Pristine Leather Prices are out of control- What is going on?

WoW: Forever World of Warcraft: Forever General Discussion
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Can someone at Blizzard explain what the hell is happening with pristine leather on the alliance pvp server?

We’re playing a level 30-beta with thousands of players, an enormous number of skinners, and somehow Pristine Leather is approaching 2 gold per piece. I’ve personally seen as few as 60 on the auction house.

Meanwhile many of the crafting recipes I’ve obtained require anywhere between 6-8 pieces EACH. That’s roughly 11-14 gold in Pristine Leather alone for a single piece of LEVELING GEAR. Absolutely ridiculous. How the hell am I supposed to properly beta test my class when experimenting with different gear sets cost a pirate’s bounty?

What’s even more concerning is the growing number of player reports about suspicious auction-house activity, alleged flipping bots, and skinners going hundreds of kills without receiving a single Pristine Leather. We’ve also seen complaints that bountiful Harvest legacy perk isn’t working properly.

I understand Blizzard fixed the mass-skinning exploit, and rightly so. But did that fix unintentionally destroy the legitimate supply of these materials?

Are we dealing with broken drop rates, coordinated market manipulation, botting, or some combination of the three?

Professions are supposed to be a meaningful part of the leveling experience in forever. How exactly are ordinary players supposed to participate when basic crafting materials cost a small fortune?

This is a beta. This is precisely the time to address these problems before they become permanent features of the launch economy.

I’d really appreciate some clarification from Blizzard regarding Pristine Leather drop rates, the Bountiful Harvest perk, and what is being done about potential auction-house manipulation.

Because right now, the only profession that seems to be thriving is market manipulation.

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I have gotten probably 3 pristine leather and that was in the first week. I have gotten zero leathers and 2 hides since the entire rest of beta. This is having maxed out legacy talent as well. This hunter in my guild gets like 8 an hour or so he says.

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ya the droprates do seem to be off for pristine leather vs something like mining’s version.

it also doesnt help that it is used in most of the blue recipes so demand is high

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Same with me. I can’t seem to loot any Pristine Leather since I used all my Legacy Talents. Also, the prices of Cerulean Dyes are really expensive as well. I was excited about those new crafting recipies but considering how much gold I would have to spend, I might as well just hope for good luck on dungeons and pass on crafting.

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I don’t know if I believe him. zero pristines since the legacy patch.

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This is wild to me, I think I’ve gotten close to 20 Pristine Leather and just dumped it into the AH as I’d get it. I didn’t realize it was that rare. Sometimes it’ll drop by 2’s and 3’s.

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Ive skinned a lot and got all I needed for every piece… literally from raptors - sold many as well… not sure what you are doing but it is no hard to get.

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In another thread someone mentioned the talent for extra drops might be bugged and setting the rate to 0.

I have only gotten pristine leather on my mage who has no talents spent in it, but on my main druid I haven’t seen pristine leather in awhile.

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Pristine Leather is used for most of the new crafting recipes, including the tailoring and blacksmithing recipes.

Bliz needs to get it together and actually use the other resources. The blacksmithing recipes SHOULD have been Pyrite instead of pristine leather, Pyrite is not used in anything at the low levels that I can actually see.

Tailoring should have been other unique materials such as spider silk or kodo leather.

They got lazy with designs.

This is why it is so expensive as it is highly sought after.

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Yeah, the drop rate on Pristine Leather needs to be looked at, this is getting out of hand and it seems like its just stopped dropping altogether

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I’m sitting on 12 on my level 22 Hunter lol. My guess is that people are reaching level 30 and gearing up to mess in PvP.

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The drop rate is reasonable it is just used in every profession. When you have 1 profession feeding all of the other’s that becomes a problem.

What needs to change is the recipes need to have something else used besides pristine leather.

This will probably be a non-issue on launch as majority of people won’t take the time to get tokens for the new crafting recipes as the mechanic is complete rubbish and a waste of time/gold during leveling and you are usually trying to save gold to get your mount at 40/60 during leveling.

Oh and it is not just 1 pattern range in every profession it is most pattern ranges in every profession for the new crafted gear that uses it.

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Yeah I was just thinking about how skinning was feeding all the new recipes

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its a beta ,

why auction house and gold ect even being posted its all ending in 20 days

of course stuff is going to rocket and not be correct nobody going go farming anymore

why would someone farm for 20 days

they should make everything rarer even more

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You do realize that saying “it’s a beta” is quite literally the strongest argument you could make in favor of my post, right? The entire purpose of a beta is to identify problems, test systems, and provide feedback before launch. Somehow you’ve managed to take that concept and turn it into an argument against testing. That’s certainly an interesting interpretation of what a beta is supposed to accomplish.

