WoW Forever Leatherworking: Ranks, 1-300 Leveling & Best Recipes

What Leatherworking Gives You in WoW Forever

Leatherworking is a primary profession that turns leather, hides and scales into Leather and Mail armor, armor kits, ammo pouches and camp objects. Skill caps at 300. In WoW Forever the profession gains roughly 270 new recipes, around 500 in total, and many of them cover whole roles from belt to leggings.

Here is what matters right away. New role sets open at 60 skill, so you can wear crafted gear almost from the start. The old Classic leveling route is partly out of date, because recipes turn yellow and gray sooner. The best partner is Skinning, which supplies nearly all of your raw materials.

Below you will find ranks and trainers, specializations, the 1-300 route, camp objects, recipes bought with Merchant's Favor, the best 300 recipes and ways to make gold.

Ranks, Trainers and Specializations

Each rank raises the skill cap by 75 points. You can learn the next rank before you hit 75 or 150, but every rank after the first also needs a character level.

Apprentice and Journeyman are taught in the capitals and several villages. Each faction has a single Expert trainer: Telonis in Darnassus for the Alliance and Una in Thunder Bluff for the Horde. Artisan is taught by Drakk Stonehand in Aerie Peak (The Hinterlands) and Hahrana Ironhide in Camp Mojache (Feralas). They also teach recipes that regular trainers do not, so the trip pays off.

If your character is far from level 35, that stretch is easy to cover with Hourly Driving while you collect hides on the way. If you want the leveling done for you, there is the 1-60 Leveling service.

There are three specializations and you can pick only one. The quests come late in the route, when skill is approaching 225-250.

• Dragonscale Leatherworking - Mail armor for Hunters and Shamans. Trainers: Peter Galen (Azshara) for the Alliance and Thorkaf Dragoneye (Badlands) for the Horde.

• Elemental Leatherworking - Leather gear for physical damage. Trainers: Sarah Tanner (Searing Gorge) and Brumn Winterhoof (Arathi Highlands).

• Tribal Leatherworking - Leather for Druids and Rogues. The Alliance trainer is Caryssia Moonhunter in Feralas.

Specialization recipes are marked on the pattern itself. The route to 300 does not need one, so choose by the armor you wear.

Leveling 1-300 Step by Step

The whole route takes about 455 crafts, and the exact number depends on your luck with skill-ups. A recipe always gives a point while orange, often while yellow and rarely once green. The figures below are approximate, and individual steps may shift a little between servers and route versions.

• 1-75. Start with Light Leather from scraps, then Light Armor Kit, Handstitched Leather Boots and Embossed Leather Gloves from the trainer. You only need Light Leather and Coarse Thread. Learn Journeyman as soon as you have 50 skill and level 10 so the gloves keep giving points.

• 75-150. Medium Leather, Fine Leather Belt, Nimble Leather Gloves, then Cured Heavy Hide and Hillman's Leather Gloves. The Cured Heavy Hide step ties into the Tanning Rack: after the November 6 hotfix it needs 125 skill instead of 140, but skill-ups from rack crafts are reduced by 15, so this stretch may run a little longer.

• 150-225. Green Leather Belt, Green Leather Bracers, Guardian Gloves, Nightscape Headband and Thick Leather Ammo Pouch. Heavy Leather gives way to Thick Leather, and you need Silken Thread, dyes and buckles from a Blacksmith.

• 225-300. Nightscape Pants from the Artisan trainer, then Wicked Leather Gauntlets, Heavy Scorpid Gauntlets, Wicked Leather Headband, Runic Leather Headband and Heavy Scorpid Helm. Some patterns drop from mobs in the Burning Steppes and Felwood, others are sold by vendors in the Eastern Plaguelands and Silithus. The last step needs Cured Rugged Hide, crafted at a Tanning Rack.

In order of magnitude, expect hundreds of Light, Medium and Heavy Leather in the first half and around 900 Rugged Leather in the second, plus Heavy Scorpid Scale. Thread, salt and dyes are cheap at vendors, so leather is the main cost. Keep about 10% extra.

If you would rather not spend hours gathering, a ready-made profession kit covers the materials.

