I some questions for high level leatherworkers

[Hagar the Horrible]

Is it worth it?

Do you use the armor you can make? Can you make money with it?

It's expensive to level up and if I can't make money with it or if I could use the money needed to level up to buy a better item from the AH, then it's rather pointless right?

H.

[myusernameistaken]

I may not be high-level enough at the mo (42, LW about 225) but tbh I am only doing it because I am new to the game. Because there are so many leatherworkers about you can't even give your stuff away. Eg Toughened Leather Gloves (IIRC) was the first blue item I made. If I had bought the potions of the AH they alone would have cost me 2g, let alone the other mats. You won't find anyone that wants to buy them and certainly not at a price to even break even, in my experience anyway.

I've just made myself a set of nightscape armour* (no set bonuses, and you need to quest for the gloves as you can't make them), in all honesty I could have probably bought everything for about 5g, the AH was full of them.

So, from my experience, yes I do use what I make (armour, quick draw quiver, armour kits), and I enjoy it... but realistically you could buy the stuff from other crafters and take up more profitable professions. That said though, I've heard there's good BoP stuff you can make at higher levels that may make it pay off.

*http://img140.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wowscrnshot031407011343gm1.jpg

[meikyo]

I'm sittin at around 360~ lw currently. No, you really don't make money in leatherworking...guess what, you don't make much money in other crafts either. The reason being is alot of people still buy mats they need to make something as opposed to farming it all. Is that time spent worth the return? Usually not. What you do make money off of...is harvesting, selling skins has gone up quite a bit with the expansion. Armor kits usually sell for a decent bit(sold for more when the darkmoon faire was still big),also the new knothide,clefthoof,and cobrascale armor kits are nice, but again you'd want to farm the mats yourself. Professions don't typically = profit. It's nice to be able to make equipment but what are you going to do with that profession after those equips become obsolete is the question.

[Magikhat]

375 leatherworker. It is worth it IF

1)you dont mind farming and skinning and getting carpul tunnel in your hand
2)you have access to heroic dungeons or will have access to heroic dungeons because the epix require primal nethers mostly gotten off last boss heroic dungeon runs

The blue set pieces you can make are really good though once you get to around 350ish

But keep in mind you will need to grind rep with many different factions, spend lots of money and farm lots of crap to make this happen.

Also, no you wont really make money but you will spend lots of money :P

[Hagar the Horrible]

OK, I'll elaborate my question.

I'm a level 48 hunter. I'm in a casual guild so high end raiding won't be in my reach (at least not for several months).

I haven't worked on my LW for a while because I'm not sure if I want it anymore.

i'm torn between LW and Engineering.

You guys tell me that LW is expensive, few items are worth it (almost non if I can't do end game raids) and a moneysink.

My other profession is skinning (close to 294 or something)

Shouldn't it be better for me to go engineering?

Skinning brings in a nice amount of money so my hunter can finance his skills and stuff on his own. For a mount the AH mule steps in.

I could push my AH mule a bid further and level engineering up to 2xx so I can use the goblin XL cables and other fun stuff.

What do you think?

[meikyo]

I love engineering but without mining it will be a big money sink to level...as if it isn't bad enough already! But yeah, nothin beats the hero rogue,hunter and now mage(invisible!)to revive a wipe with cables. I guess theres some other stuff as a hunter you could benefit from such as ammo and scopes..not sure how well the guns measure up.

[Kodonn]

I think my LW is around 350 or 351.
My guild is rather small and most of us are casual players...so no real high end dungeon raiding for us.
Currently, the best gear my hunter has, is the felscale set he made. Some of the quest rewards in Outlands are really nice for the casual players, but the crafted stuff is still better. And it gives me something to do with all that knothide leather. When the market gets flooded with leather, I just craft stuff and send it to my enchanter to convert it to dust or essence. (Those always sell well).

Once you get the factions, there are some really nice recipes available.
Last night I sold my first 28 slot miners bag, for 58g. I supplied the leather but bought the primals from AH because I wanted to do one quick and test the market. Even buying ALL the mats and assuming I could continue to sell at that price, I could sit in the AH and clear about 15g per bag.

Most if the naysayers in these threads always like to point out that...."Well, it's ok IF you feel like grinding out all the faction reps AND IF you farm all the mats....etc." In reality, most of that comes with just leveling up. I skin what I kill or what I see laying around and the rep comes with questing. I really haven't had to put any extra effort into the proffession. Sure..I'm not rich, but that's because I try to spread gear and items around to support the guild, not from lack of opportunity in making money.

[Justinledwards]

Hey Hagar, thanks for posting.

I'm at 368 Dragonscale

What are you going to make money from:
- Leg armor - cobra, cleft. I got a 10g tip from just combining mats. If I spammed I am sure there is cash there
- Felstalker set - 3 piece blue hunter / shammy set - I've made quite a few pieces, but haven't really charged much.
- Reinforced mining bags - apart from shadow, earth is easiest to farm. I've made quite a few mining bags for guildies and I am sure they would sell well, you do not see many on AH
- And if you can farm mats and have a friendly alchemist - riding crops.

If you look at my hunter, I am using the felstalker breastplate I made myself. However was to lazy to farm the air so cost me about 220g to make incl. gems.

LW is utility for me - it's good for my hunter, and good for my shammie. I'm thinking my next alt will be a warrior, so will also be good for him up till 40 (he'll be a miner / BS)

Oh - and the only reason my LW is where it is - I started a project to make 20 riding crops for the guild. It worked well - I donated a lot of the leather, alchies the primal mights and others the primals, shards and dusts.