How to Make Gold with Skinning

There are a few different ways to make money skinning. There are rare mobs that can be skinned to drop rare items, there are common mobs that can be skinned to drop rare fur, and there are regular mobs to skin that can drop leather for you. The most consistent way to make money is through common leather, but this can be done while looking for these jackpots.

Skinning Component	Recommended Player Level to Farm
Loque'Nahak's Pelt	76+
Arctic Fur	68+
Cobra Scales	65+
Nerubian Chitin	68+
Icy Dragonscale	75+
Rugged Leather	50+
Jormungar Scale	70+
Borean Leather	68+
Knothide Leather	58+

Loque'Nahak
Loque'Nahak is a rare spawning beast in Sholazar Basin that is supposed to spawn every 8-10 hours, but because he is the only spirit beast in the game he is heavily camped by Hunters. Nonetheless, I will show you the points where he spawns in case you are farming leather out in Sholazar Basin or are passing through you can stop and skin this guy he drops a rare pelt when skinned and it has a random enchant. Depending on which enchant you get, it should sell well on the Auction House.

Click Here to See the Cloak


Arctic Fur
Arctic Fur is currently the new hottest reagent that comes from skinning in Wrath of the Lich King. Unfortunately it is rare, the best recorded drop rate is 2%. It has a chance to drop off of almost every beast in Northrend, but a consistent pattern seems to be the higher level the mob the better chance for it to drop and if it's an elite mob, even better. Here are two recommended farming spots for Arctic Fur. Arctic Fur remains valuable as it is an ingredient in most of the high end recipes including the new craftable gear in Patch 3.3.

Scion of Quetz'lun - Zul'Drak
These are level 76-77 elite mobs but they currently have the highest drop rate for Arctic Fur and they also can drop 1-3 Borean Leather which is a good consistent source of regular leather.


Plagued Proto-Dragon
There are other mobs that have a higher drop rate than these guys but they were instances so I choose to pick this mob instead. The good news is, it can be done by a player around level 70 andit's in Howling Fjord. The reported drop rate of Arctic Furs is 1.7%.



Cobra Scales
This component is farmed in Outland, more specifically, the best spot to farm this item is in Shadowmoon Valley off of Shadow Serpents. It is still one of the highest profitable reagents due to no one farming them anymore and their demand for twinks. They commonly sell between 5-30g, but be careful not to over farm them, the demand is less for these than it used to be. It is used to make two leg enchants, one can be placed on level 50+ players and the other 60+. Check your Auction House before farming these to make sure it is not flooded.



Nerubian Chitin
These skinning component only can be skinned from the Nerubian NPCs that are commonly found inside and around the instances of Azjol-Nerub and Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. If you are a level 80 one option you have is soloing these instances on regular to get Nerubian Chitin, otherwise you will have to find a group or farm mobs that have less common drop rates. There are two other main spots to do this if you don't kill the mobs outside of Azjol-Nerub.

Forgotten Depths NPCs - Icecrown

There are a few NPCs that can drop Nerubian Chitin that spawn in this area. They start with thename Forgotten Depths and are bug looking creatures. They spawn all around these two temples. You will want to be 75+ to do this area maybe even 77+.



Hath'ar Skimmer - Zul'Drak
There are a bunch of Hath'ar Skimmers around Kolramas just waiting for you to come kill and skin them. So why keep them waiting? You will want to be at least level 72+ to do this area.



Nerub'ar NPCs - Borean Tundra
These NPCs spawn around Warsong Hold, you can do it as alliance but be careful not to get too close to the guards. There are all kinds of bug looking Nerub'ar NPCs around the hold that spawn and also a Flamespitter that can drop Nerubian Chitin. I'd draw you a map but they are easy to find since they sit right outside a major Horde City.

Icy Dragonscale
These are mostly found on dragonkin inside of Violet Hold, in fact, I usually try to do a Heroic Violet hold at least once a day just so I can skin the dragons inside. If I'm the only skinner I'll leave with a few stacks of Borean Leather and a good amount of Icy Dragonscales. You can also go into Regular Violet hold and accomplish a similar feat.

