Skinning Gathering Build
Strengths
- Great Mobility
- Great Survivability
Weaknesses
- Squishy
Overview
This build focuses on maximizing your survivability and running away from fights while gathering. The build does very well at avoiding PVP players trying to gank you while remaining very capable of killing animals and even having access to 
Lunging Stabs for quick executions and to minimize the time spent fighting them.
Equipment
Elder's Cryptcandle could be cheaper while providing roughly the same IP as an 8.0.
Usage
Elder's Bloodletter
Deadly Swipe — This is your main movement ability that applies an Assassin's Spirit Charge which increases your damage by 6% and stacks up to 3 times. You want to spam this on animals in order to apply Assassin's Spirit Charge to yourself and increase your damage as you take down animals.
Dash — This is your secondary kiting ability and allows you incredible mobility, really helping with making quick escapes from enemies if you end up dismounted or caught off guard.
Lunging Stabs — This skill acts a lot like the Dash as you want to use it for the mobility offered but you should also use this on mobs once they are brought down to lower than 40% HP in order to execute them. If you are fighting multiple mobs, its worth bringing all of them below half HP before using this!
Deep Cuts — This is a constant bleed you apply when auto-attacking and the damage really helps with killing the animals quickly.
Elder's Skinner Garb
Hide Animal Poison — This acts as a heal for yourself and a poison to your auto-attacks dealing high damage to the animals you hit while under this effect. The effect lasts a long time on yourself while the poison does damage very quickly so its best for you to auto-attack as many animals as possible to apply the poison before using Lunging Stabs to finish them off.
Skinning Skills — Just like the other passives on the Skinning Set, this increases your gathering yield, improving the amount of resources you gather and also increasing the gathering fame you get.
Elder's Skinner Cap
Block — Use this preemtively if you get dismounted, gankers will usually try to catch you into CC or purge your run immediately after dismounting you, this will block all CC and damage and force them to waste their CDs if they aren't careful.
Skinning Skills — Just like the other passives on the Skinning Set, this increases your gathering yield and its an obvious choice, make sure you stack it up to 10 before leaving the safezone.
Elder's Skinner Workboots
Rejuvenating Sprint — This run ability allows you to regain some health while also offering you a way out when you get dismounted. Make sure to not make it too obvious when you are about to use it, and while using it instantly once you are dismounted seems like a good idea, make sure to get out of enemy range before using this so they cannot purge it too easily.
An alternative is to use 
Scent of the Wilderness if you would be overweight after you get dismounted. This run increases the amount of weight you can carry but it also silences you for 13 seconds which is 3 seconds more than the duration of the run. You should use this alternative only when you know that you will be overweight if you get dismounted, otherwise Rejuvenating Sprint is the best chance.
Skinning Skills — This is another passive increasing your gathering yield and there aren't any other options which makes it the only choice.
Elder's Undead Cape
Vanisher — This cape automatically activates and makes you invisible if you hit 15% HP. This invisibility lasts a few seconds and is usually enough to help you get away and have a second chance at surviving a gank.
You can also use a 
Elder's Fort Sterling Cape, especially if you are travelling as it will cleanse one CC from you even when you are mounted. Another option is also the 
Elder's Skinner Backpack offering you extra weight as it lowers the weight of the resources you gather but doesn't do anything else to help with your survivability.
Best Mounts for Gathering
Saddled Swamp Salamander
This is the top choice for gathering as the Salamander is relatively cheap while being a very difficult to catch mob. Couple its high HP with the fact that the 
Saddled Swamp Salamander maintains the same movement speed regardless if you get attacked, it is impossible to slow down unlike other mounts that lose gallop speed when attacked.
Journeyman's Transport Ox
This is the mount you want to use as a beginner when you are leveling your gathering skill in royal zones and non-pvp places. This will help you gather for a while without running out of weight, helping a lot as you won't have to go back to town to deposit. You can use a higher tier ox as well but a 
Journeyman's Transport Ox normally does the trick.
Swiftclaw
This mount doesn't have an extra weight which makes it easy for you to tell how much weight you have and know when you would be overweight if you get dismounted. It is also rather fast and cheap but is rather squishy.
Expert's Warhorse
Just like the 
Swiftclaw this mount doesn't add extra weight, helping you tell just how much you can carry before you grow overweight. However, this mount also has high HP and actually has its own armor, magical resistance and CC resistance values which helps a lot with its tankiness. It is often overlooked but it offers the same speed as a t5 horse with increased tankiness.
Rotations
- If dismounted, use this to get away. Start by using Block to make enemies use their cooldowns before using Lunging Stabs coupled with Dashto move away from them. Follow up by a quick Deadly Swipe before using
Invisibility Potion to change direction and either mount up or use Rejuvenating Sprint to get further away to mount up.
Consumables
Invisibility Potion — This potion turns you invisible and is a great choice for getting away from enemies, especially if you pair it with Vanisher.
Pork Pie — This is the only good choice for a gatherer as it increases your gathering yield which is perfect. Maximizing yield also increases the gathering fame you get from every animal you skin.
