Tag: WoW

There is a ton of customization and character building in both classic and modern World of Warcraft. Between choosing skill trees, deciding which abilities will work together, and exploring how WoW Runes can enhance your gear, it’s easy to forget about improving your equipment along the way.

Regardless of the class you play, weapons and armor will always be a vital component of your build, and selecting gear with the bonuses you want will often take precedence over base armor value or raw damage.

But what if there was a way for players to augment or completely change the bonuses their gear offered, without having to search for another version of it? That is where Runes come into play.

What are Runes in WoW?

In the world of Azaroth, WoW runes are arcane sigils that correspond to a specific meaning while imparting special effects to items they are inscribed on. The Death Knight class also uses a special kind of magic called Rune Magic, but this isn’t related to equipment runes and doesn’t mean that other classes are barred from using them.

How Do I Get New WoW Runes?

Runes aren’t items that the player expends. Instead, a character can learn a rune through various means. This process and the runes you can learn are class specific, so keep in mind that every class can’t learn every rune. Some classes will also have additional requirements to learn a rune. For example, priests must meditate on a rune to memorize it.

Runes below level 20 are most commonly found as part of quests inside faction-specific locations, making them an accessible way to begin exploring the benefits of World of Warcraft Runes early in the game. Typically, the player can choose to take the opposing faction’s rune as a reward, even if it isn’t the faction they sided with. Runes above level 20 are not faction specific and won’t be sold by the brokers found in starter zones. 

As of the 6th Phase of the Season of Discovery update, players can find a Rune broker in every starter city. Basic runes can be purchased here for very cheap (as low as 1 Copper Piece). There are often multiple ways to learn one rune, but completing more than one of these tasks will not improve the rune or provide any additional bonuses.

How to Use WoW Runes

Once a character has learned a rune, it can be used as many times as you like on as many pieces of gear as you like. This can be done inside the rune engraving interface, which can be made visible inside the player’s character sheet.

However, each piece of gear can only have one rune equipped at a time, and each rune will correspond to a specific slot. For example, the Paladin’s Rune of Aegis can only be applied to chest slot items, while the Druid’s Dreamstate Rune can only be applied to items equipped on the feet.

In total, each character has 9 slots, one for the chest, hands, feet, waist, head, back, legs, and one for each of your two rings. Though it is possible to put the same rune on both rings, players should note that ring runes will not stack with other ring runes.

Runes in World of Warcraft are a huge opportunity for the player to further customize their character’s abilities or add new ones, and combining them with a Talent Calculator can take your build to the next level. Many runes offer small bonuses like reducing casting time, but others offer drastic shifts in class abilities, such as allowing hunters or warlocks to serve as tanks, or changing a warrior’s abilities to be more focused on ranged attacks.

Which Classes Can Use WoW Runes?

There are currently nine classes capable of learning and using WoW runes, each offering unique opportunities for character customization. This includes Druids, Hunters, Mages, Shamans, Priests, Warlocks, Rogues, Warriors, and Paladins.

We won’t dive too heavily into the details here, but below is a short overview of some of the benefits each class can gain from their available runes.

What Runes do Druids Get?

The runes druids have access to allow players to focus on improving magical abilities or shifting from nature to arcane. Druids can also gain powerful buffs to survivability and damage for their animal forms, or focus on more mundane methods of combat by gaining boosts to defense, daggers, or fist weapons.

What Runes do Hunters Get?

Hunters get access to some pretty impressive boosts to ranged abilities, as well as status effects like poison, stun, and bleeding. There are also runes benefitting beast mastery or the option to specialize in melee combat for a more hands-on approach to hunting.

What Runes do Mages Get?

Mage runes are largely focused on buffing elemental attacks from the arcane, frost, and fire trees. However, mages do also have the option to take on some powerful healing spells or gain some melee ability by taking on polearm or sword specialization.

What Runes do Shamans Get?

Shaman runes allow players to buff their spirit abilities or change their specialization entirely. By either picking up some of the healing abilities or dipping into threat generation and defense runes, the Shaman can serve as either a tank or a healer.

What Runes do Priests Get?

Priests get the option to delve into dangerous shadow magic, switching their role to a powerful damage dealer, or even spawn miniature copies of themselves to attack enemies for you. Of course they can also specialize in maces or polearms or augment their healing abilities to hinder enemies as well.

What Runes do Warlocks Get?

Warlock runes allow players to almost completely shift to a tank role, especially for Summoners with a good minion. Magic armor and punishing retaliatory effects can make characters difficult to hit and deadly if ignored.

What Runes do Rogues Get?

While rogue runes don’t allow for much role changing, characters get some serious buffs to stealth skills that remove the need for sneaking and make ambushers much more effective in dungeons. There is also the option to swap to a more thrown or firearm-based build if you so choose.

What Runes do Warriors Get?

Warrior runes are all about survivability or damage. These boosts can either allow the player to shrug off damage and recover health during combat, or trade defense for offense to become a vicious damage dealer.

What Runes do Paladins Get?

Paladin runes are exactly what you’d expect from the class. Healing and defensive buffs with boosts divine attacks. That said, there are some combinations of runes that shift the paladin from the tank role to more of a healer.

Whether you’re grinding for the best raid gear or simply levelling your very first character, gold is one of the most useful resources in WoW. Not only does it let you buy better gear, but it also gives you access to powerful consumables and more.

Ultimately, every WoW player wants to have as much gold as they can. 

Fortunately, the developers built in a great way for you to make a lot of money for only a bit of effort here and there. I’m talking about crafting. WoW crafting professions give you the ability to make things for other players of different professions. With some of those items being in incredibly high demand.

So, let’s explore what makes certain professions stand out and why they’re often considered WoW’s best professions for making gold.

What Are WoW’s Professions?

First off, let’s all get on the same page regarding what professions are. In WoW, professions are the different types of crafting. By choosing a certain profession, players gain the ability to craft a category of item – be that gear, cosmetics, consumables or other useful items.

Primary vs Secondary Professions: What’s the Difference?

