WoW Forever Leatherworking leveling guide 1-300: route, recipes, and trainers

A leatherworker makes leather and mail armor, armor kits, and quivers and ammo pouches for hunters. Druids, Hunters, Rogues, and Shamans wear leather or mail and can make their own armor, and armor kits for chest, legs, hands, and feet are useful to every class.

In Forever the profession pays off while you level. Patterns for new role-based sets are sold for Merchant's Favor. Brawler's Leather Belt gives Strength and Agility, Defender's Leather Belt Strength, Stamina, and armor, and Wisdom's Leather Belt Intellect and healing. These items bind on pickup, so you make them for yourself, not to sell. And from skill 20 you can make a tent for your camp. Pitch it by a campfire and it gives rested XP to everyone sitting nearby.

Almost everyone pairs it with Skinning. Leatherworking goes through leather by the hundreds, and the end of the route also needs more than 400 Heavy Scorpid Scales. On top of that, Skinning sometimes gives Pristine Leather. It goes into 80 Leatherworking recipes, the new sets included, plus some Blacksmithing and Tailoring recipes, so having your own Pristine Leather saves a lot of gold.

• Camp. At skill 20, the quest Camping 101: Leatherworking teaches your first camp item, the Camp Tent. Pitch it by a campfire and everyone sitting nearby gets rested XP worth up to 5% of a level. At 140 you add the Tanning Rack, and at 300 the Sewing Machine, and both give the same rested bonus. Some items can't be made without them. Black Dragonscale Leggings and Shoulders, Devilsaur Leggings, Mongoose Boots, and the new level 60 epics, for example, are made at the Sewing Machine. There's more in the camp section.
• New materials. Skinning sometimes gives Pristine Leather, Pristine Hide, and Pristine Scale, rare materials for the new patterns. At 60, Fel Leather and Fel Hide show up. The best new items are made from them, but nobody knows yet where to skin them.
• More than 230 new recipes. Some are sold for Merchant's Favor, some for rep, and a lot of level 60 recipes have no known source yet. There's more in the new recipes section.
• Armor kits give Stamina now. In Classic, Light Armor Kit only added armor, and now it adds +1 Stamina too, while Medium Armor Kit gives +2 Stamina and 16 armor. There are also new kits with attack power or spell power.
• Cured Rugged Hide. The Cured Rugged Hide recipe makes two hides now instead of one, but it only works at a Tanning Rack.
• Legacy. You earn a Legacy point the first time you reach 150, 225, and 300, and the Working Overtime perk in the professions branch adds up to 20% to your skill-up chance. You can enter its rank in the profession calculator.

The route is built from the beta client data and assumes no specialization. Each stretch uses the recipe that raises your skill the cheapest, and it skips green recipes once your chance of a point drops below half. Trainer recipes come first. Once the trainer has nothing useful left, the route moves on to patterns vendors sell for gold, and it only uses rep, Favor, and drop patterns when there's no other way. It comes to about 360 crafts in total. While a recipe is yellow you almost always get a point, but as it nears green you might need a few extra crafts, so buy some spare materials.

From 1 to 46, make Light Armor Kit, which only needs Light Leather, one per kit. From 46 to 52, Handstitched Leather Boots carry you. Both recipes come with the profession, and everything after that is from the trainer: Embossed Leather Gloves to 85, Fine Leather Belt to 101, Light Leather Pants to 110, Nimble Leather Gloves to 123, and Hillman's Shoulders to 125. The pants need Cured Light Hide and the shoulders Cured Medium Hide. You cure both yourself along the way (Cured Light Hide and Cured Medium Hide), which takes Light Hide, Medium Hide, and Salt. The Nimble Leather Gloves need Elixir of Minor Agility from an alchemist. Up to 125 you'll use about 435 Light Leather and about 90 Medium Leather.

