Should I drop Skinning for Enchanting?Follow

As a mage, I took up tailoring in the beginning, also taking up skinning, hearing that some leather was used in some tailoring recipes. But as I've advanced (My tailoring now at 262, my skinning at 265) I've noticed that altogether, not too many tailoring recipes at all involve leather. And those that do, require such a minimal amount, or are far too much of a material sink to be worth it. (With the exception of the occasional bag, but that's what? 2 leather per?) It was brought to my attention, by a guild friend of mine, that I might want to considder dropping skinning in favor of picking up enchanting. Does this sound like a viable option? Would I make more money off of enchanting than if I stuck it out to 300 leather? What are the pros and cons of each here? (in relation to my class/profession) Responses would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

-Devenus

Edited, Tue Feb 21 00:18:48 2006 by Devenus

Yes, enchanting is certainly a viable option. The combination of tailoring and enchanting is a very popular one.

In the short term enchanting is a money sink, so no enchanting would certainly not make you more money in the beginning. As to whether or not it will make you more money later on depends upon your play style.

Skinning Pros:

Skinning is easy money. There is never a shortage of animals to skin. It’s also fun to have something to do gathering wise. For example, my hunter had skinning and leatherworking. Later on I had him drop skinning and take up engineering, as I have other characters that can skin. Now I find that I miss his ability to skin. Adventuring with him is less fun for me because he can’t gather anything.

Skinning Cons:

There aren’t really any big bucks to be gained from skinning. You make your money from selling in bulk. So its steady income, but your never going to sell a stack of rugged leather for 300 gold.

Enchanting Pros:

You have the ability to disenchant your old gear. What you get can be used to further your enchanting or sold on the auction house. The same is true for bind on pickup items or quest rewards that you can’t use. And if you manage to get some of the high end popular enchants that aren’t bought from your trainer, such as +15 agility to weapons, there is good money to be made from enchanting. And with tailoring you can make green and even blue items to disenchant for enchanting materials.

Enchanting Cons:

Enchanting will eat through your cash like acid as you level up if you aren’t careful. You have to either buy supplies or disenchant items you could have otherwise sold in the auction house to feed your enchanting skill. Either way it’s costing you money. And you aren’t likely to see any financial return until you’re near the 300 cap and even then you may not see any profit unless you do high level instances or farm reputation to get the hard to come by enchants. Also, you cannot sell enchants in the auction house. You have to be outgoing enough to shout your wears on the trade channel. And keep in mind that you’ll be just one of dozens of people selling enchants. And on top of that, many people on established servers have alts that have enchanting. So they can do the basic enchants themselves.


Enchanting is a good profession. It’s just not a cheap or easy profession to practice. If you are industrious enough to do what you need to do to get the hard to come by enchants and then advertise your enchants then you can certainly make good money with enchanting. But you really do have to work at it. My enchanter has 300 skill. But he’s only level 40 so doesn’t have any of the good enchants and I loath selling items outside the auction house. So it’s mostly just a profession I use for myself and friends.

Skinning is a useful gathering profession. It gives you something to do while adventuring and it gives you a steady income. But it’s not likely to ever make you rich. So which profession is best for you just depends on what kind of profession you want to have.