There is a huge difference.

Each player can choose two primary professions, but no more. If you want to change a primary profession, you have to unlearn one – meaning you lose all that progress. Primary professions offer the most useful crafting in the game and include both gathering and crafting professions.

Players can indulge in all of the secondary professions, but these professions are generally much less useful and are not great for producing money.

Gathering vs Crafting Professions: Which Is Better at Making Money?

Both types of primary profession, they offer quite different utility.

Gathering professions bring in raw materials you find while exploring. While crafting professions turn those raw materials into valuable, usable items.

Both types of profession have their advantages and drawbacks.

Gathering professions 

Advantages	Drawbacks
cost nothing	low sell costs
materials are always in high demand	large time investment

Crafting professions

Advantages	Drawbacks
creates high-value items	you need to spend gold buying materials
can create items useful to your own player(s)	requires knowledge to craft the right items

Ultimately, when crafting it is best to be somewhat self-reliant – gathering your own materials which you then use to craft. Allowing you to craft valuable items to sell, without incurring large fees when gathering the materials!

How to Make Gold from Professions

Ultimately, you’re going to be selling the bounty of your profession on the marketplace (to other players) in order to secure profits. This means that you will want to obtain hard-to-obtain items that are useful to many other players.

For gathering professions, that simply means acquiring large amounts of crafting materials. Which are almost always all in high demand.

For crafting professions, it’s a little more complicated. Requiring you to understand which items are actually useful, and finding buyers.

While crafting professions create greater profits per item, gathering professions can often create a steadier income. Albeit one based on grinding gathering.

Money-Making Professions Tier List 

Now that we’re on the same page regarding what professions are – it’s time to rank them.

Remember, this list ranks professions based on their money-making potential, helping you identify WoW’s best professions for consistent gold-making. (not their overall utility or value in WoW). And while all professions can make some money, this list will reveal the professions where money-making is relatively easy to understand and execute.

S-Tier Professions

• Enchanting: A clear contender among WoW’s best professions, Enchanting excels in creating enchantments that are always in demand, especially for new gear upgrades. Its reliance on concentration builds ensures consistent profits. Especially in demand at high ranks. If you’re new or looking to refine your skills, this WoW Classic Enchanting Guide is an excellent resource to help you master the art and increase your earnings.
• Alchemy: Creator of flasks and potions, Alchemy benefits from raid-day demand spikes. Its ability to transmute rare materials also adds further profits.
• Inscription: Offers lucrative opportunities through crafting missives, contracts, and Darkmoon Cards. These items retain value due to their utility. Especially in demand at high ranks.
• Jewelcrafting: Highly profitable due to crafting gems and jewellery.

A- Tier Professions

• Mining: Provides essential materials like ores, which are always in demand for crafting professions. But profit depends on the time and effort spent gathering.
• Herbalism: Similar to Mining, but focuses on gathering the herbs used in Alchemy and Inscription. Great for steady income but can be competitive.
• Skinning: Offers raw materials used in Leatherworking. 
• Fishing: While time-intensive, fishing is a secondary profession which can yield rare catches that sell well. Although these can be hard to obtain.
• Blacksmithing: Can thrive when crafting orders and advertising for custom gear but requires effort to find customers.

B-Tier Professions

• Tailoring: Profitable through time-gated cloth cooldowns and crafting cloaks or bags. However, it requires significant investment in knowledge to unlock its full potential.
• Engineering: Produces niche items like mounts and gadgets. While unique, its products have a small market.
• Leatherworking: Focuses on crafting leather gear, which can have limited value in some markets. However, for those interested in exploring its potential, this WoW Classic Leatherworking Guide provides valuable tips.
• Cooking: Faces high competition due to no quality differentiation in its crafts. Profit margins are slim but consistent. It is also a secondary profession.

Which profession is the most profitable in WoW? Among the top-tier professions, Enchanting is often considered the most profitable. Its enchantments are always in demand, especially for gear upgrades, and at higher ranks, it generates consistent income with relatively low competition.

What are the best professions for money-making Dragonflight?

When it comes to making gold in Dragonflight, some professions are just better than others. Enchanting, Alchemy, and Inscription have consistently been crowd favorites – and it’s easy to see why. Enchanting keeps the gears of the game moving with upgrades that everyone needs. Alchemy? Well, raid nights wouldn’t happen without potions and flasks, would they. Inscription sneaks in with Darkmoon Cards and contracts, always valuable no matter how far you’ve progressed.

Now, here’s a pro tip: pair any of these with Mining or Herbalism. Why? If you gather your own materials, you’re saving a chunk of gold while keeping your crafting costs low. Plus, there’s something satisfying about knowing you’ve done it all yourself – start to finish.

Tips for Earning Gold with Professions

While choosing from the WoW’s best professions is one way to define your profits, there are other factors which can help you make even more on the marketplace.

1. Track Prices

Use tools like The Undermine Exchange to buy materials when they are cheap and to sell products when they are expensive, to increase your profits.

2. Timing the Market

There are peak demand periods in WoW – these come in the form of raid days. Which are typically Wednesday, Sunday and Tuesday. Selling on raid days can often increase profits due to increased demand.

3. Crafting Orders

Instead of speculating what people need, crafting orders allow you to work to the demand of actual players. Securing your profits in the process.

4. Patience and Market Knowledge

Avoid simply crafting or selling because you think it’s the right thing to do. Understand what items are valuable before you start crafting. It’s also worth focusing on niche markets, in order to minimize competition while being able to churn out crafted items at scale. This will help you secure profits.

5. Choose a Profession You Enjoy

It may sound silly, but it’s always easier to make quick progress (and thus quick profits) when you’re doing something you actually enjoy. So whether you’re a player who loves exploring and gathering, or a player who enjoys learning about recipes and executing them – choose a profession to suit your play style and desires. That way you’re likely to make more profits, regardless of what it is!

What are the fastest ways to make money in WoW?

