Thick Clefthoof Leather

This page hasn't been updated for almost 11 years, which is odd, given that Thick Clefthoof Leather is the main ingredient of the cheapest Leatherworking Pattern available to grind out the last 5 points on Outland Leatherworking. So here's an Update!

At Clvl110, all Clefthoofs show as Orange difficulty on Skinning, even at Max Skinning Lvl. Getting this Leather is difficult as the drop rate is rather poor. I ran about 2 hours farming them, concentrating on the Aged Clefthoofs first, then switched to the Clefthoof Bulls, then the regular Clefthoofs. The Aged Clefthoofs give a high percentage of Knothide Leather Scraps instead of whole pieces, with a low percentage of Knothide Leather, and few actual Clefthoof Leather pieces. The Clefthoof Bulls give a mixture of scraps and Knothide Leather, with occasional Clefthoof pieces. But the plain, regular Clefthoofs were a surprise. Very few scraps, around 60% regular Knothide Leather pieces, and what appeared to be a much-higher droprate for Thick Clefthoof Leather than indicated. At times 4 dead Clefthoofs produced 4 Thick pieces(!).

After killing/skinning 115 Aged Clefthoofs, 210 Clefthoof Bulls, and 105 regular Clefthoofs, I procured 110 Thick Clefthoof Leather, a 26% drop rate across all three types. No Data for Clefthoof calves as I didn't kill any. Because, you know, they're calves!

There are two areas that work best for Farming; West of Garadar, just outside the palisade; and East of Oshu'gun. Aged Clefthoofs can be found in an arc to the west of Lake Sunspring, but they are scattered, usually in pairs. Most of the central area of Nagrand can produce small groups of Clefthoof Bulls.

A good course of action, this being a rather long slog for Thick Clefthoof Leather, would be to farm the Clefthoof Bulls West of Garadar, then farm the Western edge of Skysong Lake for Talkbuk Thorngrazers. They drop Knothide leather every time and it stacks up quickly as the Thorngrazers are everywhere. Once that area is cleared, fly south to Tuskarr's Plateau and burn down all the closely-packed Elekk Bulls for more Knothide, then shift South-East for the packs of regular Clefthoofs for Thick Clefthoof Leather. As a bonus, kill every Wild Elekk you see, as they drop Knothide Leather and [Pair of Ivory Tusks], used for Reputation gains with The Consortium. This will net you Scraps, Knothide Leather, Thick Clefthoof Leather, Ivory Tusks, Stacks of Clefthoof Meat and Talbuck Venison, lots of vendor trash, and occasional Greens.

I don't know where the percentages come from, they seem rather high.

As of patch 2.0.10 the best mobs to farm are the Clefthoof Bull's (~14% droprate based on ~450 kills).
These mobs can be found in the area south of the Laughing Skull Ruins and west of the Horde village Garadar and north of Halaa.

Don't bother with the normal Clefthoof mobs, their droprate is so much lower (~5%).

It seems the droprate since patch 2.0.10 has been increased. I frequently get 2 in a row and getting 5-6 in a row are no exceptions. Good thing since for some craftables you need 40 of them.

Grinded 74 Thick Clefthoof Leather, only from the Clefthoof Bulls. Had to kill 255 bulls, 29% droprate for me. 30/12/07