Lockpicking 1-300 - A Rogue's Guide

FAQ:

Q: How do I raise my max lockpicking skill?
A: You will gain five points of max lockpicking per level, to a (current) maximum of 350

Q: How do I lockpick?
A: First you'll need to learn the skill at your rogue trainer. This becomes available at lvl 16. You will require a set of thieves tools, which you can purchase, but the rogue trainer should send you on a quest line that will require you to practice lockpicking, and along this quest line an NPC will provide you with a set of tools for free. Once you've learnt the skill it will (in common with every other skill in the game) appear in your skill/spell book (bound to the P key by default) under the general tab. You might want to drag and drop this button to your action bar, to save having to open your skill book every time you want to use it.

There are three ways to actually pick a lock. In the case of locked footlockers, chests, strongboxes et al (i.e. those not currently in your inventory) you can simply right click on the box and you will, dependant on your skill (see below), automatically pick the lock. In the case of junkboxes and lockboxes, you will need to click your lockpick button, then click on the box in your inventory. Dependant on your skill (again), the box will be unlocked and you can right click it to retrieve it's contents. The third method is only applicable when picking lockboxes and junkboxes carried by other players. Usual procedure, and generally best practice, is for the other character to open a trade window and drop their locked box into the 'will not be trade' slot. There will be some text beneath the box indicating that the box is locked. Click your lockpick action button again, and click the box. The text will change to 'pick lock'. Now all you have to do is both click the 'trade' button et voila, the box is now picked.

On to the tool-tip and skill dependancy. When you mouse-over a locked box, either in world or in your inventory, a tool-tip dialog will open displaying the name of the box, e.g. waterlogged footlocker, with the word 'locked' underneath it if the box is (you saw this coming) locked. 'Locked' will be coloured in a scheme that should now be fairly familiar to you. If it's red, you're not going to be able to open it; you don't have sufficient skill. If it's orange then good news; not only can you open it, you'll gain a lockpicking point for doing so. Go you. There's a slender chance you'll fail to open the lock but, in that event, just persevere; you'll get it eventually. If it's yellow, then don't lose heart; you might still gain a lockpicking point. If it's green, your chance of gaining a skill point just nose-dived, but you'll be able to liberate the contents so all is not lost. Grey, no skill point, but you get to liberate the contents (if it was your box) and feel that deep sense of satisfaction at a job well done.

Q: Where do I train my lockpicking?
A: The short and dirty answer is 'everywhere'. Not descriptive enough? Then I shall go into more detail. You might want to get a coffee.

As stated in the paragraph above, different boxes have different skill levels; be they lockboxes, footlockers, strongboxes, junkboxes or whatever. The trick is to find the appropriate boxes for your level and skill in lockpicking.

Sitting comfortably?

For the Alliance, the first 75 levels of lockpicking are a cakewalk. At lvl 16 you'll be sent on a quest to Lakeshire. There a dwarf will send you up to Athler's Mill to retrieve an item from a locked box. When you first arrive there (be wary of spiders, orcs, gnolls and wandering Horde on the way) you'll find the box in question, surrounded by an arc of smaller boxes. The quest box will be 'red' and therefore unlockable by you, but fret not, the other boxes will be within your range. Position yourself properly and you should be within range to pick three, maybe four at a time. The respawn time on the boxes is super low, so by the time you've finished picking box the first box should have repopped. Continue in this fashion until you reach skill lvl 75-100; they should all have gone grey now.

For the Horde you'll be pleased to note there's a similar situation. Your quest will send you to a ship off the Merchant Coast, south of Ratchet. In common with the Alliance quest, there are a number of boxes with short respawn times in close proximity to one another. Same directions apply.

The following levels can be approached in several ways.

My personal favourite is pickpocketing. All humanoid mobs, with the exception of the more 'bestial' worgen, yetis and the like, can be pickpocketed for cash and other items. Amongst those other items are vendor trash, occasional potions and (you saw this coming too) junkboxes. If you're pickpocketing mobs of roughly equivalent level to yourself, these boxes will likely be in the difficulty range for you to pick and improve your lockpicking skill. Here's a quick run down of various junkboxes, for the curious or those who just let their lockpicking slide and need to grind it back up:

Battered Junkboxes - lvl 20-30 mobs - Skill 50 to 125
Worn Junkboxes - lvl 30-40 mobs - Skill 75 to 150
Sturdy Junkboxes - lvl 40-50 mobs - Skill 175 to 250
Heavy Junkboxes - lvl 50-60 mobs - Skill 250 to 300

N.B. All skill levels, here and later in this guide, are predicated on the assumption that different boxes change difficulty level at 25 points per level, and as such are approximations. As far as I've been able to test this the theory seems born out. Corrections welcome

Although the drop rate may not seem amazing, over the course of a day's grind you should pick up sufficient boxes to stay on top of your skill.