From 125, Heavy Hides come in. The Cured Heavy Hide recipe takes one Heavy Hide and three Salt. Curing alone gets you to 141, and you'll need about 50 of these hides in total. Then you make four more Hillman's Shoulders to 143 and Hillman's Leather Gloves to 153, and the gloves alone eat 168 Medium Leather. Next come Green Leather Belt to 160 and Green Leather Bracers to 165. Both need Green Dye from a vendor, and the belt also needs an Iron Buckle, which blacksmiths make. From 165 to 195, Guardian Gloves carry you, then Nightscape Headband takes you to 211, and up to 225 it's Thick Leather Ammo Pouch, which needs Elixir of Defense from an alchemist.

From 225 to 236, make Rugged Armor Kit, which only needs Rugged Leather, 80 for 16 kits. Then Nightscape Boots take you to 241, and 9 pairs cost 144 Thick Leather. After that the trainer has nothing with a decent skill-up chance left, so the route switches to patterns sold by vendors: Wicked Leather Gauntlets to 255 and again for 259-266, Heavy Scorpid Bracers to 259, Runic Leather Headband to 270, and Heavy Scorpid Helm to 300.

The last stretch uses the most materials. The 34 helms take Rugged Leather (272), Heavy Scorpid Scale (408), Cured Rugged Hide (34), and Rune Thread (34). The route buys the hides ready-made, because you can only cure Rugged Hide at a Tanning Rack, and each one needs Refined Deeprock Salt. That salt can only be made with a Salt Shaker, which leatherworkers can use from skill 250, and its cooldown is almost three days. The route doesn't plan around reagents with cooldowns like that, so look for the hides on the Auction House or ask other leatherworkers. If you've got a rack and salt of your own, 17 curings give you the same 34 hides.

To work out the cost with your realm's prices, open the route in the calculator. You can start from your current skill, take a recipe out, and pick the cheapest or the fastest path (the fast one is about 300 crafts). You can also mark your specialization there if you already have one, and which one to pick is covered in the specializations section.

The route above raises your skill but makes almost nothing. Not many people want leveling gloves, belts, and helms, and their recipes go gray fast. If you want Leatherworking to pay for itself, craft something else. Here's what will definitely sell in Forever, and why.

You won't find prices here, and we're not adding any. The beta was capped at level 30, so nobody has seen real level 60 prices yet, and after launch your realm's Auction House will show them. Before you craft a batch, compare the price of the finished item with the cost of the leather and reagents that go into it.

Every Leatherworking trainer teaches Apprentice (up to 75), but after that your options narrow. Journeyman unlocks at skill 50 and character level 10, Expert at skill 125 and level 20, and Artisan at skill 200 and level 35. Very few trainers teach Expert: Telonis in Darnassus for the Alliance, and Una in Thunder Bluff and Hahrana Ironhide in Feralas for the Horde. If your character falls behind, your skill stalls at the rank cap, so it's easiest to level Leatherworking alongside your character.

The tent quest is offered from skill 20, and you turn it in to the Leatherworking trainer near your starting zone. Zephras Isle, where Skyborne characters start, has its own leatherworkers, Indari Sunseam and Emerii Tallgust, but Wowhead doesn't show yet which ranks they teach.

All three can only go next to a campfire, and camp items share a one-hour cooldown. You can put the rack and the machine right on top of the tent, and they give the tent's rested bonus too.

48 recipes need the Tanning Rack. The leveling route gets by without it, since it buys the Cured Rugged Hide for helms ready-made. But if you want to cure those hides yourself, you'll need the rack from skill 225, and leggings and belts from the new sets need it as early as 125-150. You can learn Blueprint: Tanning Rack from skill 140. It sometimes drops from Razorclaw the Butcher in Shadowfang Keep, and Wowhead says it's sold in Durotar and Dun Morogh too. Cooking trainers sell the Simple Wood the rack needs.

