Skinning is the third gathering profession: you take leather, hides and scales from the corpses of beasts you (or others) have killed and looted. It needs no route and no detour, because the animals you kill while questing are the resource. Leatherworking uses almost all of it, and Blacksmithing, Engineering and Tailoring ask for leather in several recipes.
Beta build: trainers, fees and camp items below come from the beta client. No Forever-specific skinning formula has been published, so the skill rule in the leveling section is the Classic one and should be rechecked at launch.
Why take it: it is free, it levels itself while you quest, and vendors buy leather when the Auction House is slow. It is the easiest profession to keep on a character that mostly wants gold.
Good partners: Leatherworking to wear what you skin, or a second gathering profession. Skinning does not use minimap tracking, so it never competes with Find Herbs or Find Minerals.
Classes: anything that kills beasts quickly does well. Hunters, Druids and Rogues are natural fits because their own armor is made of the leather they collect.
Camp items: the Camp Chair (skill 20) adds a critical strike chance buff to a campfire, a weaker Moonkin Aura that does not stack with the Druid's.
Where to Learn Skinning
Rank
Skill cap
Requirement
Trainer fee
Apprentice
75
None
10 copper
Journeyman
150
Skill 50
5 silver
Expert
225
Skill 125, level 10
50 silver
Artisan
300
Skill 200, level 25
5 gold
The trainers in the very first areas are Junior Skinning Trainers and only teach Apprentice. Click a waypoint to copy it, then paste it in chat.
Every skinnable corpse has a skill requirement tied to its level, and a corpse close to your limit is orange: one point almost every time. Under the Classic rule, creatures up to level 10 need skill 1, levels 11 to 20 need ten points per level above 10 (level 15 needs 50, level 20 needs 100), and from level 21 the requirement is five times the creature's level (level 30 needs 150, level 45 needs 225, level 60 needs 300). In practice: skin everything you kill while questing and your skill stays ahead of your character.
Skill
Beast level
Suggested zones
1-75
1-17
Your starting zone: boars, wolves, bears, plainstriders, nightsabers
75-150
15-30
The Barrens, Westfall, Loch Modan, Darkshore, then Ashenvale, Hillsbrad Foothills, Wetlands, Duskwood
Feralas, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, then Un'Goro Crater, Felwood, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring
Train the next rank as soon as it unlocks (50, 125, 200). A capped skill wastes every orange skin.
A corpse must be looted before it can be skinned. In a group, you may skin other players' kills once they are emptied.
Dense packs of low-health beasts are best. Ask for the corpses when you see someone farming them without a knife.
Catching up on a high-level character is quick: go back to a zone whose beasts match your skill, not your level.
Tools & Boosts
You need a Skinning Knife in your bags. It does not have to be equipped. Leatherworking Supply, Trade Goods and General Goods vendors sell it for a few copper.
Enchant Gloves - Skinning is still in the Forever client (1 Vision Dust, 1 Green Whelp Scale). The formula is a drop, so look for an enchanter who owns it.
Skinning has no tracking ability of its own. The Field Guide camp item fills that gap by lending Track Beasts to anyone who reads it.
These brackets are the Classic ones and are approximate. Hides are the uncommon drop of each tier and are worth keeping: Leatherworkers cure them with Salt for some of their cheapest leveling steps.
Skinning Recipes
Skinners craft only their camp items. The Camp Chair is taught by the trainer at skill 20; like the other professions, the two upper tiers are expected to come from blueprints.
Alchemy
Blacksmithing
Enchanting
Engineering
Herbalism
Leatherworking
Mining
Skinning
Tailoring
Cooking
First Aid
Fishing