If you’re in a rush to pad your pockets, gathering professions like Mining and Herbalism are your best friends. They’re straightforward, reliable, and always in demand. Think about it: someone’s got to supply the crafters with materials, and that someone could be you. Even better, gathering doesn’t require you to pour gold into materials first – you just need a little time and patience.

But gathering isn’t the only way. Crafting orders are another goldmine (pun intended). Instead of gambling on what might sell, you’re fulfilling specific requests from players who already know what they want. It’s like having a guaranteed paycheck for your effort. Quick, efficient, and no guesswork involved.

How do people make so much money in WoW?

It’s not magic – it’s strategy. Smart players know when to sell (hint: raid days like Tuesday and Sunday) and when to hold. They use tools like The Undermine Exchange to track prices, buying cheap and selling high.

Some even carve out niches, focusing on rare items or crafting high-value gear that no one else is bothering with. And let’s not forget the classic combo: gather what you need, craft what you can, and minimize costs while increasing profits. It’s like playing the stock market, but with shiny loot.

Conclusion

As we’ve seen, both gathering and crafting professions have their perks, but choosing one of the WoW’s best professions will give you an edge when it comes to making gold. But some professions are certainly more in demand than others. Leading to a few to come to the top of our tier list.

As you embark on your journey into crafting in WoW, your best bet is to choose a crafting profession you enjoy, and master it. That way you can learn which recipes are valuable, how to acquire the necessary materials on the cheap – and thus secure the highest possible profits without breaking a sweat.

Season of Discovery added Runes to World of Warcraft. Adding a powerful new enchantment to the game, giving players the ability to enhance their gear, in turn unlocking new abilities and even new spells. 

If you’re yet to get your head around which runes are the best to get for your Shaman, this is the guide for you. So buckle up, it’s time to choose the best runes for your build.

What Are Runes? 

Runes are a special engraving which can be added to specific gear slots. Offering up new bonuses which change or enhance your character’s abilities. For Shaman builds, runes in the Season of Discovery can change how spells work – or even add entirely new spells to your roster.

So, essentially, Runes are a new type of upgrade you can use to make your build even stronger. Making them something that you most definitely want to understand.

How to Get Runes

There are two primary ways to acquire runes: 

1. Rune Broker

Rune Brokers are located across major cities, these vendors sell runes and skill books, allowing you to pick up specific enhancements on demand.

If you’re looking for your first rune, head to one of these cities:

• Alliance:
  • Darnassus
  • Ironforge
  • Stormwind
• Horde:
  • Orgrimmar
  • Thunder Bluff
  • Undercity

2. Questing and Discovery

Runes, especially those tailored for Shamans in the Season of Discovery, can also be found as rewards for quests. So you will also accumulate a few runes as you simply play.

How to Use Runes in SoD 

Once you’ve got your hands on some runes, you can gain their benefit by engraving them into your gear. The process is simple:

1. Choose an item from the right slot – Each rune is for a specific slot, so can only be applied to that piece of gear.
2. Engrave the rune at a rune engraver, in a major city.

So, the process is simple once you have the runes. However, you’ll want to carefully consider which runes you apply to gear, as to best benefit your build.

Choosing the Best Shaman Runes by Slot 

Runes are not one-size-fits-all, and in the Season of Discovery, Shamans have access to a variety of runes tailored to different builds. This means that you will likely want to choose runes yourself, instead of simply being told the “best” runes. That said, this section breaks down the different runes and why you would want them.

Ring Runes 

Ring runes are unique, offering some of the most widely applicable buffs. For this reason, the best rune will most certainly depend on which skills you use as a Shaman. But the Runes you can choose from are:

• Rune of Axe Specialization  
• Rune of Dagger Specialization  
• Rune of Defense Specialization  
• Rune of Fire Specialization  
• Rune of Fist Weapon Specialization  
• Rune of Frost Specialization  
• Rune of Healing Specialization  
• Rune of Mace Specialization  
• Rune of Meditation Specialization  
• Rune of Nature Specialization  
• Rune of Pole Weapon Specialization  

Belt Runes 

1. Fire Nova 

Replaces Fire Nova Totem with a spell that causes your Fire Totem to emit damage at its location.  

Where to find it?  Quest or Rune Broker.  

2. Maelstrom Weapon 

Grants a stacking buff from melee attacks, reducing cast time and mana cost of certain spells.  

Where to find it?  Purchase from Rune Brokers.  

3. Power Surge 

Resets cooldowns on Lava Burst and Chain Lightning, making them instant casts under certain conditions. Also provides mana regeneration.  

Where to find it?  Rune discovery through questing or vendors.  

Boot Runes 

1. Ancestral Awakening 

Summons an ancestral spirit to heal the lowest-health party member after a critical heal.  

Where to find it?  Quest or vendor.  

2. Decoy Totem 

Redirects attacks to a summoned totem while granting movement-immunity effects.  

Where to find it?  Purchase or quest rewards.  

3. Spirit of the Alpha 

Increases threat and damage for tank builds, with a complementary buff for DPS Shamans.  

Where to find it?  Rune Broker or world discovery.  

Bracer Runes 

1. Overcharged 

Converts Lightning Shield into an area-of-effect ability with no charge loss.  

Where to find it?  Questing with Dyadic Icon or vendor purchase.  

2. Riptide 

Introduces the Riptide spell, healing a target instantly and over time, with synergy for Chain Heal.  

Where to find it?  Rune discovery quests or Rune Brokers.  

4. Rolling Thunder 

Enhances Lightning Shield interactions and provides mana regeneration through Earth Shock usage.  

Where to find it?  Vendor or questing rewards.  

Chest Runes 

1. Dual Wield Specialization 

Improves dual-wielding performance, enhancing hit chances and off-hand damage.  

Where to find it?  Rune Broker.  

2. Healing Rain 

Adds an area-of-effect healing spell for group support.  

Where to find it?  Quest reward or vendor.  

3. Overload 

Adds a chance to duplicate spells at reduced power, greatly enhancing overall output.  

Where to find it?  Questing with specific items or Rune Brokers.  

