Leatherworking is an import crafting profession in WoW Classic, offering several different leather armor recipes and armor kits to keep you nice and safe. Rogues and druids are particularly fond of the skill, as they can take natural advantage of the crafted armor. There are several different ways to reach 300, but this guide should get you there in a time and cost-efficient manner!
As the name suggests, the leatherworking profession makes work of leather. This leather will be found on beasts all across Azeroth and can be collected using the skinning skill. You’ll also need hides and cloth to make specific recipes, but those will all be covered more below.
Although the name does only mention leather, high level leatherworkers can also make mail armor for shaman and hunter characters. They are also sought after for their ability to craft the essential Onyxia Scale Cloak and Core Armor Kit, offering key defensive bonuses.
Helping to diversify the skill is the ability to specialize. There are three distinct specializations of leatherworking, each leading to specific crafting recipes pertaining to a certain type of class. All of this makes leatherworking crucial for any serious gaming team.
Trainers for leatherworking are distributed in a similar fashion to other crafting professions. The first half of training can be done in any major city, expert training must be done in a specific city, and artisan training requires you to leave the comfort of a major city. Don’t forget to ask a guard for help locating a leatherworking trainer within the city! Here’s where you can find each leatherworking trainer:
There are a few things you should know when considering leatherworking. You’ll want to keep in mind what profession you’ll pair with it, while also considering what specialization to choose later on. Here’s what you need to know:
You certainly can pick any profession to pair, but your best choice is undoubtedly skinning. Leatherworking requires literally thousands of leather to reach 300, so you’ll probably want to have the skill that allows you to gather them (unless you’re filthy rich!) It is often helpful to level leatherworking while you’re leveling skinning, so that you have a good idea of how far you need to go.
Upon reaching 225 in leatherworking, you’ll have the option to specialize in one of three different choices, unlockable by a quest. Each choice has a similar set of core recipes, but also allows for the creation of several unique recipes to that specialization. What specialization you choose largely depends upon the purpose you have for leatherworking in general. If you’re using it to craft armor for your own character, you’ll want to make sure and choose a specialization well suited for your class.
Here’s what each specialization entails:
The total amount of materials that you’ll end up needing will ultimately vary based on your luck, but this should serve as a good starting point for what you’ll need. There are a couple of odd things you’ll need, mainly iron buckles and bolts of silk cloth. Everything else is fairly standard and comes from a vendor or is skinned off beasts. Here’s what you should be prepared to collect:
These are the patterns that cannot be learned from trainers and must either be found, or purchased from vendors, the Auction House, or other players directly.
Pattern: Wicked Leather Gauntlets: Sold by – Leonard Porter (Alliance) Western Plaguelands / Werg Thickblade (Horde) Tirisfal Glades
Once you’ve reached 225 in leatherworking, you now have the ability to choose between leatherworking specialization. Because each one requires completion of a quest (or series), each specialization will be broken down below.
While it isn’t the hardest to obtain, dragonscale leatherworking certainly has the costliest individual requirement. You don’t need to complete any prerequisite quests, but the item cost is almost enough itself. Here’s what you need to do:
Learning elemental leatherworking is arguably the easiest of all the specializations. You’ll need turn in a total of 8 items to your faction’s elemental leatherworker, and you don’t need to complete any quests beforehand. Here’s what you’ll need to complete the quest:
Tribal leatherworking is actually the most time-consuming specialization to choose, simply because you’ll need to complete the entire wild leather questline prior to starting the tribal leatherworking quest. Here’s how to complete the quest and preceding questline:
Light Armor Kit x50 (1x Light Leather)
For your very first recipe, you’ll make an iconic craft of the leatherworking profession: armor kits! You’ll want to make a grand total of around 50, or enough to get you up to 45 leatherworking.
Cured Light Hide x15 (1x Light Hide + 1x Salt)
Now that you’ve hit 45, you’re going to feel like a true leatherworker on this next recipe. Now you’ll need to cure 15 light hides, using salt to do the trick.
Embossed Leather Gloves x20 (3x Light Leather + 2x Coarse Thread)
It is now time to make your first piece of armor! You can make some nice and comfy gloves, 20 of them should be enough. Once you reach 75 leatherworking, don’t forget to train in journeyman leatherworking!
* = will be crafted during this guide.
Embossed Leather Gloves x30 (3x Light Leather + 2x Coarse Thread)
Now that you’re at 75 leatherworking, you can keep making those warm gloves! You’ll need to make a lot, probably 30 more to reach 100 leatherworking. Just think of how happy you’ll make people with your nice and warm, hand-stitched gloves!
Cured Medium Hide x20 (1x Medium Hide + 1x Salt)
Okay, enough with the gloves. It is time to cure some more hides! This time you’ll cure medium hides. Don’t forget to save these as you’ll need them in a few levels!
Fine Leather Belt x15 (6x Light Leather + 2x Coarse Thread)
Now you’re finally going to make another piece of armor! This time you’ll make some fine leather belts. Once you’ve got 15 nice and fine belts, don’t forget to save them because you’ll actually turn them into even fancier belts with the next recipe!
