfal).
- Alliance: Maris Granger (Stormwind), Balthus Stoneflayer (Ironforge), Eladriel (Darnassus), Helene Peltskinner (Goldshire), Radnaal Maneweaver (Teldrassil).
- Skyborne (Zephras Isle): the quest Harvesting Windstones, choosing Pelt Collecting for Beginners. Then Ishlee Breezewhisper (Valanaar) or Mendalass Tattermend (Shen'dar Village).
What is worth the most
- Rugged Leather and Thick Leather: Leatherworking burns through them at 60.
- Scales and hides from Un'Goro and raids (dinosaurs, dragons): pricey Leatherworking materials.
- The new Pristine and Fel materials, which Forever recipes ask for.
Tips
- Skin everything you kill: it's the profession that costs you the least time.
- In a group, skin fast: each creature can only be skinned once.
- Bonuses: Enchant Gloves - Skinning (+5) and the advanced version (+10), Keen Skinning Knife (+3) and Cartilage Shapers (+4).
- Great on a hunter: your pet kills and you skin.
- If those beasts also drop meat, level Cooking at the same time.
What we don't know yet
- Which beasts drop the Pristine and Fel materials, and which traps the Trapper's Workbench gives.
- Beast levels in Riverglades and on Zephras Isle.
- Everything from 150 up is the classic route: the beta stopped at level 30.
This guide is updated every time Blizzard publishes changes. Whatever is still missing goes in as soon as it is known, and the date at the top tells you when we last touched it.
Sources: Warcraft Tavern: Skinning en Forever · wow-professions: Skinning 1-300 en Forever · Zockify: profesiones en Forever · Warcraft Wiki: Riverglades.