Gathering Skill... which is the best $$??Follow

there are a couple gathering skills, but i want to know the one i can use to make the best money.


i currently am leveling up tailoring for my Mage.

What should i do? thanks

Just to argue :)

I would go for mining.

Leather is used mainly by leatherworkers (and the odd other I know)

Ore/gems are used by engineers, blacksmiths and jewelcrafters.

The market is larger and so the demand is higher. That way leads to greater profit. As a simple example on my server light leather sells for 1g a stack, copper for 2g.

Skinning is easier, you don't have to look for it, but it is less profitable.

either is fine. the idea is to make your bank increase, not stay the same or decrease.

as such, any stuff you gather and sell will do that.

in fact, you probably want several ways so that one day if you're in the mood for something else, you can do it.

both are easy to raise, the problem is people tend not to go after mining ores even if they see it on their radar. soon they out-level the zone and the next zone has veins that are too tough to do.

but just like herbalism, do it all at the same time and you'll find that you are simply levelling to the right level in the right zone to pick that herb or mine that ore.

skinning has the idea of being easier just because you will kill so many skinnable animals in the course of levelling up, but in fact, they are all pretty easy to level up.

For making money from purposely farming - Mining for sure!

For gathering while you quest - Skinning

First, a general guidline for making gold, is not to spend a big "percentage" of it in the AH.

However ... concidering I see more players with epic flyers mining, because Im using my own epic flyer for the same thing .. rather than in the cities. It just maybe mining had something to do with it.

I guess the question here would be if you are levelling it from when you can first get it or picking it up later.

I have levelled up both mining and skinning. I find both equally easy - sure skinning IS faster to level but the drawback is that you are going to have to level up at the same rate. You wont get onto skinning dragonskales until you are big enough to kill them (unless, of course, you have someone boosting you everywhere).

As for mining, once you get to about level 30 you should, if you have kept at it, have the skill to mine a nice amount of tin, iron, mithril, silver and gold wherever you find them - which all bring in a lot of money on my server at least. :D

And a tip, TAKE UP FISHING as a secondary skill. You start catching oily blackmouth and firefin snapper quite early on at this skill, which are needed by alchemists and bring in quite a nice bit of money for a skill that doesnt take too much effort. There are other fishes later on that are also needed for some tradeskills so it is really worth taking up if you wanna make some money. It seems too few people really think about this as a viable money maker which keeps the prices of fish stable and high, at least where I play.

For lowest level toons, up through about level 25, I suggest two gathering skills. Take either herbalism or mining plus skinning. Pick up all the secondary skills, fishing, first aid and cooking.

Right around level 10 seems to be when my toons are poorest. Noobs tend to forget to sell their excess mats at the auction house. Some items, like swiftthistle and light feathers sell for far more than one might expect for low level items.

Even though im LW, i dropped skinning for mining for the simple reason: ca$h

On my server it's like:
1 stack of knothide leather scraps (skins with highest droprate) = ~1g
1 stack of knothide leather = ~5g
1 stack of rare skins = vendor price + 25%

1 stack of fel iron ore = ~8g
1 stack of adamantite ore = ~25g
1 stack of eternium ore = ~20g
1 stack of khorium ore = ~40g
rare gems vary from 30g-70g each

Also note: to get 1 stack of leather, u need to skin ~18 mobs. To get 1 stack of (common) ore, u need to mine 5 veins.

In my experience, mining beats skinning by far (in Outland). Personally i've made about 6-8k gold with mining only and i'm not even working for it (just mining the veins that appear on my map).