Skinning

Skinning allows players to gather leather, Hides and scales by skinning certain mobs (beasts, dragonkin, Silithid, some Nerubians and, very rarely, humanoids). Not all mobs of each type can be skinned, e.g. birds cannot be skinned despite being beasts. Leather, hides and scales are used for leatherworking. Leather is also used for some blacksmithing, engineering, and tailoring recipes.

Skinning pointers:
 * [[File:Pointer skin on 32x32.png]] in range of skinnable corpse
 * [[File:Pointer skin off 32x32.png]] out of range of skinnable corpse

This is one of the better gathering professions, since a skinner can skin mob corpses left behind by other characters as long as they've looted all the items from the corpse. Unlike the mining or herb gathering, skinning allows very frequent practice when outdoor hunting resulting in a great deal of leather and very rapid training. You will typically be able to skin creatures much higher level than you can kill.

The skinning skill also grants the player Master of Anatomy, a passive bonus to critical strike rating.

Training
Such 'uncommon' skins generally only have specific recipes, such as the Black Whelp Scales, which has a recipe that needs to be obtained from sources other than a trainer.
 * You need to purchase a skinning knife. You can find skinning knives at Profession-related item merchants (or simply at the General trader). Remember to keep the skinning knife in your bag at all times (if you want to gain leather/hides/scales from the beasts you kill).
 * Keep in mind that skinning most beasts will result in you getting leather or hide of some kind. Tailoring and Leatherworking), frenzy and other fish give you shiny fish scales, Dragonkin of various types (such as Black Whelps) which give you scales or special skins not found among other monsters or beasts, etc.

When you gain enough Skinning skill points, you will need to visit a Skinning trainer to advance to the next skill level!

Skinning Past Your Skill Level
You can obtain enchants and certain weapons that increase your skinning skill above your current skill level. You could also elect to be a Worgen to benefit from a passive racial ability they have.

See Skinning equipment for more details.
 * +5 Skinning:
 * Enchant Gloves - Skinning.
 * Enchant Gloves - Gatherer - also adds +5 to Herbalism and Mining.
 * +10 Skinning:
 * - dropped by The Beast in Upper Blackrock Spire.
 * - dropped by High Priest Thekal in Zul'Gurub, no longer available to players.
 * - dropped by Zanzil in Zul'Gurub when in Heroic mode.
 * +15 Skinning:
 * Flayer - Worgen Racial Ability.

Color Codes
Any skinnable corpse will have a color code on the "Skinnable" property when you move your pointer over it:
 * Red : Not skinnable.
 * Orange : Difficult to skin; high chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
 * Yellow : Moderately difficult to skin; moderate chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
 * Green : Easy to skin; low chance of increasing Skinning skill level.
 * Gray : Very easy to skin; no chance of increasing Skinning skill level.

Skinning skill required is: Up to skinning 100, you can find out the highest level mob you can skin by: ((Skinning skill)/10)+10.
 * 1 for level 1-10 mobs.
 * (10 times mob level) minus 100 for level 11-20 mobs.
 * 5 times level for level 21-79 mobs.
 * 5 times level plus 25 for level 80 and higher mobs, including mobs from Wrath of the Lich King.

Since Cataclysm heroic dungeon bosses are level 87, they require 530 skinning, which is attainable only with an item or racial bonus.

Suggested 2nd Professions

 * Leatherworking. Make your own armor (Druid, Rogue, Hunter or Shaman; mail armor for hunters and shamans are available via the Dragonscale Leatherworking specialty), sell your wares, or get fodder for disenchanting.
 * Tailoring. Some Tailor recipes require leather, such as bags and boots. In the long run, Tailoring/Enchanting is a stronger combination, but Skinning/Tailoring is a good way to start out.
 * Mining or Herbalism. Having two gathering professions can ensure a strong income. Some people are willing to pay quite a bit of money for materials for crafting professions.
 * Enchanting. It's good to have as a second profession for any that don't necessarily need another to work.
 * Blacksmithing or Engineering. Blacksmithing and engineering use some leather, but mining is a much better match for blacksmithing and engineering.

Suggested Classes and Specialties
Selling leather and hide can be profitable, but also useful if you take Leatherworking. All the classes listed here can wear leather armor. Leatherworking also produces mail items from scales obtained by skinning with attributes useful to hunters and shamans. There are three specialties of leatherworking which produce armor more suited for some classes than others:
 * Druid (Tribal Leatherworking or Elemental Leatherworking recommended)
 * Rogue (Elemental Leatherworking recommended)
 * Hunter (Dragonscale Leatherworking recommended)
 * Shaman (Dragonscale Leatherworking recommended)

Note as of TBC anyone can learn the Tribal Leatherworking, Elemental Leatherworking, and Dragonscale Leatherworking patterns below 300. After 300, you must specialize to learn the proficiencies.

Leather
In this sense, leather is collected by skinning beasts. These items can usually be used directly by the Leatherworking profession without prior processing or treatment. The type of leather is usually directly related to the level of animal being skinned.

Hides
You get hides the same way you get skins, but the drop rate is lower. All of the standard hides require Leatherworking to cure the hides before they can be used as ingredients for crafting items.

Scales
These are used in Leatherworking patterns and drop when certain mobs are skinned. Scales from high-level mobs are used to create Mail class armor with the Leatherworking skill which is useful for hunters and shamans at level 40 and beyond.

Volatile elements
When skinning Cataclysm mobs, there is a small chance of obtaining a Strange Bloated Stomach in addition to leather, hide or scale(s). These lootable containers contain a stack of one random volatile element (~20% chance of each), either 1-4 Volatile Air or 1-2 Volatile Earth, Fire, Life or Water.

Wool Cloth
is used by tailors for patterns for cloth armor for characters in the teens levels through early twenties. It is also used by blacksmiths, engineers, and by first aid practitioners. Skinning sheep used to provide an early, and ultimately minor, source of wool cloth.

Abilities Gained
Sufficiently skilled skinners gain the Master of Anatomy buff.

Frequently Asked Questions

 * Why can't I skin certain mobs?
 * There are several reasons:
 * While most beasts can be skinned, some can't. Also, most demons can't, while most dragons can. See the Creature Types page for more details.
 * All the items from a corpse must be looted before it can be skinned. This requirement can be somewhat annoying, since you basically end up filling your bags with worthless bits and pieces of whatever you're killing. You may want to get an addon, like LootDestroyer and ReagentHelper, to help you with figuring out what's worth keeping.
 * Any skinnable mobs will say "Skinnable" in their tooltip after they are dead and completely looted, and this is color coded like other skills. If it is Red , you cannot skin that mob. If you attempt to skin it you will receive an error telling you the required level: "Requires Skinning 110". After the "startup levels", mobs require 5 Skinning ability per level, so a level 25 mob requires 125 skill points in Skinning.
 * Skinning follow the usual loot claiming rules for establishing whether a mob can be skinned at all: mobs killed exclusively by pets with no player damage contribution are not skinnable no matter what type they are, while mobs killed by guards will only be skinnable if the players initiated combat with the mob and did the majority of the damage to it.
 * If you're trying to skin something that is lootable by another player, that player must take all loot from the corpse, or you won't be able to skin it.
 * In uncommon circumstances, a corpse can contain a quest item that you can't see because you already filled your quota for that item. This usually happens when killing several mobs at once before looting and skinning them. There is no way to skin such a corpse other than to drop at least one of the quest items so you can then loot the item one more time.
 * To prevent farming of easy leather, beasts found in starting areas can not be skinned.


 * Where are some good places to farm for certain types of skins?
 * See the Places to farm page.