Step By Step Guide to Leatherworking in WoW: Trade Skill Guides for 3.2 and Beyond for the Most Popular MMORPG Including WoW 3.2 Changes

Step By Step Guide to Leatherworking in WoW: Trade Skill Guides for 3.2 and Beyond for the Most Popular MMORPG Including WoW 3.2 Changes
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Introduction to Leatherworking

Leatherworking as a profession is in some ways quite similar to Tailoring. Just like tailoring, leatherworking allows one to craft different kinds of equipment/gear to boost certain stats of a character. While tailoring mainly focuses on different types of cloth that is dropped

from monsters in World of Warcraft, leatherworking depends heavily on leather which can be scavenged/skinned from beasts in the world.

Besides being able to craft different kinds of gear for yourselves and others (to make some side cash), leatherworking does have some additional goodies. To name a few, leg armor patches, different kinds of drums that boost certain type of stats for a stipulated amount of time, quivers and ammo pouches that can be used by hunters, Mining and Inscription bags used by Miners and Jewelcrafters to store ores and jewels etc.. etc..

And last but not the least are the leatherworker-only patches, also known as Fur Lining which was introduced in Wrath of the Lich King patch. These patches are incredibly useful as they boost a certain types of stats of your choice, which can be applied to your bracers. Of course this would negate the ability to have a normal enchant on that particular slot but these leatherworking-only enchants/patches are far more superior to normal enchants that Enchanters can normally do. This is quite similar to Inscription specific shoulder enchants or Jewelcrafting specific gems or Tailoring specific cloak - embroidery or Engineering specific hand mounted pyro rockets.

More About Leatherworking

Typically most leatherworkers go with skinning as their secondary profession. They both go very well together, as most of the leather you would end up skinning while leveling would get used to skill up on leatherworking. Although it’s not necessarily needed as a secondary profession it is indeed recommended to pick skinning as your secondary profession if you plan to choose leatherworking as your main.

Another peculiar characteristic of this profession that is similar to some other crafting professions in WoW is the ability to choose specialization. At 225 skill level you will get to choose between 3 specializations, namely - Elemental Leatherworking, Tribal Leatherworking and Dragonscale Leatherworking. Elemental helps one make gear best suitable for feral druids or rogues. Tribal is best suited for Moonkin druids. Dragonscale produces mail armor for hunters and caster shamans. However after Wrath of the Lich King was introduced, this specialization doesn’t really benefit that much since most of the epic gear can be crafted without having to choose any one particular specialization. So it is merely a personal choice with respect to your class and the talent points you choose.

Getting Started: Leatherworking Materials to be Gathered

Approximate Materials to be gathered:

Ruined Leather Scraps - 57

Coarse Thread - 55

Light Hide - 40

Medium Hide - 10

Salt - 140

Light Leather - 170

Medium Leather - 150

Fine Thread - 140

Gray Dye - 15

Heavy Hide - 30

Heavy Leather - 305

Bolts Of Silk Cloth - 20

Thick Leather - 385

Silken Thread - 150

Rugged Leather - 455

Black Dye - 40

Rune Thread - 40

Knothide Leather Scraps - 100

Knothide Leather - 540

Fel Scales - 28

Borean Leather - 1830

Crystallized Water - 75

Arctic Fur - 10

Nerubian Chitin or Icy Dragonscale - 10

Frozen Orb - 5

Apprentice Leatherworking: 1 - 65

First off, get to a trainer available in all major cities and learn Apprentice Leatherworking. Keep a check on the locations of

Leatherworking Supplies Vendor

Leatherworking supplies vendors around the world. You will need quite a few supplies from these guys.

1 - 20: Convert some Ruined Leather Scraps into Light Leather, 19 to be precise.

21 - 30 or 1 - 30: Light Armor Kit. You can make these right from level 1 if you don’t happen to have Ruined Leather Scraps with you.

31 - 35: Grab some of the Light Leather you just made and make 5 Handstitched Leather Cloak.

36 - 65: Make 40 Cured Light Hide.

Journeyman Leatherworking: 66 - 130

66 - 85: Use some more Light Leather to craft Embossed Leather Gloves - Decent stats for noob rogues or feral druids at levels below 15.

86 - 100: 15 x Fine Leather Belt. Save these by the way. You will be using them soon.

101 - 115: Get some Medium Hide and turn them into Cured Medium Hide.

116 - 125: Craft 10 Dark Leather Boots till 125.

126 - 130: Make 5 Dark Leather Cloak to advance to Expert Leatherworking

Expert Leatherworking: 131 - 210

131 - 145: Use the Fine Leather Belt you made previously and make 15 Dark Leather Belt.

Leatherworking Supplies Bank

146 - 150: Make 5 Hillman’s Leather Gloves to get to 150.