The Fine Leather Belt does go to green at about 125. This can make getting your Leatherworking to 135 slightly more difficult than one might expect. It can also increase the amount of materials you will need to get there. If you’d like an alternative, you can get the pattern for the Light Leather Pants at the same trainer as the Fine Leather Belt. If you do this, you will need to adjust your material amounts accordingly, as the pants require 10 Light Leather, 1 Cured Light Hide and 1 Fine Thread each to craft.
Dark Leather Belt x15 (1x Fine Leather Belt + 1x Cured Medium Hide +2x Fine Thread + 1x Gray Dye)
Are you ready for some leatherworking magic? Turn your fine leather belts into dark leather belts! All you need to do is add a cured medium hide, some gray dye, and some more fine thread! After you’ve made 15 wonderful belts, pick up expert leatherworking from your trainer. For Alliance players, this is with Telonis in Darnassus, while Horde players train with Una in Thunder Bluff.
If you took the advice from the note above, you will not have any Fine Leather Belts to make the Dark Leather Belt! In this case, your next best option, which may even be a better one, are the Hillman’s Shoulders. Remember that you will again need to adjust your materials budget, as the shoulders require 4 Medium Leather, 1 Cured Medium Hide and 1 Fine Thread.
* = will be crafted during this guide.
Cured Heavy Hide x10 (1x Heavy Hide + 3x Salt)
Now that you’re an expert leatherworking, you get to up the ante when it comes to curing hides. Now that you can cure heavy hides, you’ll need a whopping 3 salt for each cure! Insane! Altogether you’ll want to cure 10 heavy hides, and like before, save them for later!
Heavy Armor Kit x25 (5x Heavy Leather + 1x Fine Thread)
Up next are some heavy armor kits! These are actually very useful, so use them on your own armor and give them to allies! Make enough of them to get to 180 leatherworking.
Barbaric Shoulders x10 (8x Heavy Leather + 1x Cured Heavy Hide +2x Fine Thread)
Now that you’re 180 in leatherworking, take your cured heavy hides from earlier to make some barbaric shoulders! These are some nice looking shoulderpads, and are sure to fetch a pretty penny on the auction house! You’ll need to make 10 of them for our purposes.
Dusky Bracers x5 (16x Heavy Leather +2x Silken Thread + 1x Black Dye)
The next recipe calls for some dusky bracers. If you’re in a dark room, you might not even be able to see them! That’s because you’ll need some black dye to give these bad boys a sneaky dark appeal. 5 of these bracers should do the trick.
Dusky Belt x10 (10x Heavy Leather + 2x Bolt of Silk Cloth + 2x Black Dye + 1x Iron Buckle)
Moving on from the bracers, you should now make some dusky belts! This recipe does require some iron buckles, which can be made with the blacksmithing skill. Either way, find 10 of them to make 10 belts.
Nightscape Headband / Tunic x20 (5x Thick Leather + 2x Silken Thread)
At 205 leatherworking, you can craft the iconic nightscape headband! These often sell well on the auction house, serving as a great mid-level helmet. Alternatively, you can also craft the tunic if you want some variation. Make enough of them to reach 225, unlocking artisan leatherworking! At this point, Alliance players should head to Drakk Stonehand in The Hinterlands, while Horde players will go to Hahrana Ironhide in Feralas.
Nightscape Headband / Tunic x5 (5x Thick Leather + 2x Silken Thread)
Nothing new here, you’ll just want to continue making headbands or tunics to reach 230 leatherworking.
Nightscape Pants x20 (14x Thick Leather + 4x Silken Thread)
At 230 leatherworking, you can finally mix things up a bit. Now you can make nightscape pants! These take quite a lot of thick leather, so this might slow you down a bit on your way to 300. Make about 20 of them to get to 250 leatherworking.
Nightscape Boots x10 (16x Thick Leather + 2x Heavy Silken Thread)
If you thought the pants were bad, nightscape boots require even more thick leather. Fortunately, you only need to get to 260 leatherworking, requiring only 10 boots.
Wicked Leather Gauntlets x10 (8x Rugged Leather + 1x Black Dye + 1x Rune Thread)
At this point you’ve finally graduated to rugged leather! That’s great news, but it also starts to get quite expensive. For your wicked leather gauntlets, you’ll need 8 rugged leather for each pair. 10 gauntlets should get you up to 270 leatherworking.
Wicked Leather Bracers x10 (8x Rugged Leather + 1x Black Dye + 1x Rune Thread)
After making gauntlets, it is now time to make bracers! Another 10 of these should be enough to reach the final milestone of your journey.
Wicked Leather Headband x20 (12x Rugged Leather + 1x Black Dye + 1x Rune Thread)
For the last leg of your leveling, you’ll want to make wicked leather headbands! These take 12 whole rugged leather, so it may take you a while to collect it all. 20 should be enough to reach the max. Congratulations on your freshly leveled 300 leatherworking skill!
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