Dire Maul (North) actually offers a much better skinning spot for Rugged Leather in WoW Classic, than the Winterspring yeti cave spot that we’ve already covered here. That’s because, within 5 runs (which is a complete instance lockout) you’ll get a similar amount of leather, but you’ll spend less than half the time. However, you’ll need a higher level character for this, as some of the mobs here are level 59+ elites.
Requirements:
- Minimum level 75 character
- Minimum 285 Skinning skill
- Skinning knife
- AoE spec (optional)
- Crescent Key (or 300 Lockpicking skill)
Note: The Crescent Key drops from Pusillin, which is located in the Warpwood Quarter of Dire Maul. You’ll find him on the left side of the door, after you enter the Warpwood Quarter. In order to get the key, you’ll have to talk to him, then chase after him through the dungeon until he eventually summons some adds and attacks you. Once you kill him, you can loot the key from his body. The entrance to the Warpwood Quarter is at (43.8, 67.4), inside the Broken Commons area of Dire Maul.
Where to go:
First of all, Dire Maul is located in the central part of Feralas, while the entrance to Dire Maul (North) is at (43.5, 66.5), at the Broken Commons area, north of the PvP arena there.
To get there, fly either to Camp Mojache (Horde) or to Thalanaar (Alliance), follow the road west, turn north at (59, 53), and follow the path into Dire Maul.
Alternatively, if you play Alliance, you can fly to Feathermoon Stronghold, swim or take the boat east to the main continent, follow the road east to (59, 53), then turn north and follow the path into Dire Maul.
What to do:
Enter Dire Maul (North), kill all the Gordok Mastiff hyenas in the pit right in front of the entrance, loot, and skin their corpses. There are approx. 24-25 hyenas at this location and they drop 1-2 Rugged Leather each when skinned, as well as occasionally Thick Leather and Rugged Hide.
If you play a well-geared level 80 character, you should be able to get all the hyenas in one pull. However, it’s important to mention that they have a snare effect while some of the ogres there also stun. So, if your character is only 75 and not as well-geared, it’s best to get them in two pulls.
Once you clear all the Gordok Mastiffs, exit the instance, reset it, and repeat. One run shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes and should net you at least 30 Rugged Leather.
Loot:
After one skinning session (5 runs – 25 minutes) in Dire Maul (North), I got the following valuables: 
- Rugged Leather x 184
- Thick Leather x 25
- Rugged Hide x 5
The loot table of the hyenas is rather poor, though, and since they’re beasts, not humanoids, they don’t drop coins. After selling the trash loot from them, I got approx. 23g.
Tips:
The WoW Classic dungeons don’t have maps (at least not yet). So, in order to point out the location of the Gordok Mastiff hyenas inside the dungeon, we’ve used the Shadowlands Dire Maul (North) map version, which is essentially the same.
Always check the Dire Maul arena (43, 67) in the middle of the Broken Commons area outside the instance entrances. An elite boss – Skarr the Unbreakable – spawns there. It can drop various BoE items, and also has a high chance of dropping Orb of Deception, which can be sold for at least a few 100g.
By skinning the hyenas in Dire Maul (North), you can level up your skinning skill to 375. Thus, in case your character is capped at the Vanilla WoW 300 skinning skill level, it’s a good idea to go to Hellfire Peninsula first, unlock Master Skinning (300-375), then come to for a skinning session here.
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