Glove Runes 

1. Lava Burst 

Guarantees a critical hit on targets affected by Flame Shock.  

Where to find it?  Rune discovery or Rune Brokers.  

2. Molten Blast 

A high-threat ability dealing fire damage to multiple enemies.  

Where to find it?  Vendor or quest.  

3. Water Shield 

Provides passive mana regeneration and additional mana recovery when struck.  

Where to find it?  Quest or Rune Broker.  

Leg Runes 

1. Ancestral Guidance 

Converts a percentage of damage into healing or healing into damage, depending on the target.  

Where to find it?  Quest rewards or Rune Brokers.  

2. Earth Shield 

Shields the target, reducing pushback and healing them when attacked.  

Where to find it?  Vendor or world discovery.  

3. Greater Ghost Wolf 

Allows Ghost Wolf indoors and reduces damage taken while active.  

Where to find it?  Rune Broker or questing.  

Cloak Runes 

1. Coherence 

Improves the effectiveness of Chain Heal and Chain Lightning, adding extra targets.  

Where to find it?  Rune Broker.  

2. Feral Spirit 

Summons Spirit Wolves for added damage and utility.  

Where to find it?  Quest reward or vendor.  

3. Storm, Earth, and Fire 

Boosts Chain Lightning and Flame Shock damage while adding crowd control through Earthbind Totem.  

Where to find it?  Vendor or discovery.  

Conclusion

Runes in the Season of Discovery are a must-have for any WoW player looking to unlock the full potential of their Shaman build. Thus, you’ll want to spend some time figuring out which runes are best for your specific shaman build. Then you can find 

Enchanting is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding crafting professions in World of Warcraft. Not only does it let you craft Wands, consumables and reagents – but it lets you enchant weapons and gear applying permanent (and replaceable) buffs to your gear.

This WoW classic enchanting guide will break down how to level up your enchanting, equipping you with everything you need to know to be able to craft the best endgame enchantments in all of WoW Classic.

What is Enchanting?

One of the primary crafting professions, Enchanting is used to apply permanent buffs to weapons and gear. WoW Classic enchanting crafters can also create Wands, consumables and reagents. While gaining access to the Disenchant spell, used to destroy items for materials. Enchanting is not only useful but also one of the most profitable WoW professions.

Why Choose Enchanting?

Enchanting is incredibly powerful, especially in the endgame. For many builds, enchanting can be almost essential. Meaning that if you can enchant your own gear, you’ll be in a great position to both equip yourself and sell powerful enchantments on the auction house.

Depending on your goals, enchantment can pair well with other crafting professions.

• Tailoring pairs well, given the ability to loot cloth without a gathering profession, and the ability to disenchant tailored items for enchanting materials.
• Mining, Skinning and Herbalism can also be good choices, especially for those looking to make gold from their crafting professions.

Which Classes is Enchanting Best For?

It’s not rocket science to see that enchanting would be well suited to mages – and it certainly is. Mages, priests and warlocks all can use wands, and crafted wands can be very powerful while levelling.

Tank Druids can also benefit from enchanting, as only enchanters can craft the powerful Smoking Heart of the Mountain trinket.

Getting Started with WoW Enchanting

So, how do you get started?

1. Choosing Enchanting

Visit any major city and locate the Enchanting trainer. They’ll allow you to learn the basics of the profession, giving you your first few recipes and skill book. From there you can simply start gathering materials and crafting your own enchantments.

2. Enchanting Trainers

For those looking for recipes, trainers can provide a vast variety of them. These can be found across the world. With some of the best enchantment trainers being found in the major cities. While useful, many of the best recipes will not be acquired through these trainers. But need to be found, crafted or bought off the marketplace.

3. Learning Recipes

Recipes can be bought from trainers and vendors, dropped from monsters, found while questing, or obtained as quest rewards. Ensure you gather and learn recipes whenever possible, to help boost your level early on. But do not feel obliged to craft every recipe you find. When levelling, focus on recipes with low-tier material costs.

4. Materials for Enchanting

There are a number of materials used for crafting. You will want to ensure that you stockpile these whenever you encounter them in the world! When necessary you can also use WoW Classic Gold to buy these items from the auction house.

• Dusts, Elemental Materials and Shards – primary enchanting materials.
• Arcane Crystals and Essences – Higher level crafting materials for endgame enchantments.
• Enchanting Vellums – used for applying transferable enchantments.

5. Key Items to Disenchant

Disenchanting is one of the most important things you can do as an enchanter as it provides you with many of the most valuable crafting materials. 

You can only disenchant enchanted items which you find or obtain in the world. These are the key types of items you want to disenchant:

• Green-quality items – Best for low-level dust and essences.
• Blue-quality items – Can yield better essences and shards.
• Purple items – Rare and epic items can deliver some of the highest quality materials.

Enchanting Levelling Guide

Getting to max level in crafting is always going to be a bit of a grind. But with these strategies you can make it a hell of a lot easier!

Level 1-75: Getting Started

At the start, focus on crafting low-level enchantments using easy to acquire materials. These can be recipes from trainers. Here, you’re looking for quantity to quickly level up.

Materials to gather:

• Lesser Magic Dust
• Strange Dust
• Minor Mana Potions (optional)

Key Enchants:

• Enchant Bracer – Minor Health
• Enchant Bracer – Minor Deflection

Level 75-150: Early-mid Game

As you progress, be sure to craft level-relevant recipes in order to keep your experience gain worthwhile. Many of these recipes will start requiring more complex materials, requiring you to gather them from enchanted items or buy them off the marketplace.

Materials to gather:

• Greater Magic Essence
• Greater Mystic Essence
• Strange Dust
• Illusion Dust

Key Enchants:

• Enchant Chest – Minor Mana
• Enchant Gloves – Mining
• Enchant Weapon – Minor Beastslaying

Level 150-225: Mid to Late Game

Once you hit level 150, you’ll be able to craft enchantments worth using. This means that you should be using your skills to actually enchant the items and weapons you use to boost your stats and prepare you for endgame. As before, be sure to keep up with level-relevant recipes to ensure efficient gains.

