Making Money
You’ll eventually be faced with the enigma of: ‘How do I make money as a leathercrafter?’ Unfortunately I’m not the best source of information on this subject since I don’t like creating items to sell. (It weighs heavily on my leveling process.) Other then the obvious means of creating a nice green or blue item found in a recipe and selling it on the Auction House; I will introduce to you an alternate method of making money with your leathercrafter.
There are places in Azeroth that allow you to collect multiple leathers off of one skin. This, coupled with the fact that some items that can produce with that leather sells for between 40-80 silver, makes item creation both quick and lucrative. So lets say you go out and farm some leather in a multiple skin spot. You collect leather so fast that you could quickly create an 80 silver item. You may have to pay around 10 silver for materials to create that item but you can quickly sell it to the vendor for a profit of 70 silver. Sure, you could try your luck at the Auction House, but there are so many other leathercrafters out there selling the same wares as you, you’re gonna have a problem unloading your stuff. So in order to save on time , money, and overall profit just sell your items to the vendor. If you’re doing this with the right items it is possible to make 10-15 gold an hour if you know a good spot to skin . There are most likely better places to grind for leather that would yield greater rewards, but I haven’t looked too much into them. Just keep your mind open to this option and perhaps you can find another means of making money without having to find a demand.
Tiers of leatherworking
The tiers of leatherworking are pretty simple. They basically work off of what kind of leathers you will use when creating items. Leather drops are based on monster level as well as drop percentages, for instance you will not receive a medium leather from a monster below level 17. I would consider 1-16 the first tier as you will only receive light leathers through that period. At level 25 you still have the chance to receive a light leather off a skinning, however as the level of the monster increases, so does your chance of receiving a higher grade of leather.
* Levels 1-16 – Light Leather / Light Hide
* Levels 17-30 – Medium Leather / Medium Hide
* Levels 31-40 – Heavy Leather / Heavy Hide
* Levels 41-50 – Thick Leather / Thick Hide
* Levels 51-60 – Rugged Leather / Rugged Hide
* Levels 61-70 – Knothide Leather / Fel Hide
These levels are approximated and they will vary depending on the kind of monster you kill, however this a roundabout chart that will allow you to get a feel of where and when you’ll get to the next tier.
Where to Grind
Knowing where to grind is the biggest part being a leathercrafter. There are many places in Azeroth that will produce high amounts of leather and there are also bad places. I always like to find humanoids who can be skinned so I could farm both leather, silver, and humanoid loot table drops; which tend to be nicer then beasts. Werewolves, Yeti’s and Dragonkin all fall into this category. I’ve noticed that some of these monsters have much better loot tables then the rest, (e.g. the brown yetis in Hillsbrad have worthwhile loot tables while the snow yeti’s to the north have shite). Either way they both have medium/heavy leather so take your pick on which one to farm.
Other zones that are made for skinning are Shimmering Flats, Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows and the big baddy, Stranglethorn Vale. Since you’ll be staying in Stranglehorn for quite a while, you’ll get a great deal of Medium, Heavy and Thick leathers from the beasts in this zone.