WoW Skinning Guide | 1-450 Skinning Leveling Guide

Let's face it, Skinning can be tedious and take a lot of time to level. Every time you stop to skin a mob you lose time that could have been spent leveling. If you're primarily skinning in order to get leather for leatherworking you may want to just go ahead and buy the leather instead. There are some good Gold Guides out there to help you.

For power leveling your skinning following this guide you won't need to crack open your piggy bank and buy loads of materials from the Auction House. Instead you get to run around for hours right clicking mobs and then selling the lootz on the AH. Right clicking (skinning) mobs you say??!! Yes, isn't that your favorite thing to do? There isn't much more to say than to just guide you through the best zones to run through and grab the skinning skill you want. You probably don't even need the guide, you can probably just remember where you saw beasts during a particular level span and increase your skinning skill that way without even using a guide.

I have organized these beasts in this guide regionally, so you can go from one to the next quickly to get your skinning skill up as fast as possible. Although you will likely spend significantly more time killing and skinning mobs than you will traveling from zone to zone. I assume Alliance starts from Ironforge and Horde starts from Orgrimmar. Let the skinning guide begin!

Last Updated for Patch 3.3.5.

What's in this Skinning Leveling Guide:

Before you begin this skinning leveling guide you will want to make sure you pick up a skinning knife off a trade supply vendor or grab a gnomish army knife off of the auction house.

NPC Skinning Leveling Formulas

Below skill level 100: (Skinning Level / 10) + 10 and rounded down
..example 1: skinning level of 30 (30/10) + 10 = 13, max mob level that can be skinned is level 13
..example 2: skinning level of 95 (95/10) + 10 = 19.5 (round down) max level mob that can be skinned is 19

Over skill level 100: Skinning Level / 5
..example 1: skinning level of 321 (321/5) = 64.2 (round down) Max level of mob that can be skinned is 64
..example 2: skinning level of 449 (449/5) = 89.8 (round down) Max level of mob that can be skinned is 89

Alliance Skinning (Leveling 1-180)

This is the beginning section of this guide for alliance. Keep in mind you will have to revisit the skinning trainer in order to increase your max skill past 75 and again at 150 in order to make it to 180 in this section.

Level
Zone
Mobs
1-75
Dun Morogh, South of Kharanos
Craig Boars and Wendigos
NPC Level 1-10. Any starting area has beasts to skin for this section of the leveling guide
75-130
Loch Modan
Bear, Boars, Threshadons
NPC Level 14-20.
130-180
Wetlands
Crocolisks, Raptors, Whelps
NPC Level 20-29. Start west by Menethil as you get higher go to the Raptors in North or East at the dig site


Horde Skinning (Leveling 1-180)

This is the beginning section for Horde of this leveling guide. Keep in mind you will have to revisit the skinning trainer in order to increase your max skill past 75 and again at 150 in order to make it to 180 in this section.

Level
Zone
Mobs
1-75
Durotar
Mottled Boars, Scorpids
NPC Level 1-10. Any starting area has beasts to skin for this section of the leveling guide
75-130
The Barrens
Plainstriders, Prowlers
NPC Level 10-25. Start in Northern part first and work way down as skill gets higher
130-180
Thousand Needles
Hyenas, Lions, Wyverns, Thunderhawks
NPC Level 25-31.


Old World Skinning (Leveling 180-300)

At this point in the guide it is feasible that both the Alliance and Horde can do these leveling guide sections. Remember to go past skill 225 you will have to go back to the trainer in order to get to 300 in this section.

Level
Zone
Mobs
180-220
Northern Stranglethorn Vale
Raptors, Panthers, Tigers
NPC Level 30-37. Stay in The Northern half of Stranglethorn, if you head south the mob levels will increase possibly beyond your current skill level.
220-250
Near Gurabashi Arena, Stranglethorn Vale
Raptors, Gorillas, Basilisks
NPC Level 37-44. To the east of the Arena is a cave with Basilisks in them that is good also
250-300
Azshara
Stags, Hippogryphs
250-300
Un'Goro Crater
Any of the Dinosaurs
Western area is higher level than eastern


TBC Skinning (Leveling 300-375)

Moving on to The Burning Crusade expansion we will look to progress from 300-375. Now, I'm going to point out right now that you can level past 300 in the Old World as you can also level from 350 up in WOTLK, so if you want to stay in Old World or go to Northrend around 350, have at it. Just remember you will have to go to the Master Skinning Trainer in the Outlands to raise your skill from past 300.

Level
Zone
Mobs
300-325
Eastern Plaguelands, Winterspring, Silithus
Most of Zones
If you don't want to go to Hellfire Peninsula yet, you can stay back in the high level old world zones and get up to 325ish, but make sure you see the Master Skinning Trainer in outlands to raise your skill past 300
300-310
Hellfire Peninsula
Hellboars
Eastern to Central Hellfire Peninsula
310-330
Hellfire Peninsula
Ravagers, Boars
Western Hellfire Peninsula
330-350
Nagrand
Clefthoofs
Lots of them available in the south-central region by Oshgun
350-375
Shadowmoon Valley, Blades Edge Mountains, Netherstorm
Beasts in Any of the Zones (there are a lot)
This step can be done in Northrend if you wish to, any starting area will work


WOTLK Skinning (Leveling 375-450)

For the Wrath of the Lich King leveling guide section you can actually stay in these areas longer after they turn green and still get skilled up pretty fast, the guide is intended to move you to more optimal areas where you might actually get better leather and skills faster.

You can actually start in the Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord at around 350 if you don't want to get to 375 in The Burning Crusade zones. As thorough as this guide is, Skinning has been made a joke in Wrath of the Lich King. While I was testing this guide I walked from Howling Fjord to Grizzly Hills to Zuldrak just killing things on the way and skinning them and I went from 375-450 within an hour or two.

If you are just leveling your skinning to leveling your leatherworking you may want to think again, my advice is to buy everything to save time. If you don't have the money there are Gold Guides available to you. I've used a lot of the tips in them to make a lot of money, it allows me to just unlearn professions and retest these guides whenever I want even though it costs thousands of gold.

Level
Zone
Mobs
350-405
East of Westguard Keep or West of Ford Wildervar, Howling Fjord
Shoveltusks, Rams
375-405
South of Fizzcrank's Airstrip, Borean Tundra
Mammoths
405-430
Grizzly Hills
Deer, Bear, Wolves, other beasts
430-450
Sholazar Basin
Giraffes, Crocolisks, Gorillas, etc (there are a lot)


Supplemental, Loot Meat while you Skin for WOTLK Feasts

You can skin the following animals and collect their meat for cooking so that you can eat a feast. The following four animals drop meat for a feast: Mammoths, Worms, Shoveltusk, and Chiled meat which drops off just about any beast.

Chilled Meat - Drops from almost all animals
Shoveltusk Meat - Drops from Shoveltusks in Howling Fjord
Worm Meat - Drops off worms west of Dun Niffel in The Storm Peaks
Mammoth Meat - Drops off various mammoths in Dragonblight and Borean Tundra

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