Deep Rockin (Leatherworking)

A friend bounced me a question from a new player about an item in the game.  They had a common reaction to the strange crafting arcania MMO  gamers are used to.

So... Deeprock Salt

"I was going to ask you about an item in the game. It is called deeprock salt. I will need it shortly for some leather items. It seems to be very hard to come by if one does not have mining to loot certain characters. There are lots of mobs, to get it from if you have mining, but none that I know of with out it. They sell for about 2 gold each on the auction and I will need between 10 and 20. So I’m looking around for some other way to get them, even though I have the gold to buy them. It just bugs me that I have to pay that price. So, what do you know about them?"



Well its Rocky salt thats found very deep in things.  That helps right?  What do you mean as much as a Boneless Banana?

Ok then a quick trip down memory lane.  Once long ago Blizzard wanted a way to slow down Leatherworkers with a rare resource and make the professions interconnected.  An idea they since abandoned but the relics of those halcyon days remain.

Its an Uncommon drop as you can see from the wowhead link with raiders and dungeon runners getting the best shot at them.  Then you Mine if you have that profession for a second shot at the item.  Once you get it you have another step for an Engineer must make you a Salt Shaker to convert it to the regent you need Refined Deeprock Salt.

So now you can use it to make things right?  Um...there's more.  Now you need Rugged Hide so you can use the salt on it to make Cured Rugged Hide.  So you farmed 10% drops and less to get this resource you would think the gear would be stellar right?  Sadly the 48 different patterns that use it aren't balanced well against most of the quest / instance / raid gear you can get.

Most people only want to get the salt to grind up Leatherworking but there is a work around on that.  The guide I use as my rule of thumb for leveling Leatherworking on wow-pro lists alternate crafting items but the game does one better now.  The Darkmoon Faire has a quest each month to give you +5 skill to a profession.  In fact you can do one for every profession you have.

So worst case if you hit a hump in leveling your skill hit up the Faire and a lot of your pain will go away.  A post I read about the Faire said that was one of their fixes for those humps without revamping the professions entirely.

Sure its a shortbus effort but its an elegant bit of work on their part.  I wish it stayed longer.

So in summary your choices are to spend endless hours grinding yourself silly like the Vanilla Vets, to work around it, or to skip it entirely.

Me, Id vote for the skipping.  Leatherworking has enough skinning grinding in it already.  But at least its easier than the other professions in that you can make your own 'node' to harvest.  Unless of course I wanted to make some cool transmog set like the Black Dragon Mail.  That would make the effort worth it.

This was fun.  If anyone else has a question please toss it my way.  I'll answer.  It might even be useful!