Hell Bent for Leather

I was out of town most of this weekend, but I did get some quality WoW time in last night. According to my goals set last post, I logged into my druid and pushed myself the rest of the way to level 74.

I went back to Borean Tundra and found the quests I had missed my first time there. I had also skipped the last D.E.H.T.A. because I didn't think I could handle an elite, but upon my success in Howling Fjord with elite mobs I decided to give it a try.

It took a couple tries, and that was mainly because the quest item that calls for help didn't work the first few times. In the end I finally got the mammoths to trample him, pretty much cutting his life in half, then I finished him off. Upon turning in the quest I got the achievement for finishing the all the D.E.H.T.A. quest chains in that zone. Not bad.

I also finished off a few quests for the gnomes which required an engineering item, and once that was done I got the Borean Tundra quest achievement. I also hit level 74, and it was time to move on to the next goal. Getting to Dalaran.

Well, all I had to do was talk to a guy in Valiance Keep and he teleported me there. Sort of anticlimactic. I also did the quest that takes you to the other teleporter and back, but other than that I just picked up the flight path and then ported to Stormwind.

Now it was time to get some leatherworking done, but before I could do that I had to get some leather. I tried the AH, but apparently nobody sells Rugged Leather anymore, because there was only one auction for 3 of them going for 4g, and I needed a lot more than 3 to make it to level 300.

At this point I wasn't really sure where to go to farm the leather. I know I needed to find mobs that are level 55-60 and skinnable, but where is the best place for that? At first I considered WPL, but it seems a little sparse for farming. Then I thought maybe Silithus, but bugs don't always drop leather and hides like most beasts do, and I really didn't need that other stuff.

I ended up deciding on Winterspring, and I'm very glad that I did. This place is great for farming leather. Right outside of Everlook is a yeti cave. I remember doing the quests here that end up getting you a mechanical yeti, and they are all level 55-58. Being level 74 I could two- or three-shot each one, and I was getting leather like crazy.

What I ended up doing was actually running through the cave a few times, since most players on the quest just kill the ones outside, and with about 25 yetis in there I was getting a lot of leather. Then when I made my way back out there was usually somebody out there doing some part of the quest chain, so I was scavenge their kills for leather as well. After 3 runs through the cave and some various skinning outside I had more than enough leather to get my leatherworking to 300.

I made enough Wicked Leather Headbands to get my skill to 302 before I ran out, so I actually got a little extra for my farming work. Then I made my way back to Stormwind to grab all the Knothide Leather I had stashed there, and from there to Outland where I found the master leatherworking trainer in Honor Hold and learned the ways of using that Outland leather.

In the end I had enough leather stockpiled to get my skill to 335 before I ran out. It's quite a relief to finally get my professions up to a level where I'm not so far behind my character's level. Sure I'm still stuck using mats that I should have been using 10 levels ago, but at least it isn't mats that I should have been using 20 levels ago.

My next move is to level my hunter through Outland. He's just starting out, but I expect him to go quickly, and since he is also a skinner I'm hoping he can supply my druid with the leather to get him up over the 375 leatherworking mark so he can use all the leather he's been collecting in Northrend. The extra Netherweave Cloth supply to my priest won't hurt her tailoring either.

So it's finally time to take the new white Core Hound out for a test drive, and now I get a chance to see just how much mayhem I can cause in Outland. I'm gonna need to think of a name for him soon though, any suggestions?