Leatherworking Camp Objects

Camp objects are placed next to a campfire, and all camp features share a one-hour cooldown. There are three Leatherworking objects.

• Camp Tent. Available from 20 skill and costs five Light Leather. Players sitting nearby get an experience bonus, so you can use it from the first zones.

• Tanning Rack. Needs 125 skill after the November 6 hotfix. It lets you craft hides like Cured Rugged Hide and several other materials. The item is consumed when placed, so load the reagents for the whole batch into your bags first.

• Sewing Machine. Unlocks at 300 skill and is needed for advanced recipes.

If you do not own the rack blueprint, you can craft at another Leatherworker's camp. The Field Guide perk, covered below, shortens the camp cooldown.

What Is New and Which Class Benefits

WoW Forever adds 13 set families: Brawler's, Defender's, Mender's, Prowler's, Skirmisher's, Skulker's, Skycaller's, Stalker's, Stormrider's, Totemic, Trapper's, Warden's and Wisdom's. The main roles get a belt at 60 skill, then gloves, boots, hood, tunic and leggings, while later families suit Hunters and Shamans in Mail. Most pieces from the new patterns are Bind on Equip, so you do not need the profession just to wear them.

Two new armor kit lines also arrive: Forceful adds Attack Power and Mystic adds Spell Power. They upgrade the classic Thick and Rugged kits. Pristine Leather and Fel Hide are new materials, so avoid vendoring them.

The profession suits Rogues, Druids, Hunters and Shamans, because they wear what they make. Every other class still uses armor kits and ammo pouches.

Best Recipes and Merchant's Favor Purchases

At 300 skill, look at helms, tier pieces and top-rank armor kits. Helms demand more materials than leveling recipes: Fel Leather, scales and several Cured Rugged Hide.

• Armor kits. Forceful Rugged Armor Kit and Mystic Rugged Armor Kit top the new lines. They need Alchemy and Enchanting reagents.

• Specializations. Each has a signature recipe: Black Dragonscale Breastplate, Hide of the Wild and Molten Helm. Lokhtos Darkbargainer sells the Molten Helm pattern in Blackrock Depths to players with good Thorium Brotherhood standing.

• Tier pieces. According to player reports, patterns for Druids, Rogues, Hunters and Shamans are sold by Aisarra Nightmeadow in Mount Hyjal and require Friendly standing with the Guardians of Hyjal.

About 80 patterns are bought with Merchant's Favor, earned by turning in Waylaid supply crates. Vendors are Daniel Stitchsong for the Alliance in Redridge Mountains and Pawani for the Horde. The price depends on the pattern's skill.

• 30 Favor, no reputation. Patterns for 60-125 skill, such as Brawler's Leather Belt.

• 60 Favor, Friendly. Patterns around 175-210 skill, such as Warden's Leather Shoulders.

• 90 Favor, Honored. Patterns for 225-250 skill, such as Mystic Rugged Armor Kit.

• 1,000 Favor. Leatherworking Certification at 300 skill, which unlocks the account-wide title "the Leatherworker".

Making Gold with Leatherworking

The steadiest demand comes from armor kits, which every class uses, and from leather for supply crates. Forceful and Mystic kits usually cost more than basic ones: they need reagents from other professions, so supply is thinner.

Finished armor sells more slowly. The November 10 hotfix cut what vendors pay for some crafted armor, so vendoring it is a poor plan. Sell pieces for leveling characters, and Mail for Hunters and Shamans, to players instead.

Before an expensive craft, compare the result's price with the materials on your server: sometimes selling Pristine Leather or Rugged Leather raw pays more. If you need gold right away for patterns and materials, you can buy Gold and spend less time farming.

Legacy Perks for Leatherworking

The profession earns Legacy Points through three milestones: one point for first reaching 150, 225 and 300 skill on your account. Three perks noticeably speed up the work.

• Working Overtime - 5 ranks that raise the chance of a skill-up. Player reports put it at around 4% per rank.

• Dedicated Study - about once a day adds a point to your lowest profession.

• Field Guide - 3 ranks that shorten the shared cooldown on camp objects.

Together they noticeably speed up leveling from zero and help if several characters need Leatherworking: Legacy Points are shared across the account.