151 - 165: Some more Cured Hides. Cured Heavy Hide this time. Make 30 of these and save them too. You will be using them shortly.

166 - 170: 5 x Heavy Armor Kit. If you are lucky and reach 170 just by making Cured Heavy Hide then you can skip this part.

171 - 180: Time to use some Heavy Leather. Make 10 Guardian Pants till 180.

181 - 190: 10 x Barbaic Shoulders - Very nice shoulders at those mid 30 stages.

191 - 210: Wrap up Expert Leatherworking by crafting 20 Guardian Gloves.

Artisan Leatherworking: 211 - 275

Thick Leather and Rugged Leather would get used significantly from now on until 300 where you would be switching to Outland. As mentioned above, once you reach 225 skill-level you can choose one of the specializations which are Elemental, Tribal and Dragonscale.

211 - 235: Things go a bit slow here. You would have to make around 35 of Nightscape Headband to reach the desired level.

236 - 250: Make 15 Nightscape Pants to reach 250.

251 - 260: Now you should be done with Thick Leather. So it is time to move on to Rugged Leather. Grab 75 Rugged Leather and craft 15 Rugged Armor Kit which will get you to 260.

261 - 275: Here you have 2 options.

  • Wicked Leather Gauntlets - 8 Rugged Leather, 1 Black Dye, 1 Rune Thread - Recipe Location
  • Heavy Scorpid Bracers - 4 Rugged Leather, 1 Heavy Scorpid Scale, 1 Rune Thread - Recipe Location

If you happen to have some Heavy Scorpid Scale lying around or if they happen to be significantly cheaper than Rugged Leather you could go with the 2nd option, as you can see Heavy Scorpid Bracers uses half the amount of Rugged Leather as compared to Wicked Leather Gauntlets. Once you are done with these you can move to Outland and stop worrying about Azeroth leather.

Master Leatherworking: 276 - 350

276 - 285: Again 2 options.

  • Wicked Leather Bracers - 8 Rugged Leather, 1 Black Dye, 1 Rune Thread
  • Frostsaber Boots - 4 Rugged Leather, 1 Essence of Water, 1 Rune Thread

Make 10 of either of the two above options to get to 285. Again, check prices on the Auction House and decide accordingly.

Leatherworking Items

286 - 300: 15 x Wicked Leather Headband

301 - 310: Convert Knothide Leather Scraps into Knothide Leather. Would probably have to repeat it 20 times to reach 310.

311 - 325: Make 25 Knothide Armor Kit.

326 - 330: Grab the Knothide Leather you just made and convert them into Heavy Knothide Leather. Keep repeating the process till you reach 330.

331 - 340: Craft 10 Thick Draenic Vest.

341 - 350: Scaled Draenic Boots till you reach 350. You might need to make 13 to 15 of these as the recipe turns yellow at 345. But it’s the cheapest as compared to other recipes at that level.

Grandmaster Leatherworking: 351 - 450

In this final leg, It’s time for Borean Leather, and LOTS of it, mind you.

351 - 380: Convert Borean Leather into Borean Armor Kit. These kits will sell very well on the AH, so you can make some decent profit out of it.

381 - 385: Make 5 Arctic Boots.

386 - 390: You need 5 of Iceborne Shoulderpads here.

391 - 405: Go make yourself a cup of coffee and some sandwiches here for this part. Make around 250+ Heavy Borean Leather. Should easily get you to 405 where it turns gray.

406 - 415: From here on you would be making blue items so the cost of mats is going to skyrocket. 11 - 13 Dark Frostscale Leggings.

Braeg Stoutbeard

416 - 420: 5 x Pack of Endless Pockets. A neat 32 slot Inscription Bag that will make some good money on the AH.

421 - 425: Make 5 Overcast Bracers. This NPC sells the recipe for this item. He also happens to sell most of the epic patterns in Wrath of the Lich King. Each of them costing either Heavy Borean Leather or Arctic Fur.

426 - 435: Now you need Overcast Handwraps to get to 435 - Will probably need to make around 13 to get there.

436 - 440: 2 of these options.

Frosthide Leg Armor - 2 Arctic Fur, 2 Nerubian Chitin, 1 Frozen Orb

Icescale Leg Armor - 2 Arctic Fur, 2 Icy Dragonscale, 1 Frozen Orb

441 - 450: These last 10 points would mostly go slow. Best thing to do here is to take it slow and make the different types of epic recipes that are available 1 by 1. Or you can continue to make the Leg Armor patches you made previously. You would be making most of the money back anyway by selling them.

Congratulations on cracking to 450 with Leatherworking!!!. Hope you liked this guide and it helped you in your journey to 450. Adios!!