Materials to gather:

• Large Brilliant Shards
• Large Green Essences
• Essence of Air, Fire, Earth, and Water

Key Enchants:

• Enchant Weapon – Crusader
• Enchant Weapon – Fiery Weapon
• Enchant Chest – Major Health

Level 225-300: Endgame Enchants

As you approach max level, enchanting gets incredibly powerful – but also requires more and more complex materials. As these materials can be hard to gather, you can reach out to guildmates to see if they need things enchanting, and if they can donate some materials. Otherwise, the grind remains much the same.

Materials to gather:

• Void Crystals
• Greater Eternal Essences
• Arcane Crystals

Key Enchants:

• Enchant Weapon – Agility
• Enchant Cloak – Greater Resistance
• Enchant Chest – Major Mana

How to Get the Most Out of Enchanting in WoW Classic

1. Disenchant everything you can. Don’t sell things – disenchant them. Your enchantment skill will become far more valuable than the small amounts of gold netted from selling to vendors.
2. Track AH prices. Enchanting can be profitable, so if you focus on profitable recipes you can actually earn while levelling. Although, prices will only be considerably worthwhile towards the end of your levelling.
3. Farm rare materials. Sadly, there’s no getting away from farming for materials. So you can benefit from spending time in dungeons or areas known for dropping high-value disenchanting materials/items.

Equipped with this knowledge, you should be able to quickly level your way through the enchanting profession. Soon, you’ll be able to imbue gear with the best enchantments out there!

If you’re exploring other crafting professions, check out our WoW Classic Leatherworking Guide to learn how to craft gear, level up quickly, and maximize profits. Combining enchanting with leatherworking can open up even more opportunities to enhance your gameplay and economy!

If you’re thinking about becoming a leatherworking crafter in WoW Classic, you’ve come to the right place. This classic leatherworking guide will contain everything you need to know – from how to get started with leatherworking, to how to farm your way to max level. Also, check out our WoW Professions Guide to see which profession makes the most gold.

So let’s dive right in.

What is Classic Leatherworking?

One of WoW Classic’s primary crafting professions, leatherworking focuses on creating leather and mail type armours from animal hides and skins. Beyond armour, leatherworkers can also create essential items like quivers, ammo pouches and armour kits.

What Classes Are Best Suited to WoW Leatherworking?

Looking at what they make, you can guess who benefits the most from leatherworking: Hunters and Rogues – these two classes benefit from their entire output. Druids and Enchantment Shamans can also benefit from the crafted armour types.

Why Choose Leatherworking?

If you’re one of the classes listed above, leatherworking can be a no brainer. But there are other reasons too:

1. Self-Sufficiency

If you’re a wearer of the amour, being able to produce your own gear can be great throughout the levelling process. As it’s an easy way to keep up with your gear requirements while simultaneously gaining experience in your crafting profession.

2. Economic Benefits

While armour may be class specific, armor kits are a highly desired item by almost all players in the game. Thus, you can make plenty of income by selling these amor kits on the auction house. You can also make money at max level by selling high-value raid gear – but that’s only really when you max out the profession.

3. Raid Relevance

When you reach max level of leatherworking, you’ll start producing some highly sought after raid gear. This can be useful either for yourself, your guild mates, or for someone else (who will pay you). Ultimately, it’s a useful end game profession.

How to Gather Leatherworking Materials

As a leatherworker, your main resource is going to be animal skins and hides. There are a few ways you can get these to fuel your profession and levelling.

1. Skinning Profession (Primary Source)

By taking the skinning gathering profession, you can skin beasts after killing them to generate your own crafting materials. This is by far the best way to go if you are levelling leatherworking alongside your character.

2. Auction House

While tough on the wallet, you can purchase all the hides you need off of the auction house if necessary. But be sure to do so when leather prices are low – as it can get seriously expensive. That said, you can always buy WoW Classic Gold in an emergency…

3. Alternative Characters

If you’re not levelling, it can be worth using alternative characters with the skinning profession to gather resources while they are doing so.

Classic Leatherwork Levelling Guide

Compared to some crafting  professions, leatherworking is relatively straightforward to level. So let’s break it down:

Getting Started (1-75)

As you get started, you’ll first need to become a leatherworker. Simply visit a trainer in any major city to become a leatherworker, and get your skinning knife if you’re also taking the skinning profession. Then you’ll want to gather light leather and get crafting.

Top early recipes:

• Light Armor Kit (1-20): Requires 2 Light Leather each
• Light Leather Pants (20-45): Requires 4 Light Leather each
• Light Leather Bracers (45-75): Requires 6 Light Leather each

Intermediate Crafting (75-150)

At this point, you’ll need to focus on getting medium leather from level 15-25 beasts. As you progress you may want to farm The Wetlands and Hillsbrad Foothills, as they are great areas to farm a combination of Medium and Heavy leather – which you’ll need plenty of soon. Then you can get crafting some of these recipes:

• Handstitched Leather Cloak (75-100): Requires 3 Light Leather
• Fine Leather Belt (100-120): Requires 6 Medium Leather
• Fine Leather Tunic (120-150): Requires 8 Medium Leather and 2 Fine Thread

Advanced Crafting (150-225)

As you gather Heavy Leather from level 25-35 beasts, you’ll be able to focus on other recipes such as those listed below. You will notice that the amor starts requiring other materials – which can become costly. But if you make enough Armor Kits you should be able to make some profit by selling them on the marketplace.

• Heavy Leather Ball (150-175): Requires 4 Heavy Leather
• Heavy Armor Kit (175-200): Requires 5 Heavy Leather
• Dusky Leather Armor (200-225): Requires 12 Heavy Leather and 2 Black Dye

Expert Level (225-300)

At level 225 you’ll start needing Tick and Rugged leather. These can be time consuming to obtain, but if you’re playing regularly you will gain enough to focus on these recipes.

