Skinning

Leveling

Proficiency	Level	Skill
Apprentice	5	1 - 75
Journeyman	10	50 - 150
Expert	20	125 - 225
Artisan	35	200 - 300

• You need to purchase a skinning knife. You can find skinning knives at Profession-related item merchants (or simply at the General trader). Remember to keep the skinning knife in your bag at all times (if you want to gain leather/hides/scales from the beasts you kill). You do not need to equip it, and if you do it will not count as a weapon for the purposes of weapon-based abilities.
• Also, keep in mind that skinning most beasts will result in you getting leather or hide of some kind. Some exceptions are sheep, which sometimes give you wool (which is used for Tailoring, not Leatherworking), Dragonkin of various types (such as Black Whelps) which give you scales or special skins not found among other monsters or beasts, and the like. Such 'uncommon' skins generally only have specific recipes (such as the Black Whelp Skins, which has a recipe that needs to be obtained independently as it is not taught by trainers found in major cities).

Color Codes

Any skinnable corpse will have a a color code on the "Skinnable" property when you move your pointer over it:

• Red: Not skinnable.
• Orange: Difficult to skin, may fail; high chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
• Yellow: Moderately difficult to skin, almost never fail; moderate chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
• Green: Easy to skin, should never fail; low chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
• Gray: Very easy to skin, should never fail; no chance of increasing Skinning skill level.

Max Beast level

Up to skinning 100, you can find out the highest level beast you can skin by: (Skinning skill)/10+10. From skinning level 100 and up the formula is simply: (Skinning skill)/5.

Skinning Skill	Max Beast Level
1	10
10	11
50	15
100	20
150	30
200	40
250	50
300	60

What You Gather

Leather

There are 6 basic leathers:

• [Ruined Leather Scraps] (lvl 1-17 mobs)
• [Light Leather] (lvl 1-27 mobs)
• [Medium Leather] (lvl 15-38 mobs)
• [Heavy Leather] (lvl 26-46 mobs)
• [Thick Leather] (lvl 35-58 mobs)
• [Rugged Leather] (lvl 45-60 mobs)

The  [Ruined Leather Scraps] which you get when skinning low level mobs are vendor sell items unless you also have Leatherworking, in which case 3 of them can be made into light leather. The frequency of getting these drops off rapidly around 10th level mobs and you will not see anymore of them at all once you are skinning 17th level and above mobs.

Plus a number of leather types that can only be skinned from certain mobs

• [Chimera Leather]
• [Devilsaur Leather]
• [Frostsaber Leather]
• [Thin Kodo Leather]
• Warbear leather
• [Primal Bat Leather] - obtained from bats in Zul'Gurub.
• [Primal Tiger Leather] - obtained from tigers in Zul'Gurub.
• [Core Leather] - obtained from Ancient Core Hounds in the Molten Core. Requires 310 Skinning.

Hides

You get hides the same way you get skins, but the drop rate is lower. All of the standard hides require Leatherworking to cure the hides before they can be used as ingredients for crafting items.

• [Light Hide], (10-27 lvl mobs)
  • [Cured Light Hide],
• [Medium Hide], (15-38 lvl mobs)
  • [Cured Medium Hide],
• [Heavy Hide], (26-46 lvl mobs)
  • [Cured Heavy Hide],
• [Thick Hide], (40-57 lvl mobs)
  • [Cured Thick Hide],
• [Rugged Hide], (47-59 lvl mobs)
  • [Cured Rugged Hide],

Some special hides do not need to be cured before they can be used:

• [Shadowcat Hide] - From Shadow Panthers in the Swamp of Sorrows and Shadowmaw Panthers in Stranglethorn Vale.
• [Thick Wolfhide] - From level 40+ wolves.
• [Pristine Hide of the Beast] - Requires 310 Skinning skill, which in turn requires Finkle's Skinner, which drops off The Beast itself, or  [Zulian Slicer] from Zul'Gurub.
• [Light Silithid Carapace]
• [Heavy Silithid Carapace]

Scales

These are used in Leatherworking patterns and drop when certain mobs are skinned. Scales from high-level mobs are used to create Mail class armor with the Leatherworking skill which is useful for Hunters and Shamans at level 40 and beyond.

• [Black Dragonscale]
• [Black Whelp Scale]
• [Blue Dragonscale]
• [Brilliant Chromatic Scale]
• [Deviate Scale]
• [Dreamscale]
• [Green Dragonscale]
• [Green Whelp Scale]
• [Heavy Scorpid Scale]
• [Heavy Silithid Carapace]
• [Light Silithid Carapace]
• [Perfect Deviate Scale]
• [Red Dragonscale]
• [Red Whelp Scale]
• [Scale of Onyxia]
• [Scorpid Scale]
• [Silithid Chitin]
• [Turtle Scale]
• [Worn Dragonscale]