MoP Classic Tailoring Leveling Guide (1-600)

Tailoring from 1 to 600 runs through five cloth types, one per expansion, and it is a bolt-heavy profession: almost nothing you wear is stitched straight from raw cloth, it goes through a Bolt recipe first. This guide gives you the bracket route, the craft counts computed from the MoP Classic client data, and one shopping list that accounts for every bolt the later recipes eat, not just the bolts needed for the skill-up bracket itself.

Every number here is computed from the MoP Classic client data, not estimated. Where the route or its material counts disagree with the commonly published advice, the disagreement is called out with the real numbers rather than smoothed over.

What you need

Every cloth tier works the same way: you learn a Bolt of X Cloth recipe first, craft a pile of bolts, then spend those bolts on the belts, capes, gloves, and robes that actually carry you up the bracket. There is no way around this two-step structure, and it is why the material totals below look large: a bolt recipe's shopping list has to cover every gear pattern that consumes it later on the route, not just its own bracket.

Threads and dyes are ordinary trade-goods purchases: Coarse Thread, Fine Thread, Silken Thread, Heavy Silken Thread, Rune Thread, and Eternium Thread, plus a handful of dyes and Bleach for the cosmetic pieces. Buy them as you go; the totals are in the shopping list below. Two reagents come from other sources instead of a vendor shelf: Arcane Dust and Infinite Dust are disenchanting byproducts, and Eternal Life is an elemental drop, all three used only in small connector recipes late in the route.

No gathering profession pairs with Tailoring the way Herbalism pairs with Alchemy. Cloth comes from humanoid mob drops and from disenchanting greens, not from a tradeskill of your own, so factor cloth farming or buying into your plan either way.

Your trainer gates skill progress in stages between 1 and 600. If a recipe stalls giving you points well before it turns gray, you are undertrained for that stage, not unlucky, and the fix is a trainer visit rather than more crafting.

How the craft counts work

A recipe gives a guaranteed skill point while it is orange, a shrinking chance while it is yellow, and nothing once it goes gray. The expected craft counts below come from that math applied to each recipe's real color windows in the MoP Classic client data. The Buy column adds roughly 20 percent on top of the expectation, because expectation is an average and RNG runs don't land exactly on average.

Tailoring has one wrinkle the other professions on this site don't: almost every gear piece is stitched from a bolt you crafted yourself, not from raw cloth directly. For a Bolt of X Cloth row, the Buy column isn't just that bracket's RNG cushion, it is the total number of bolts every later recipe on the route needs, because turning raw cloth into bolts is the genuinely expensive step. Keep every bolt you make. You will spend it a few brackets later, and the shopping list at the bottom already nets this out so you buy the right amount of raw cloth once.

The route

Classic, 1 to 300

Skill	Craft	Expected crafts	Buy (+20%)	Materials
1-45	Bolt of Linen Cloth	92	111	Linen Cloth x222
45-67	Linen Belt	28	34	Bolt of Linen Cloth x34, Coarse Thread x34
67-75	Reinforced Linen Cape	8	10	Bolt of Linen Cloth x20, Coarse Thread x29
75-100	Bolt of Woolen Cloth	45	54	Wool Cloth x162
100-110	Simple Kilt	12	15	Bolt of Linen Cloth x58, Fine Thread x15
110-125	Double-Stitched Woolen Shoulders	15	18	Bolt of Woolen Cloth x54, Fine Thread x36
125-145	Bolt of Silk Cloth	199	239	Silk Cloth x956
145-160	Azure Silk Hood	17	21	Bolt of Silk Cloth x41, Blue Dye x41, Fine Thread x21
160-170	Silk Headband	10	12	Bolt of Silk Cloth x36, Fine Thread x24
170-175	Formal White Shirt	5	6	Bolt of Silk Cloth x18, Bleach x12, Fine Thread x6
175-185	Bolt of Mageweave	88	106	Mageweave Cloth x424
185-205	Crimson Silk Vest	20	24	Bolt of Silk Cloth x96, Red Dye x48, Fine Thread x48
205-215	Crimson Silk Pantaloons	10	12	Bolt of Silk Cloth x48, Red Dye x24, Silken Thread x24
215-220	Orange Mageweave Shirt	5	6	Bolt of Mageweave x6, Orange Dye x6, Heavy Silken Thread x6
220-230	Black Mageweave Gloves	10	12	Bolt of Mageweave x24, Heavy Silken Thread x24
230-250	Black Mageweave Headband	21	26	Bolt of Mageweave x76, Heavy Silken Thread x51
250-260	Bolt of Runecloth	176	212	Runecloth x848
260-280	Runecloth Belt	22	27	Bolt of Runecloth x80, Rune Thread x27
280-300	Runecloth Gloves	22	27	Bolt of Runecloth x132, Rune Thread x53

