First look at Leatherworking in Wrath
by Alex Ziebart 
Aug 14th 2008 at 3:00AM
The latest beta patch included the base upon which Leatherworking will be built. There's only a small pool of recipes so far, leveling recipes starting at 350 skill and building up to a few at 375, so it's a start and not much more. I haven't seen any phat bloos of leet purps yet. None that are actually implemented, anyway.It seems they start you off with two basic Leather sets. A caster/healer set and a melee set. The materials don't seem too awful really, but I haven't had an opportunity to run around with a character that has Skinning very much, so that remains to be seen. At the very least, the two types of armor kits you get look like simple skilling recipes, and they won't be a total waste. You won't want to spend a massive amount of gold getting higher quality enchants and armor kits for your leveling greens, but these will do just fine in that spot.
We've snagged screenshots of all of the currently implemented recipes, so click on the gallery below to take a look.
Filed under: Leatherworking, Expansions, Screenshots, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
onetrueping Aug 14th 2008 3:13AM
Apparently they still need tweaking, since the belt gives you attack power TWICE. Still, that's why it's beta.
Jash Aug 14th 2008 3:18AM
Hmm, I wonder where the mail is. Last I remember about the TBC LW lvling greens was there was something for the LW hunter as well. Probably will be revealed later though.
The stats on these are better IMO than their TBC counterparts. We actually get the same sort of detailed item budget distribution over multiple stats like those fancy purples. These things actually might stand out from the greens that just randomly drop from mobs as they're not renamed "of the Bandit" crap.
onetrueping Aug 14th 2008 4:07AM
I agree. The idea of having sets of armor that all work together early on and throughout the leveling process is a good one, in my opinion. Gives craftsmen a very distinctive appearance, and provides a nice haven from the usual motley.
Cal Aug 14th 2008 4:32AM
The mail pieces seem to have not been implemented yet, but the set has.
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?itemset=756 - It has the same set bonuses as the Borean Embrace, so I can only assume that it will be the equivalent. The "scale" in it is a bit telling as well.
On topic though, the Borean Embrace seems to be on par with the Rogue Tier 4 set, losing the massive amounts of hit gained from the set, but gaining a helluva lot of crit.
axxel Aug 14th 2008 4:10AM
A bit disappointed not to see any mail. Hope they will add that soon.
Varshak Aug 14th 2008 5:10AM
They'll get to it. The Ebon Netherscale set was bloody fantastic for Leatherworking Hunters. Personally I would like to see two mail sets, one decent Rare one at around level 78, and one kickass Epic one at 80.
chaos Aug 14th 2008 5:45AM
Oh, wait a sec. Armor kits = soulbound? And somehow, hte caster set seems more like a healer set with that lack of hit/crit.
p3ngu11 Aug 14th 2008 8:45AM
the note about binding is to prevent someone at level 80 using the kit on a low level BoE and sending it to their twink
Blackhorn Aug 14th 2008 11:24AM
@p3ngu11
"Only usable on items level 65 or greater" seems like a more traditional approach than to make an armor kit soulbinding.
tehvoid Aug 14th 2008 6:11AM
Will the boots and chestpiece be buyable and usable by non WotlK players? I've always wonder if non BC players can see BC items.
The Fayth Aug 14th 2008 6:55AM
anyone else notice that the set bonus doesn't type out critical strike rating, it just says crit rating :)
Robert M Aug 14th 2008 10:31AM
the crit rating is now across the board. it applies to strike rating and spell critical strike rating. the hybrid classes are going to take a huge boost in their versatility in wrath. stacking crit rating will send a shamans dps soaring with a similar spell and melee crit. i am unclear and am curious if anyone knows if agility is going ot add just strike rating and intel is going to add spell rating. of if they will both add to the overall strike rating stat?
dcisko Aug 14th 2008 7:56AM
We're doing away with thread? Certainly more convenient, but thread was never difficult to buy. Somehow it seems a bit sparse to have recipes that call for nothing but leather.
Anaughtybear Aug 14th 2008 8:53AM
Armor kits that only you can use are the suckage.
Shinken Aug 14th 2008 8:58AM
OK, let us pray that blizzard makes leveling tailoring and any other crafting prof worth it it with skill up patterns.
Crafting should be a great way for certian neglected specs ( ferals, ench shaman, fury warriors etc) to get optimized gear while leveling and raiding,
NOT a long and expensive way to make lackluster epics that will be replaced by easy to get BG gear for doing PVE.
We agree that tailoring was a sad ordeal? you were forced to level tailoring to get raid spots because the
gear was good as T5 in some cases.
h8rain Aug 14th 2008 10:29AM
Everyone told me to leveling tailoring and make the shadoweave set for my shadow priest. I already have tailoring on my warlock and I refuse to level up tailoring for 3 items that are BoP. I like enchanting and JC thank you very much. I will not deny the +dmg is huge, but the low +int makes it seem more geared towards a warlock. Plus the cooldown and/or cost is crazy on shadowcloth is crazy.....
Banshih Aug 14th 2008 9:23AM
Compared to all the attention, and cool features the other professions Leatherworking is looking VERY lame atm. Between the drums nerf, and the old weak bop sets...if this trend continues - why be a LWer?
A single bop leg armor recipe is not worth an entire profession.
Where is the LWing love Blizz? Seriously, why be a Lwer in light of all the features the other professions offer atm and in the past? Leatherworking has always been the underdog of professions, and the trend only seems to be continueing.
Robert M Aug 14th 2008 10:43AM
i wish that with the return to old world style that blizz would make the higher end lw patterns look like they come from actually skinning. the druid sets are always the coolest in my opinion and i would love shaman and druid sets that reflected their ties to nature. hunters can even have some natural looking sets as the idea that they spend an ample amount of time in the elements seems to coincide with the ideas of being a hunter. rogues are going to have their own sets that druid cats might also want, so they can keep those stealthy and sleek but the appearence of the leater sets needs an upgrade.
i will agree with you that lw's need fun things to make like a carpet or flyign machine, but i really tried to think of something and came up blank.
DOES ANYONE HAVE AN IDEAS ABOUT WHAT A LEATHERWORKER COULD MAKE THAT'S UNIQUE AND SEEMS TO SYNCRONIZE WITH THE PROFESSION?
Banshih Aug 14th 2008 10:44AM
Theres ample thigns that could be done to redeem this craft..
Ranging from saddles for your mounts, the leather dyes that can change the color of your crafted gear, to maybe even saddle bags for your mounts to store goods.
Robert M Aug 14th 2008 12:08PM
those are great ideas, all i could come up with a little dark, and it was being able to make a flying dragon in the spirit of stitches and the undead in northrend.
imagine collecting some leather and scales and doing a heroic run of some sort where you collect the heart of a dragon to make ur own mount. throw in ur ideas about dyes and you could make a variety of them.