• Thick Armor Kit (225-250): Requires 5 Thick Leather
• Nightscape Headband (250-275): Requires 5 Thick Leather
• Rugged Armor Kit (275-300): Requires 5 Rugged Leather

WoW Classic Leatherworking Specializations

At level 225 you also get to choose a specialization. While many in the community are expecting notable changes to specializations, you can still choose between these three. Each has their focus own focus and special recipes.

While it may seem stressful choosing a specialisation, you can change specialisation by talking to your trainer. While you will need to re-level the new specialisation.

1. Dragonscale Leatherworking:

Dragonscale focuses on mail armour type, making it popular for hunters and enchantment shamans.

2. Elemental Leatherworking:

Elemental gear can be useful for raiding as a rogue/feral. But requires you to farm Essences which contribute to the elemental aspect of the specialisation.

3. Tribal Leatherworking:

Tribal is used by caster Druids, so if you’re a druid this could be your best bet.

Tips for Effective Leatherworking

• Keep your Skinning Skill Levelled – Ensure it is of high enough level to match your leatherworking, so you can continue to gather materials.
• Stock up on threads and dyes – These are needed for many recipes, so grab them when you can.
• Sell your Armor Kits from the start – Seriously, people always want and need these, so they can be a serious source of income.
• Track Auction House prices – To allow you to buy materials and sell kits when prices are in your favour.

The journey to becoming a master leatherworker is a long one – as with any crafting profession in WoW – but it’s not a hard one. Just gather, craft and sell. Then once you’re at the top of your game, make some of the most sought-after armour and Armor kits to keep your practice profitable! So, what are you waiting for? Get crafting! 

Looking to boost your gear even more? Check out our WoW Classic Enchanting Guide. Learn to craft powerful enchantments and level up fast. Discover how to disenchant items for valuable materials and maximize your profits.

Raiding in World of Warcraft not only represents the some of the most challenging content in the game, but it also runs to the core of why so many players remain infatuated with WoW today. Whether you’re new to raiding or are a returning legacy player, this guide will help you get up speed – preparing you to jump into the best and toughest raids the game has to offer.

Understanding Raids

If you’ve raided before, you can skip this. But for new players, understanding what Raids are is the essential starting point for figuring out how to get prepared for them.

What Exactly is a WoW Raid?

A WoW raid is a high-difficulty multiplayer instance designed for large groups of players to progress through, fighting one or more powerful bosses and overcoming challenges. These typically see 10 to thirty players dive into a dungeon where players progress towards a final boss fight featuring unique abilities and mechanics. Because of its unique nature, a WoW raid often requires considerable coordination and communication between players – as a single error can, in some circumstances, cause the entire party to die.

While difficult, a WoW raid offers some of the most valuable and powerful loot in the game – rewarding players with gear which will give them a significant boost or be sold for a pretty penny.

What are WoW Raid Locks?

In WoW you cannot simply farm raids every day. Instead, once you attempt or defeat a raid boss you’re usually “locked” out of that content for the rest of that week.

This means you’ll only be able to benefit from the same raid again the following week.

What are Keys?

Dungeons and raids weigh in at different difficulty levels – meaning that the same WoW raid can be completed at different difficulties. These difficulties are known as “keys”, as you need keys to access the different levels of the dungeon.

The higher a key level, the more difficult it will be and the greater the reward you will get if you’re successful. Generally speaking, you will want to complete lower tiers of a dungeon before attempting later key levels.

Preparing for Raids – Core Principles

Now we’re all on the same page regarding what raids are, it’s time to gear up. When preparing to raid there are several considerations to be made: including your level, your equipment and your mechanical ability/knowledge. This guide will focus on how to gear up with the best equipment for raids.

Understanding Item Level and Its Importance

Item level (or ilvl) is a number attached to each piece of gear in WoW, indicating how strong that piece of gear is. You can think of it like a power rating – you will be able to get multiple versions of the same gear, but the one with the greatest ilvl will be the best and most valuable.

While ilvl may seem like a small part of the game as you’re levelling up your character, when it comes to maximizing your potential, it is huge. This is because:

• Higher ilvl items means more powerful base stats, which means even higher potential.
• Most raid groups use ilvl to check if players are ready for specific content. For example, asking for ilvl of 450.
• Better gear makes difficult fights more forgiving, by buffing your stats.

The Three Pillars of Gear Progression

So, how do we get better equipment? This road is comprised of three clear parts:

Planning

Identifying what gear you need to obtain and why. Then clearly understanding the steps to obtain that gear with the desired stats. This will help to inform what content you should focus on, and how often you’ll need to play.

Of course, we all want the best gear – but these plans should be realistic. What gear is necessary to reach your current goal. Not to be the best specced player in the entirety of WoW.

Optimisation

So you’ve identified your desired year… but is it really the best and most realistic that you can obtain? Reconsider your stats and specs, and ensure that the gear you’re finding fulfils all the criteria for your given class.

Diversification

Can you combine different methods to find your gear? For example, can you gather this gear effectively over a few weeks given things like WoW raid lockouts? How can you avoid the soft locks the game puts in place? And if there are locks, are there better ways to obtain your desired stats which are not through that specific item?

What Gear do I Need?

This is a big question, and will depend greatly on your class, character, skills and overall desired. For this reason, this guide will focus on getting you to the right resources for you rather than running down every possible build.

Understanding Gear

When we think of gear, we immediately think of armour and weapons. But there’s plenty more when it comes to end-game raiding. These are the key types of WoW items you’ll have to think about, find, or buy:

Armour

A large proportion of player stats come from amour selection. So you’ll of course need to get your hands on some great armour.

Weapons

Like armour, weapons are one of the primary means of increasing your character’s ability and output.

Gems

While armour and weapons get the spotlight, gems are a key way to further the potential of your gear. These will provide essential stat bonuses.

Enchants

Gear is great on its own, but with enchants its effectiveness is taken to a whole new level. So spend some time figuring out the best enchants for your build.

