With the release of World of Warcraft: Classic this week, fans of the game have finally been given the chance to reexperience Azeroth in its original form. If you're used to the Battle for Azeroth version of the game, you'll notice quite a few changes. A big one is the fact that gold is a lot harder to come by and is much more valuable. If you want to be able to afford mounts at level 40 and epic mount sat level 60, you're going to need to make a lot of money along the way, which is why professions in WoW: Classic are essential.
Professions usually require a lot of work, though, as you must gather rare materials and farm. Fortunately, there is one profession that you can build while playing the game and you barely have to do any extra work: skinning.
How To Become A Skinner And What You Need
Skinning is one of the most convenient professions you can have in WoW: Classic because you can make money by skinning beasts after they're killed and looted. If you play the game regularly by completing quests and running dungeons, you're going to run into a lot of beasts and therefore will have a lot of opportunities to increase your skinning skill and gather materials. The only thing you really need to do in order to raise your skinning skill is to skin beasts consistently. If you can keep up with it, you're guaranteed to earn a good amount of coin.
If you want the skinning profession, you'll want to get it as soon as possible. Once you exit the starting area for each zone, the nearest major city will have a skinning trainer, along with a trainer for every other profession you might be interested in. The first thing you'll want to do is purchase a skinning knife. After that, you'll need a skinning trainer to teach you journeyman skinning for 10 copper. As you progress through the game, each zone will have stronger beasts, which will increase your skinning skill and the quality of materials you receive from skinning.
The Best Zone For Skinning: Southern Stranglethorn Vale
There are many zones across Azeroth and each zone has its own type of beasts, so there are plenty of opportunities to continue leveling your skinning skill as you progress through the game. Beginning with the starting areas, every region you venture through will have its own collection of beasts to skin, so you never have to go out of your way. The best zone to level skinning is without a doubt Stranglethorn Vale, as you can level the profession from 150-300. There, you won't to skin weaker beasts that roam the northern tip of the region and instead can make your way to the stronger animals that can be found in the southern area of the Vale.
Maxing Your Skinning Skill
It's important to make sure you purchase the next tier of skinning skill once you've maxed out your current level. Once you're skinning ability has reached level 50, you can pay 5 silver to obtain Journeyman skinning, which allows you to increase your skinning to a max of 125. Once you've completed that, you can pay 50 silver to learn expert skinning that allows you to reach level 200, and then 5 gold, which will give you artisan skinning and allow you to reach the maximum level of 300. If you don't upgrade your skinning skill, you will no longer be able to skin beasts that you encounter as you level and will therefore only have access to lower levels and materials.
Skinning And Leatherworking
If you'd like to do more than skinning and don't mind chasing down other materials from time to time, you can pair your skinning skill with the leatherworking skill. Leatherworking gives you the ability to make rare gear and items that you can either create for yourself or sell in the auction house. Most of the materials you need will already be in your possession thanks to all of the beasts that you skinned, so you're guaranteed to make even more money. If that sounds like too much work, you'll still make a fair amount selling the skinning materials to vendors or to other players in the auction house.
Overall, skinning is the easiest profession to level and is the best profession for casual players who don't want to spend a large amount of time gathering special materials. You'll be able to obtain materials just by playing the game and right-clicking corpses, and you'll make plenty of money along the way.