Outland, 300 to 350

Skill	Craft	Expected crafts	Buy (+20%)	Materials
300-325	Bolt of Netherweave	140	168	Netherweave Cloth x840
325-331	Bolt of Imbued Netherweave	6	8	Bolt of Netherweave x22, Arcane Dust x15
331-336	Netherweave Pants	5	6	Bolt of Netherweave x36, Rune Thread x6
336-346	Netherweave Boots	10	12	Bolt of Netherweave x72, Knothide Leather x24, Rune Thread x12
346-350	Netherweave Tunic	4	5	Bolt of Netherweave x39, Rune Thread x10

Northrend, 350 to 425

Skill	Craft	Expected crafts	Buy (+20%)	Materials
350-375	Bolt of Frostweave	234	281	Frostweave Cloth x1405
375-380	Frostwoven Belt	5	6	Bolt of Frostweave x18, Eternium Thread x6
380-385	Frostwoven Boots	5	6	Bolt of Frostweave x24, Eternium Thread x6
385-395	Frostwoven Cowl	11	14	Bolt of Frostweave x66, Eternium Thread x14
395-400	Duskweave Belt	5	6	Bolt of Frostweave x42, Eternium Thread x6
400-405	Bolt of Imbued Frostweave	12	15	Bolt of Frostweave x30, Infinite Dust x29
405-410	Duskweave Wristwraps	5	6	Bolt of Frostweave x48, Eternium Thread x6
410-415	Duskweave Gloves	5	6	Bolt of Frostweave x54, Eternium Thread x6
415-425	Moonshroud (or Spellweave / Ebonweave)	10	12	Bolt of Imbued Frostweave x12, Eternal Life x24

Moonshroud, Spellweave, and Ebonweave share the exact same window and reagent count, they only differ in which Eternal element they consume. Craft whichever of Eternal Life, Eternal Fire, or Eternal Shadow you have on hand.

Cataclysm, 425 to 500

Skill	Craft	Expected crafts	Buy (+20%)	Materials
425-450	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth	201	242	Embersilk Cloth x1210
450-456	Deathsilk Bracers	6	8	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x15, Eternium Thread x15
456-460	Deathsilk Boots	4	5	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x15, Eternium Thread x10
460-465	Deathsilk Leggings	5	6	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x18, Eternium Thread x12
465-471	Deathsilk Cowl	6	8	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x22, Eternium Thread x15
471-475	Spiritmend Belt	4	5	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x20, Eternium Thread x10
475-480	Spiritmend Boots	5	6	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x24, Eternium Thread x12
480-486	Spiritmend Leggings	6	8	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x29, Eternium Thread x15
486-500	Spiritmend Robe	14	17	Bolt of Embersilk Cloth x101, Eternium Thread x34

Pandaria, 500 to 600

Skill	Craft	Expected crafts	Buy (+20%)	Materials
500-535	Bolt of Windwool Cloth	235	282	Windwool Cloth x1410
535-547	Windwool Shoulders	12	15	Bolt of Windwool Cloth x58
547-550	Windwool Boots	3	4	Bolt of Windwool Cloth x15
550-555	Imperial Silk	5	6	Bolt of Windwool Cloth x48
555-600	Contender's Silk Cuffs	45	54	Bolt of Windwool Cloth x162

Contender's Silk Cuffs never turns yellow before the 600 cap, so every one of those 45 crafts is a guaranteed point. There is no RNG left in this route by the time you reach it, just volume.

Total shopping list

Raw materials only. The bolts you craft along the way are not listed again here, they are already accounted for inside the totals above and get consumed by the recipes that follow them.