If this fails, talk to your class trainer. In that first dialogue window, you'll see the option 'Where can I go to improve my lockpicking?'. I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand I can see how it's useful, on the other I recently had the trainer try to send me to Searing Gorge to lockpick boxes in the Slag Pit (I was around level 43 at the time). My feeling is that you can use this advice as a helpful guide, but it's not always practical, and is more often than not a little irritating unless you have access to water-breathing potions, as a number of the boxes are underwater, usually with a few aggressive mobs nearby that have to be vanquished before you can pick them. Personally, I found that a little irritating.

Anyway, on to the numbers:

Hillsbrad Foothills - Skill 95 to 160- Durnholde Keep
Redridge Mountains - Skill 90 to 165 - Lake Everstill
Ashenvale Forest - Skill 75 to 150 - Zoram Strand
Stonetalon Mountains - Skill 115 to 190 - Windershear Crag
Wetlands - Skill 90 to 165 - Murloc Camps, Inland
Wetlands - Skill 110 to 185 - Murloc Camps, Coastal
Desolace - Skill 150 to 225 - Sar'Theris Strand (off northwestern coast)
Badlands - Skill 175 to 250 - Angor Fortress
Badlands - Skill 200 to 275 - Angor Fortress
Swamp of Sorrows - Skill 175 to 250 - Pool of Tears
Searing Gorge - Skill 200 to 275 - Slag Pit
Searing Gorge - Skill 225 to 300 - Slag Pit
Tanaris - Skill 225 to 300 - Lost Rigger Cove
Azshara - Skill 235 to 300 - Bay of Storms
Eastern Plaguelands - Skill 250 to 305 - Tyr's Hand
Zangarmarsh - Skill 305 to 350 - Feralfen Village (Note: These will become yellow at 310, so I suggest skilling up to 325 and then go to Nagrand)
Nagrand - 325 to 350 - Kil'sorrow Fortress

N.B. Once again, numbers predicated upon 25 skill points per level; use as a guide only.

You'll also encounter doors on your travels. These can be used to increase lockpicking skill, but be aware that they all have cooldown timers on them, i.e. you will only be able to gain a skill point from them every twenty-plus minutes. Skill required:

Gnomeregan - Skill Req 150 - Workshop Door
Scarlet Monastery - Skill Req 175 - Armoury and Cathedral
Scholomance - Skill Req 285
Stratholme Gates - Skill Req 300
Blackrock Depths - Skill Req 250 - Doors and Shadowforge
Searing Gorge - Skill Req 225 - Gate
Dire Maul Doors - Skill Req 300

Of course, it's worth noting that instances are general full of humanoid mobs, so one routine would be to pick the door on any of the above, then stealth around pickpocketing everything in sight (with judicious use of distract), lockpick everything you've found outside the instance, reset it, repeat as necessary.

Once you reach skill level 200 or so, another tactic becomes viable; advertising. Across the course of their travels, your fellow adventures may happen across lockboxes which they, lacking your particular skills, will find themselves unable to open (excluding blacksmiths, who can make skeleton keys; it's worth noting those are an expendable reagent though, so they might require your assistance anyway). Travel to any capital city (usually Ironforge or Orgrimmar, where the greatest number of players tend to congregate) and advertise your lockpicking expertise via the trade channel, accessible by typing /2 (default setting) in your chat dialog, followed by your message. I say this becomes viable at 200 because by then you can open a majority of the commonest boxes, as follows:

Heavy Bronze Lockbox - Skill 25 to 100
Ornate Bronze Lockbox - Skill 50 to 125
Iron Lockbox - Skill 70 to 145
Strong Iron Lockbox - Skill 125 to 200
Steel Lockbox - Skill 175 to 250
Reinforced Steel Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Mithril Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Thorium Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Eternium Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Reinforced Locked Chest - Skill 250 to 300

You might want to specify in your message which level of lockbox you can open, for example:

/2 Lockpicking all boxes up to Steel Lockbox, Ironforge AH Bridge

Would provide a clear message. It's polite to relate your geographical location to prevent wasting other player's time. You might consider making this into a macro, to save having to type it out each time but beware; repeatedly spamming the trade or other lines will annoy other players and may result in disciplinary action from the GMs.

Q. Are there any items I can use to improve my lockpicking?

A. At present, I can only find one item to improve your lockpicking skill; Dark Leather Gloves.

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=4248

These are listed as improving your lockpicking skill slightly, which appears to equate to a +5 skill buff. Not great, but whilst leveling lockpicking at low levels it can help with those boxes that are so tantalisingly close to being in range.

As an aside, two professions offer items that supplant the lockpicking skill altogether. Blacksmiths gain access to skeleton keys, whilst engineers can create seaforium charges to blow locks open. It's worth noting, however, that both of these things are reagents, and consumed in the process of opening the lock; especially irksome in the case of seaforium charges, which require components that may not be readily available to the engineer.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. I hope this information is useful. Any corrections or additional information may be submitted in the usual fashion.

References:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Lockpicking