Skinning Skinning is a primary profession by which one skins leather , hide s , and scale s off the corpses of fallen mob s . As in real life , only certain creatures have skins , such as boars , wolves , dragonkin , Silithid , some Nerubians and , only very rarely , humanoid s . The materials obtained from skinning are used primarily in the recipes of Leatherworkers and occasionally by Engineers , Blacksmiths , and Tailors . Skinning pointers : A skinner can skin corpses that were killed by other characters as long the corpse has been looted and the other character has not skinned it already . Unlike mining and herb gathering , skinning is frequently practiced , thus skinners will typically be able to skin creatures much higher level than they can kill . Skinning in Legion . " Legion " - level players may learn skinning and raise it to cap all within the zones of the Broken Isles . Though the " scraps gathered " , introduced with " Warlords of Draenor " , remains in effect for lower levels , players in " Legion " zones will always gather full skins , regardless of skinning level . Learning skinning in the Isles is as easy as skinning a mob . In addition , the new skins have three ranks and perks associated with them . Ranks 1 and 3 increase the materials found , and Rank 2 increases the chance to find rare materials . Partial skinning new in Warlords of Draenor . Starting with the Warlords of Draenor expansion , some skins ( leathers , hides , and scales ) can be gathered with Skinning skill of 1 , but the full skin will only drop if the character has the appropriate minimum skill to gather the skin . If the skill is below the minimum , a partial skin will drop that requires 10 to create the full skin . Partial skins will have prefixes like " Patch of " , etc . added to the names of the full skin to distinguish them as partial skin . For and , this partial result is widespread through most herbs and ores , but with Skinning it is limited to mostly a few and type leathers , hides and scales . It should also be noted that this concept actually existed early on for Skinning with as the first result of skinning in Vanilla . Proficiencies and training . When you gain enough Skinning skill points , you ' ll need to visit a Skinning trainer to advance to the next skill level ! Skinning Past Your Skill Level . You can obtain enchants and certain weapons that increase your skinning skill beyond your current skill level : See Skinning equipment for more details . Color Codes . Any skinnable corpse will have a color code on the " Skinnable " property when you move your pointer over it : Up to skinning 100 , you can find out the highest level mob you can skin by : ( ( Skinning skill ) / 10 ) + 10 . From skinning level 100 and up the formula is simply : ( Skinning skill ) / 5 . Suggested Classes and Specialties . Selling leather and hide can be profitable , but also useful if you take Leatherworking . All the classes listed here can wear leather armor . Leatherworking also produces mail items from scales obtained by skinning with attributes useful to hunter s and shaman s . There are three specialties of leatherworking which produce armor more suited for some classes than others : Note as of TBC anyone can learn the Tribal Leatherworking , Elemental Leatherworking , and Dragonscale Leatherworking patterns below 300 . After 300 , you must specialize to learn the proficiencies . What You Gather . Leather . In this sense , leather is collected by skinning beasts . These items can usually be used directly by the Leatherworking profession without prior processing or treatment . The type of leather is usually directly related to the level of animal being skinned . See : Leather for details . Hides . You get hides the same way you get skins , but the drop rate is lower . All of the standard hides require Leatherworking to cure the hides before they can be used as ingredients for crafting items . See : Hide for details . Scales . These are used in Leatherworking patterns and drop when certain mobs are skinned . Scales from high - level mobs are used to create Mail class armor with the Leatherworking skill which is useful for hunters and shamans at level 40 and beyond . See : Scale for details . Wool Cloth . Wool is no longer obtainable via skinning sheep ( see patch notes ) . Abilities gained . Sufficiently skilled skinners gained the buff , which increased critical strike rating for every 75 points you received in Skinning , with the last rank giving a 40 critical strike rating when you acquired a Skinning level of 450 . See also . Using the same mechanic :