Material	Total
Windwool Cloth	1,410
Frostweave Cloth	1,405
Embersilk Cloth	1,210
Silk Cloth	956
Runecloth	848
Netherweave Cloth	840
Mageweave Cloth	424
Linen Cloth	222
Eternium Thread	167
Wool Cloth	162
Fine Thread	150
Rune Thread	108
Heavy Silken Thread	81
Red Dye	72
Coarse Thread	63
Blue Dye	41
Silken Thread	24
Knothide Leather	24
Eternal Life	24
Infinite Dust	29
Arcane Dust	15
Bleach	12
Orange Dye	6

Across the full climb this route is roughly 2,200 crafts, and more than half of every bracket's clicks are bolts feeding the next few recipes rather than skill-ups in their own right. Cloth dominates the list for a reason: Windwool Cloth and Frostweave Cloth alone are almost 2,800 pieces of cloth between them.

Where this route disagrees with the usual advice

Our own path-engine, which optimizes purely for the fewest distinct reagents, does not produce the route above. Left to that optimization it rides Powerful Enchanted Spellthread from skill 60 all the way to 526, then Greater Pearlescent Spellthread from 526 to 600. Both recipes are reagent-cheap on paper, but Powerful Enchanted Spellthread consumes Dreamcloth, an item you cannot buy or farm directly: it is a random proc off other Tailoring crafts, with no guaranteed source. A route that assumes an unlimited supply of a random proc item is not a leveling plan, so this guide skips it entirely and uses the bolt-and-gear chain instead, the same structure most published routes use.

The bigger, more common disagreement is in the bolt quantities themselves. A calculation that only asks "how many bolts does this bracket need for its own skill-up" understates the real total badly, because later gear recipes keep consuming the same bolt. Once every downstream recipe is counted, our totals move a lot closer to the commonly published figures, and in one case well past them:

• Bolt of Runecloth: skill-up math alone says roughly 212 Runecloth. Once the Runecloth Belt and Runecloth Gloves that consume the bolts are added in, the real total is 848, in line with the commonly cited figure of around 800.
• Bolt of Silk Cloth: skill-up math alone says roughly 160 Silk Cloth. Counting every silk gear piece that follows it, the real total is 956, close to the commonly cited figure of around 804.
• Bolt of Windwool Cloth: this is the one place our number runs well past the commonly cited figure. A skill-only calculation says around 330 Windwool Cloth, and some published totals stop near there too. But Contender's Silk Cuffs alone needs 162 bolts, because that recipe never turns yellow before 600, meaning every single point from 555 to 600 is a guaranteed craft with no RNG discount. Once Windwool Shoulders, Windwool Boots, Imperial Silk, and Contender's Silk Cuffs are all counted, the true total is 1,410 Windwool Cloth, roughly three times higher than a skill-only estimate.

FAQ

Does this work on any MoP Classic realm? Yes. The route is computed from the Mists of Pandaria progression client, so it applies to Mists of Pandaria progression realms. Classic Era and retail run different recipes and different caps, with their own guides.

Can I skip ahead if my Tailoring is already partly leveled? Yes. Find your current skill in the bracket tables and start there. Buy only the materials from that row down; the shopping list totals are additive across the whole route.

Why do I keep failing to gain skill even though the recipe isn't gray yet? Between yellow and gray, a skill-up is a chance, not a guarantee, and the chance shrinks the closer you get to gray. If a long run of crafts gives nothing at all, you're at gray for that recipe, not just unlucky, and it's time to move to the next bracket.

Should I level a gathering profession alongside Tailoring? No gathering profession produces cloth the way Herbalism produces alchemy reagents or Mining produces ore. Cloth comes from humanoid mob drops and from disenchanting greens, so Tailoring doesn't have a natural gathering partner the same way some other crafting professions do.

Why doesn't this guide use Powerful Enchanted Spellthread to skip from 60 straight to 526? Because its reagent, Dreamcloth, isn't something you can buy or reliably farm. It's a random proc off other Tailoring crafts, so a route built around it assumes a supply you don't actually control. This guide uses the bolt-and-gear chain instead, which only needs materials you can buy or farm directly.

When this guide changes

This route is computed from the MoP Classic client build 5.5.4.68806. If a content patch adjusts recipe thresholds or reagent counts, the brackets and material totals shift and this page gets recomputed from the new client data.