Leatherworking

Is Leatherworking worth taking?

Yes — and for leather and mail wearers it is close to mandatory. It earns Legacy Points, it owns four crafted tier sets, and it received more new content than any other profession.

The published verdicts are unusually consistent. For Hunters: "one of the strongest and most natural combinations early on… including some of the strongest entry end-game pieces." For Rogues: "the two ideal picks, especially at this point, being Skinning and Leatherworking." Enhancement Shaman and Restoration Druid guides say the same.

32 Leatherworking items appear in level-20 best-in-slot lists, 24 of them new. Defender's Leather Hood at skill 100 is best in slot for 13 specs.

What it pairs with

Skinning. Unchanged.

The one thing every veteran will get wrong

Leatherworking's best recipes no longer need a miner. In vanilla, the top pieces cost bars — Invulnerable Mail wanted 30 Arcanite Bar and 30 Enchanted Thorium Bar. In Forever every one of those bar requirements has been replaced with leather.

Storm Gauntlets, Heavy Timbermaw Belt and Helm of the Great Chief all changed the same way. A new Rune Thread requirement was added across them.

What else Forever changed

• Armour kits split into three lines. Vanilla had one Stamina line; Forever adds Forceful (attack power) and Mystic (spell power) at every tier. Nine new kits, plus Wild Leather Armor Kit at 300: "Permanently increase the Defense Skill by 4 and the Stamina value by 10."
• 82 Merchant's Favor recipes — the largest of any profession. Six leather lines at skill 60–125, then seven leather-and-mail lines at 175–250, role-templated the same way Blacksmithing's are. Bind on Pickup.
• Reagent bags are new to Leatherworking.
• Four crafted tier sets at skill 300: Grovekeeper (Druid), Grimstitch (Rogue), Spiritcaller (Shaman mail), Wildstalker's (Hunter mail). They need Malleable Essence of Nature from disenchanted raid drops.
• New Nature Resistance sets at 285–295 in both leather and mail.
• Cured Rugged Hide now makes 2 instead of 1. Wild Leather Cloak and Leggings dropped from 6 Wildvine to 2.
• Profession perk, new: "bracer kits with various stat bonuses, and a saddle that increases mounted speed." Details not published.
• Certification at 300 for 1,000 Favor → the title "the Leatherworker".

Specialisations

Dragonscale, Elemental and Tribal Leatherworking are present in the beta client with intact descriptions, and the vanilla spec-gated patterns are still in the data — Devilsaur, Corehound Boots, Chromatic Cloak, Stormshroud. New Dragonscale epics exist too: Black and Blue Dragonscale Helm, Red Dragonscale Leggings.

Skill level, exclusivity and switch cost are all unknown, and no guide site mentions them. As with Blacksmithing, presence in the client means they were not removed — not that the system is reachable. Nobody in the beta can get near it.

Levelling it

The route to 225 ends on 59 crafts of Turtle Scale Breastplate — that is the wall.

Above the cap: Thick Leather Ammo Pouch → Wicked Leather Gauntlets → Frostsaber Boots → Heavy Scorpid Helm.

Shopping list to 225: 724 Turtle Scale, 511 Thick Leather, 450 Medium Leather, 449 Light Leather, 394 Heavy Leather, 257 Salt, 208 Fine Thread, 138 Ruined Leather Scraps, 104 Coarse Thread, 65 Heavy Hide.

225 → 300: 488 Rugged Leather, 288 Heavy Scorpid Scale, 210 Thick Leather, 156 Frostsaber Leather, 126 Silken Thread, 74 Rune Thread.

724 Turtle Scale is the number that stops people — that is a farm, not a purchase. Heavy Scorpid Scale and Frostsaber Leather at the top end are both zone-locked farms too. Cheapest of the crafting professions if you also take Skinning; brutal if you do not.

What is not known

All three specialisation parameters. Bracer kit and saddle details. What 80 of its recipes make. Where the new Dragonscale and tier-set patterns drop.