Skinning Guide for The War Within

Skinning is responsible for processing the corpses of The War Within Beasts into skins and hides widely used by Leatherworking and to a lesser extent by other specializations. Skinners also craft Lures and Baits which allow for more targeted material farming, including for special rare materials such as Superb Beast Fang.

Earthen will be able to gather more skins with their Hyper Productive racial, making them a great option for the current meta of quantity above all.

Dracthyr mobility abilities and +2% baseline Perception racial are a decent alternative, although under the current meta it is usually more valuable to gather more skins than to get more rare reagents.

Last but not least, Worgen Beast Mastery Hunters and Guardian Druids have the ability to quickly round up lots of beasts to kill safely, while also having +5 skinning skill for more Rank 3 results and 25% increased skinning speed from their Flayer racial!

Skinning can make great use of all three stats, but you might want to focus on specific stats for different playstyles. We go into detail with Skinning stats and the gear you can use to boost them in the specialized guide below:

You can gather four base skin types:

Stormcharged Leather are skinned from leathery beasts, while scaly beasts give Gloom Chitin instead.

Rarely, you can find Thunderous Hide from leathery beasts and Sunless Carapace from scaly creatures.

Some enemy types can drop unique types of skins, such as Kaheti Swarm Chitin, which comes from small Nerubians. You can also find:

• Bottled Storm from storm beasts;
• Burning Cinderbee Setae from bees;
• Honed Bone Shards from enemies with horns.

Skinning is perhaps the easiest primary profession to level, as all you need to do is kill and skin mobs, without any real concern for your own skill level or enemy levels and modifiers.

As you skin enemies you will also occasionally loot items that can increase your knowledge, up to a weekly maximum tracked on your profession journal.

You will be able to track all weekly and one-time sources of profession knowledge with Myu's Knowledge Points Tracker, a very helpful Weak Aura!

There are multiple treasures around Khaz Algar that you can loot for up to 24 extra knowledge. You can find them all easily in-game with the aforementioned Weak Aura or the Rarescanner addon, which will put up small treasure icons with a hammer underneath at their map location, as exemplified below.

The War Within also has Crafting Specializations, which you are able to unlock once your profession skill hits 25. These serve as a profession talent tree system fueled by Skinning Knowledge, obtained from weekly quests, one-time treasures in the new zones, Treatises, and first-time crafts.

While you will eventually be able to unlock all talents, doing so will require a long time as the sources of knowledge are very limited, especially once one-time treasures and first-crafts are exhausted.

Skinning Specializations dictate what enemies you are most proficient at Skinning, and you can even learn how to craft Baits and Lures with the Luring tree!

In fact, a popular way to build will be to unlock this tree and immediately work towards maximizing the Trained Tracker node, which unlocks the Supreme Beast Lure. This lure is in turn used to spawn Slatefang at the Ringing Deeps zone, around 63,50, who can be skinned for the valuable Superb Beast Fang! You will also be able to create other lures, including infused lures which allow you to obtain rare materials such as Crystalline Powder, Viridescent Spores, and Writhing Sample.

Alternatively, you can maximize your stats with the Harvesting tree, or guarantee a rare skin every hour before further tree investments with the Tanning tree and its Sharpen Your Knife core ability. You will also be able to unlock the refining of skins in the process, which allows you to convert lower Quality skins into higher quality ones, potentially unlocking extra profit.

Skinning makes gold by farming skins in the world, with rarer skins being looted based on your Perception stat.

As skins are a common ingredient for Leatherworking, try to sell yours in raid days, when Leatherworkers are more likely to be looking to create and sell their wares. The Undermine Exchange can also help you understand the price fluctuation for skins in your server, and which skins are best to farm at any given moment.

We have a specialized guide for The War Within gold-making below, which contains a gold-making tier list and goes deeper into techniques and habits for successful gold making, as well as websites and addons that can help you on your journey!