58 recipes need the Sewing Machine, almost all of them between skill 270 and 300: Black Dragonscale, Devilsaur, and the new epics. You don't need it for leveling, since you can only place it at 300. Nobody knows yet where to get its blueprint and the Undeath Engine.

Item	Skill	Effect	How to learn	Materials
Camp Tent	20	Rested experience up to 5% of a level for everyone sitting nearby	Quest Camping 101: Leatherworking or the trainer	Light Leather (5)
Tanning Rack	140	The tent's rested bonus plus recipes that need a rack, such as Cured Rugged Hide	Blueprint: Tanning Rack	Medium Leather (5), Fine Thread (3), Simple Wood (2)
Sewing Machine	300	The tent's rested bonus plus the best level 60 recipes	Blueprint: Sewing Machine, source still unknown	Undeath Engine, Rugged Leather (5), Rune Thread

Just like in Classic, a leatherworker can pick one of three specializations. You get it from a quest a master gives you, and the quest text says plainly that the other two will be closed to you afterward. Without a specialization you can't learn the best patterns, and each tooltip shows which one it needs. Pattern: Black Dragonscale Breastplate needs Dragonscale, for example, Pattern: Volcanic Leggings Elemental, and Pattern: Devilsaur Gauntlets Tribal.

One thing in Forever is still unclear. The quests and masters are in place, but of the trainers who teach specialization recipes directly, with no pattern needed, Wowhead only shows the Dragonscale one, Thorkaf Dragoneye. Helm of Fire, Gauntlets of the Sea, Wolfshead Helm, and Feathered Breastplate, which the Elemental and Tribal masters taught in Classic, are still listed without a trainer.

What to pick depends on what you're after. Dragonscale is mail for Hunters and Shamans, including the Black Dragonscale set with fire resistance. Elemental gives Volcanic gear with fire resistance. Tribal is gear for melee, and Devilsaur Gauntlets and Devilsaur Leggings give attack power, crit chance, and +2% hit for the pair.

The route on this page doesn't use a specialization, so it works for any leatherworker. If you already have one, select it in the calculator and it'll add its recipes. With Tribal, Chimeric Gloves and Frostsaber Boots come in after 241, with Elemental it's Living Shoulders, and for Dragonscale the route stays the same.

Specialization	What it crafts	What to bring the master	Alliance	Horde
Dragonscale	Black, Blue and Green Dragonscale mail	Tough Scorpid Breastplate (2), Tough Scorpid Gloves (2), Worn Dragonscale (10)	Peter Galen in Azshara, Dragonscale Leatherworking	Thorkaf Dragoneye in the Badlands, Dragonscale Leatherworking
Elemental	Volcanic, Living and Stormshroud gear	Heart of Fire, Globe of Water, Core of Earth and Breath of Wind, 2 of each	Sarah Tanner in Searing Gorge, Elemental Leatherworking	Brumn Winterhoof in Arathi Highlands, Elemental Leatherworking
Tribal	Devilsaur, Frostsaber, Chimeric, Ironfeather and Warbear gear	Wild Leather Vest and Wild Leather Helmet	Caryssia Moonhunter in Feralas, Tribal Leatherworking	Se'Jib in Stranglethorn Vale, Tribal Leatherworking

Most of the new patterns are sold by Daniel Stitchsong at the Alliance camp in Redridge Mountains and Pawani at the Horde camp in the Barrens, and you pay in Merchant's Favor. They're role-based sets. From skill 60 there are belts, gloves, boots, hoods, tunics, and leggings for melee, hunters, tanks, shamans, casters, and healers, and later Mender's, Skirmisher's, Stalker's, Skulker's, and other gear, plus mail sets. On the beta, the Brawler's patterns cost 30 Favor each. How to earn Favor is in our Merchant's Favor guide.

All of these sets bind on pickup, so you make them for yourself and can't sell them. The new Forceful and Mystic armor kits are another story. Regular vendors sell the lower-tier patterns, and you can sell the kits themselves.