And your explanation that nobody wants to farm anymore because the beta is ending? Congratulations, you’ve identified another potential contributor to the problem. However, that doesn’t magically explain away reports of players skinning hundreds of creatures without receiving Pristine Leather, concerns about the Bountiful Harvest perk, or the enormous material requirements for basic leveling equipment.

More importantly, the beta economy being temporary does not mean the underlying economic problems are temporary. Let’s examine what happens at launch. Everyone starts with practically nothing, thousands of players simultaneously begin leveling professions, and demand for crafted equipment skyrockets. Meanwhile, if Pristine Leather continues dropping at its current reported rates, and multiple professions require 6–8 pieces for individual recipes, what exactly do you think happens when demand increases faster than supply?

You end up with the same scarcity problem, potentially amplified by a much larger population competing for materials. Add auction-house speculation, potential market manipulation, and players with limited gold early in their leveling journey, and you have a recipe for an economy that discourages ordinary players from participating in professions altogether.

Now, will increased farming at launch help stabilize prices? Absolutely, it could. But that’s precisely why we should be examining drop rates and crafting requirements NOW rather than blindly assuming everything will magically correct itself on November 4.

And your proposed solution is to make everything even rarer? So your answer to players struggling to test crafting systems is to make those systems even less accessible? Brilliant.

Nobody is arguing that beta auction-house prices perfectly predict launch prices. I’m arguing that the mechanics creating scarcity in beta could create the exact same problems at launch. That’s an important distinction you seem to have completely overlooked.

I’m not asking Blizzard to hand out free equipment. I’m asking them to investigate potential problems while there’s still an opportunity to correct them.

“It’s a beta” isn’t the rebuttal you think it is. It’s the entire reason this discussion needs to happen.

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Pristine leather only drops in a certain level range that most of us have out leveled. No one is going back to low zones and skinning hence it becoming rare and driving up the price.

Demand exceeds supply, price goes up

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You’re describing the exact problem I’m asking Blizzard to investigate and somehow presenting it as an argument against my concerns.

First, Blizzard has not officially confirmed the precise level restrictions for Pristine Leather. However, another player recently spent approximately 20 hours testing scarce gathering materials and found evidence suggesting that characters above level 25 can no longer obtain Pristine Leather, even when skinning otherwise eligible creatures.

Now, let’s assume those findings are correct. Do you understand the implications of what you’re suggesting?

If players permanently lose the ability to gather a crucial crafting material simply by leveling their characters, then the available supply becomes increasingly dependent on new characters and alts passing through a narrow leveling window. Meanwhile, demand continues from leatherworkers, blacksmiths, and tailors who need that same material for numerous recipes.

That’s not automatically a healthy economic system. It’s a potential structural supply bottleneck that could persist well beyond beta and become especially problematic once the initial wave of players has outleveled those zones.

And yes, demand exceeding supply causes prices to rise. Thank you for explaining the most basic principle of economics. The entire point of this discussion is to determine WHY supply is so restricted, whether those restrictions are intentional, and whether the resulting prices are reasonable for equipment intended to be crafted while leveling.

If the restrictions are intentional, Blizzard should explain the design philosophy. If they’re unintended, we’ve potentially identified a bug that needs correcting before launch.

You’ve explained what scarcity does to prices. You haven’t explained why this particular scarcity is good for the game. That’s the discussion we’re actually having.

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Its not up to us to determine the ‘why’… we see an issue, report it as has already been done multiple times

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So let me get this straight. You acknowledge there’s a problem, but now you’re arguing that players shouldn’t investigate or discuss WHY it’s happening? On a forum specifically dedicated to beta testing?

Let me simplify this with an analogy. Imagine you’re testing a new car and discover the brakes barely work. You report it to the manufacturer, but when someone starts investigating whether it’s the brake pads, hydraulic system, or a design flaw, you interrupt them and say, “It’s not our job to figure out why! Just report it!” Do you understand how absurd that sounds?

Identifying a problem is the first step. Understanding its cause is how you determine whether it’s an isolated bug, an unintended consequence, or a fundamental design issue that could persist after launch.

Nobody is claiming to know Blizzard’s intentions. We’re discussing evidence, comparing player experiences, and examining potential consequences. That’s precisely what beta testers SHOULD be doing.

You’ve now gone from explaining the problem, to acknowledging the problem, to arguing that we shouldn’t discuss the problem. At this point, I’m beginning to wonder what exactly you’re contributing to the discussion besides objections to having one.