Consumables

While your gear is your base-level stats, consumables can provide significant boosts during WoW raids. These buffs primarily come from flasks and food, which you will likely need to craft or purchase. If you’re low on resources, you can easily get what you need by purchasing WoW gold. Because of this, you may need to create a budget for these buffs – considering both expensive and budget options.

Advanced Tools to Choose Gear

There are three main tools used for finding the gear you’ll need:

Community Engagement

I hate to be obvious, but the richest tool is community knowledge. Whether it’s talking to guild mates and friends or researching on forums, the player base is a font of realistic and helpful knowledge when it comes to identifying the best gear for you. So spend some time engaging with the community and online forums to find your desired build and equipment.

Using SimulationCraft

This community tool helps to you explore and visualise the options at your disposal, modelling how your build would do in different situations. This can help you select different strategies or gear to world better at certain WoW raids.

You can even directly import your character!

Raidbots 

This is a version of SimulationCraft run in the cloud, allowing you to benefit from all of its perks without needing to download and run the program yourself. While it does have some premium, paid features, it’s worth it for time saving. But for those not willing to pay, you can use it’s free features or run SimulationCraft directly yourself.

How to Get Better Gear

Now that we understand all the general principles, let’s get into something more concrete: how to actually achieve good raid-ready gear.

Gearing Up from Zero

This path will be one for players who are yet to – or have just reached max level.

Complete World Quests and Regular Dungeons

Completing the campaign of your current expansion will provide basic gear to help you get started on your journey towards raid-ready equipment. This will also unlock important features and locations which will allow you to progress. And, of course, get you to a high enough level to begin participating in WoW raids.

World quests are self-explanatory. But in order to get involved in regular dungeons use the Dungeon Finder (press “I”) and then run each dungeon at least once to become familiar with the layout. Don’t worry, regular dungeons are very forgiving.

Move onto Heroic and Mythic Dungeons

While regular dungeons will bring some gear, it won’t be your end-game goal. Instead, you’ll need to move into the higher tier dungeons. If you’re new to these, consider joining runs labelled as “chill” or “learning” so that you can learn the ropes in a more relaxed environment.

Do weekly raids and reset activities to gain gear.

Once you’ve learned how to raid, you’ll be ready to start a dungeon weekly rotation of WoW raid challenges as you grind towards your desired gear.

How to Grind the Weekly Reset Activities

Many of WoW’s most rewarding activities, including a challenging WoW Raid, reset every Tuesday – giving you a fresh chance to earn loot and progress. These are the ones you should keep your eye on as you’re trying to gear up for high-level raids.

Great Vault

This is a special reward system which offers some great high-level gear based on what you achieved in the previous week. If you complete the other activities on this list, your Great Vault rewards will improve – netting you some of the best gear available to your character.

WoW Raid Difficulties

Completing the hardest raids you can will net you good rewards as you gear up. This will not only allow you to approach higher level raids, but also improve your Great Vault.

Mythic+ Dungeons

This isn’t going to be possible early on, but as you improve it’s vital to start on Mythic+ Dungeons as these are where you get into the best of the best endgame gear. Try to join experienced teams which can help teach you and somewhat carry you. Albeit you will need to be up for the challenge.

Rated PvP (Player versus Player)

Outside of raids, PvP can net you some great rewards and give you access to better Great Vault rewards. As this is different to Raiding you may need different equipment and play styles to compete at high levels – but taking part will net you some good rewards.

World Quests

Simply completing special PvE world quests each week will net you some rewards and Great Vault progress. Also offering a great place to start if you’re lacking the gear to begin Raids or PvP.

Time to Gear Up for the WoW Raid

As we have explored, gearing up is going to be a long process – first of research, then of consistent execution as you slowly improve your character and reach your long term goals. While this is a challenge, it is a fun one. Pushing you to engage with some of WoW’s most challenging and rewarding elements as you grow. 

While the fine-grain details of the equipment and gear you will need will be dependent on your class, play style and desires, this guide will have equipped you with a clear process to orient yourself towards those goals – setting you off on your journey to achieve them, and thus take part in some of toughest WoW raids.

Good luck out there. 

World of Warcraft is a game that needs no introduction. Since the early 2000s, it’s been the most played MMORPG out there. And WoW Classic is a title which has given millions of players the chance to revisit where it all started—or experience World of Warcraft’s origins for the very first time.

Season of Discovery introduces a fresh perspective on WoW Classic, as highlighted by recent WoW SoD News. Recent WoW SoD news highlights how the update shakes up the classic WoW experience with new mechanics, appealing to both veteran players and newcomers alike.

Let’s take a look at exactly why you should be downloading WoW Classic right now, in order to jump into Season of Discovery.

A New Classic

First off, Season of Discovery takes place on a different server than other WoW Classic modes. Meaning that you can jump into it, or not, depending on your preference.

But SoD isn’t just another Classic server. It’s a reimagining of what World of Warcraft could have been, taking WoW Classic as a starting point.

To do this, SoD maintains the core Classic experience while introducing a number of revolutionary changes which totally shake up the traditional class dynamics, progression systems and much more.

Discovering Runes

The most exciting feature, often discussed in WoW SoD News, is the introduction of Runes. These Runes fundamentally change how classes play—and yes, I mean all classes. By discovering Runes through exploration and other activities, players can unlock new abilities and roles previously unavailable to their classes. 

In other words, you can gain access to the skills, abilities and roles of other classes. Just imagine Warlock tanks wielding two-handed weapons. Or Priests on the front line dishing out the DPS. Or rogues sneaking around to heal their squad.

While unlocking and experimenting with Runes is thrilling, it often requires resources for gear upgrades, consumables, and progression. Having enough WoW Classic Gold on hand ensures you’re always prepared to explore these exciting new possibilities and maximize the potential of your hybrid character.

It goes without saying that this new system lets your imagination run wild, crafting hybrid characters with vast skill sets which explode the confines of traditional WoW classes.