Four more lines, the Cloudy and Azure versions of Gustwoven and Windraveled gear, cost rep instead of Favor. Patterns at skill 50 and 55 need Friendly with the Nightclaw Druids, and the harnesses, trousers, jerkins, and pants from skill 60 need Honored with them. Patterns from skill 175 need Friendly, the Cloudy ones with the Earthen Ring and the Azure ones with the Kirin Tor. You can sell the items themselves.

New items at skill 285-295 cost rep too: Bileblister, Hivethrasher's, Scalegut, and Broodwatcher's gloves, belts, and boots. Their patterns are sold at Friendly and Honored with the Cenarion Circle, and these items can only be made at a Sewing Machine.

A lot of level 60 recipes have no known source yet, like the new dragonscale helms and leggings, Wild Leather Armor Kit, Elderwild items, and more. You don't need them to level, and by default the calculator only uses those patterns when there's no other way.

Leather comes in tiers: Light Leather, Medium Leather, Heavy Leather, Thick Leather, and Rugged Leather. A leatherworker can make each tier from the one below. That's four Light into one Medium from skill 75, five Medium into one Heavy from 125, six Heavy into one Thick from 175, and six Thick into one Rugged from 225. It helps when the Auction House is out of the leather you need. The route uses the most Rugged and Light Leather, about 640 Rugged for kits, gauntlets, bracers, headbands, and helms after 225, and about 435 Light up to 125. Thick Leather comes to about 400, for the Nightscape Headband, Nightscape Boots, and ammo pouches.

Hides get cured before you use them. Light, Medium, and Heavy Hides need Salt, which vendors sell, Thick Hides need Deeprock Salt, and Rugged Hides need Refined Deeprock Salt and a Tanning Rack. The route doesn't cure Thick and Rugged Hides itself but buys them ready-made, Cured Thick Hide (15) for the ammo pouches and Cured Rugged Hide (34) for the helms. Vendors sell thread, from Coarse to Rune, and dyes too. You can't do without other professions. Alchemists make the elixirs (Elixir of Minor Agility and Elixir of Defense), and blacksmiths make the buckles (Iron Buckle), so look for all of them on the Auction House or ask friends. The route also needs 40 Runecloth for the Runic Leather Headbands, and the bracers and helms take Heavy Scorpid Scale (about 430), which you skin from scorpids.

We don't list leather prices. There are none before launch, and after that they'll change every day. As a rule, Light and Medium Leather are skinned from beasts in early zones and are usually cheap, except in the first days after launch, when everyone's leveling professions at once. The higher the tier, the rarer the leather and the more it costs.

• Crafting a green recipe until it goes gray. The last points from a green recipe take several times as many crafts as on a yellow one. As soon as a recipe turns green, check whether the next one, or a pattern, would be cheaper.
• Forgetting to train the next rank. At 75, 150, and 225 your skill hits the cap, and each new rank needs a character level: 10 for Journeyman, 20 for Expert, and 35 for Artisan. And not every capital has an Expert trainer.
• Hitting 225 without a Tanning Rack. Without one you can't make Cured Rugged Hide, and more than 70 Leatherworking recipes need it. The leveling route buys those hides ready-made, but without a rack you'll have to buy them for everything else too, and you can learn the rack blueprint as early as skill 140.
• Leaving Cured Rugged Hide for the last minute. From 270 to 300 the route needs 34 of these hides and buys them ready-made. They're only made at a rack with Refined Deeprock Salt, and the Salt Shaker has an almost three-day cooldown, so nobody makes a lot of hides at once. Stock up early, while you level to 270.
• Picking a specialization at random. The quest closes off the other two, so check which patterns you need first. The route on this page doesn't depend on your choice, and you can add your specialization's recipes in the calculator.
• Selling Pristine Leather. 80 Leatherworking recipes need it, the new Favor sets included, so work out how much you need yourself first.