Drakes - Sholazar Basin
In the northern part of Sholazar Basin there are drakes flying in the air and also on ground. You can kill and skin these and you can also break hatchlings out of the eggs here to kill and skin. This will net you with a decent amount of Icy Dragonscales because this area has one of the higher drop rates in game. You'll want to be 75+ for this area.



Scalebanes - Crystalsong Forest
There are a lot of dragonkin out in this area of Crystalsong Forest that have a really good drop rate. Use whichever of the two areas you prefer. You'll want to be 76+ for this area.



Rugged Leather
As with all gathering professions, old world regular components are worth more than some of the new ones. The reason for this is simple, everyone wants to power level their professions but do not want to go farm the components themselves. Since less people are doing the farming, they get paid higher for each item, thus making Rugged Leather the most profitable leather to farm.

Plaguehounds, etc. - Eastern Plaguelands
The best spot to farm Rugged Leather is in Eastern Plaguelands, hands down, yeah there are close seconds, but there are so many beasts here that have high drop rates that you can just run around randomly in this zone and get piles of Rugged Leather. Fortunately, I'm going to give you a boundary area that you should try to stick to while running around where the beasts are higher level. I recommend being 54+ for this area.



Cats & Yeti - Winterspring
This is probably the second best zone in the game to come to for skinning for drop rate on Rugged Leather. You can go to either location in case one or the other is farmed, they are near identical. You will want to be 55+ for this area.



Other Locations for Rugged leather

Un'Goro Crater - Entire western part of zone has higher drop rate than eastern

Zul'Gurub - if you're able to handle this old world raid instance there are plenty of beasts in here with high drop rates.

Jormungar Scale
There are two major locations to get Jormungar Scales from, The Storm Peaks and Dragonblight. If you don't know what a Jormungar is, it's one of those ugly looking big worms that tries to eat you. These are good to kill and skin because they drop Worm Meat as well which can be used for cooking.

Jormungars - The Storm Peaks
Jormungars are all over this zone, so I'll highlight the areas on the map the different Jormungars can be found. They are all basically equal drop rates, about 25%, so where you go is up to you. You should be 76+ for this part because the NPCs will be around level 80.



Jormungars - Dragonblight
The drop rate on these is about 15% but the advantage is you can do them at level 70 or so, which is a great for people needing gold and just starting in Northrend.



Borean Leather
Borean Leather is the new leather that was introduced with Wrath of the Lich King and is in high demand but is also in high supply. There is always at least a page in my Auction House of this stuff, but you can still sell it decently fast if you keep your prices low. The advantage to farming Borean Leather is you can farm a number of other things off of mobs anywhere in Northrend where those beasts or skinnable mobs to get it. You only have to be 68+ to collect Borean Leather efficiently, the higher the level you are the faster you'll collect it. You can get a lot of this stuff out of instances like Violet Hold, Gundrak, and Zul'Drak also, in case you're looking to do an instance.

Skinnable Mobs - Zul'drak
There are so many mobs you can farm in this zone for Borean Leather. The ones in this map have some of the highest drop rate in the game, near 100% when averaged out.



Skinnable Mobs - Sholazar Basin
There are very few things that cannot be skinned in Sholazar, you can basically walk around drunk with a skinning knife and if you manage to kill something it's probably skinnable. But I highlighted the areas that have near 100% drop rate anyway. I recommend you be level 74+ to do this area. The mammoths to the north have a 100% chance to drop Chunk o' Mammoth, which is among the most valuable meats in Wrath of the Lich King.



Knothide Leather
People still need Knothide Leather from the Burning Crusade to level from 300-350
Leatherworking or for other miscellaneous things. While the demand may not be as high as Borean Leather there is still a demand and it almost commands the same price as Borean Leather. This is the least important skinning item to gather so I'm just going to give you ONE GOOD MAP! Just for your information, if you are level 80 or so you will want to just go ahead and start a regular instance of Black Morass and kill and farm the mobs there and then reset when you are done, it's the best place to farm Borean Leather. You may be able to just do it in the high 60s effectively since most of the stuff is non-elite anyways.