Phase-Based Progressive Content

Progression as a whole has also been overhauled for SoD. Instead of the usual max level, the game has launched with a cap at level 25, which will gradually increase through phases. While this may initially sound a little strange, it’s going to make for a very exciting few months as it will cause the community to all remain within set level brackets for longer, bringing together larger communities of players for both PvE and PvP content in zones of different level caps. 

Not only that, but it also suggests that Blizzard have plenty of other innovations up their sleeves as they keep raising the level cap throughout the Season of Discovery.

 Why You Should Return Now

With the excitement building around WoW SoD News, there’s no better time to return to WoW Classic. But if you still need convincing, here are 5 reasons you should boot up today:

Renewed Social Experience

The new progression system has reinvigorated the community and brought players together in zones that were traditionally empty in Classic. Meaning veteran players are being forced out of their comfort zone, into a whole new realm of enjoyment. Creating new communities in the process.

Class Innovation

The new Rune system is electric, revolutionizing how classes play—and not only for you, but for every player you meet. Meaning that, once again, your traditional knowledge of WoW Classic will be thrown into question when you spot any class rushing towards you. Opening up a whole playground for experimentation and fun.

Fresh Economy

With all players starting from scratch and limited by the phase-by-phase release schedule, the Season of Discovery creates a fair and balanced economy. Gold farmers and long-time accumulators have to begin anew, making early progress more meaningful. If you’re looking to get a head start, there are options available to help you stay competitive, especially if you’re just jumping in now!

Challenging Content

While level caps might sound like a gimmick at first, Blizzard have paired them with plenty of new challenges specifically crafted for each phase. The first, for example, includes difficult 10-player raids tuned for level 25. Offering up endgame-like content right from the get-go.

Modern Conveniences

SoD is classic, but it’s a new classic. Meaning that SoD includes a bunch of quality of life improvements that make the game more accessible than WoW as it was in the 2000s. From Group finding tools to improved quest tracking to other enhancements, it plays like a modern game—while harking back to the glory days of WoW/

 The Discovery Awaits

True to it’s name, Season of Discovery tasks you with exploring Azeroth to find Runes, new raids, new content and new communities. Reimagining what World of Warcraft could have been in a way which will appeal to both newcomers and veterans alike. So, what are you waiting for? If you’ve been longing for that long-lost feeling of booting up a bustling, exciting and uncharted MMO, now’s your chance.

Many genres have a game or franchise which become synonymous with them. For MMORPGs it’s World of Warcraft. For over two decades, WoW has lived in the public consciousness as the game where players log on to enjoy a rich, diverse fantasy world with millions of other players and countless things to do in WoW.

However, let’s be realistic. Released in 2004, WoW is a 20 year old game. There aren’t that many 20 year old games which are still played or enjoyed today. Thus, the question begs – when will the mighty WoW go offline? This article aims to break down this question.

The Current State of WoW

To understand when WoW might shut down, the best place to look is the current state of the game… Which is surprisingly, still pretty good. 

According to mmo-population.com, WoW is still the most played MMO on the market. Boasting an impressive total player count of 155.12 million, and a daily active player count above 300,000.

But this player base should come as no surprise. Blizzard have continued to release updates over the past two decades, keeping players engaged even when they find themselves in WoW waiting on another update. The most recent of which were released in 2022 (Dragonflight) and 2024 (The War Within). 

Perhaps more importantly, these updates are not only frequent, but they are consistently very meaningful. Adding new mechanics, items and content to the game while extending WoW’s complex and beloved narrative. Not to mention WoW spin-offs like WoW Classic, which allow players to relive the game’s origins and enjoy a nostalgic experience.

Part of this health can be chocked up to the fact that WoW still features subscription payments – bringing in huge sums of money which fund the development of expansion, real-world events and much more.

For players who want to explore Azeroth without starting from scratch, WoW accounts can be a practical option. These accounts often come with leveled characters and gear, letting you dive into the adventures and challenges the game has to offer.

Ultimately, if we were to line up all MMORPGs, the state of WoW would definitely rank in the top few, thanks to the endless things to do in WoW that keep players engaged. Especially considering its age, dated graphical style and old-school mechanics. 

A Gradual Decline 

While WoW still sits at the top of MMOs, its player base often reflects on past expansions while waiting on another update to bring new excitement. In the 2000s, WoW had over 12 million monthly subscribers. Which dropped throughout the 2010s, reaching somewhere between 4.5 million subscribers (reported by Statista) and 7.5 million subscribers (reported by IGN). While we don’t know the exact numbers, it’s clear that WoW has declined in overall popularity over the past 15 years.

And while new expansions and content updates will provide spikes in subscribers and general interest, it’s a no-brainer that a game which is over 20 years old will be in decline.

That said, 6 million users paying $13+ per month to access the game most certainly gives Blizzard plenty of reason to keep the game alive.

Factors Influencing WoW’s Future

The question of when WoW will go offline has been one which has plagued the game for over a decade – leaving plenty of room for speculation. Given the game’s long history and the fact that it is still Blizzard’s flagship title, it’s unlikely that WoW will shut down in the near future.

However, since Blizzard was merged with Activision – both of which were purchased by Microsoft – there are new questions about the power structure which could lead to the game being side-lined.

Other concerns come from the simple fact that the game and genre are both quite old, garnering less attention from gamers today in the bustling marketplace that is gaming. If new smash-hit titles or genres are developed, more players may migrate away from WoW causing Blizzard to downsize or throw in the towel.

Finally, there is the question of business model. While players still pay monthly for WoW, subscription models are not popular with gamers today. If Blizzard is unable to keep this method of monetization profitable, the game may close down pretty quickly.

The Inevitability of Server Shutdown 

World of Warcraft will go offline at some point. Just like there will be a day where Google and Microsoft are shuttered. There’s no doubt about that. But before we get too existential, it’s clear that time will not be any time soon. World of Warcraft remains one of the most beloved (and profitable) MMORPGs to date. Not only that, but it has left an indelible mark on the culture of gaming. Meaning that even if Blizzard were forced to downsize, WoW would likely go the way of Ultima Online or Everquest – even older MMOs who remain alive with a small but incredibly passionate player base.