Lock Picking Guide

Lock picking is best scene as a fun tradeskill like ability that only rogues get to partake in. It’s impossible to level this very high without leveling your character but it is a fun little skill to play with as you level through the game.


How useful is it?

Lock picking has limited use but sure is handy. Obviously enough it allows you to pick any chest or lockbox in the game, however slightly lesser known it allows you to open most doors that require keys. These doors include Searing Gorge, Scarlet Monastery, Blackrock Depths, Scholomance, etc. As you go through the game you’ll have to acquire keys to get through each of these doors, but with a high lock pickings kill you’ll be able to just pick your way through and toss the keys.

Can’t Blacksmith’s lockpick?
Blacksmiths can pick locks but only with keys they have to craft. The big problem is that the keys used in lock picking take resources such as Truesilver that are in a very limited quantity. Not to mention a blacksmith’s keys can’t open very high lockboxes, Mithral, Thorium and lockboxes of the like are left exclusively for your Rogue.

Pickpocketing

As you may know by now if you pickpocket humanoids you may receive a lockbox. These lockboxes aren’t the same as ones that drop randomly that contain green items or bags. These lockboxes are specifically for the use of leveling your lock picking skill. You’ll be able to pick pocket your way through humanoids while gaining lockboxes as you progress through the game, however only a few levels of humanoids have the boxes you’ll be needing.

You see lockboxes dropped off humanoids come in tiers. Each lockbox has a designated lock picking skill requirement that is necessary to open it. For example purposes lets say you need to get from 175 lockpicking skill to 185, then you’ll need to find a certain kind of lockbox, and for this range it will be Sturdy Lockbox. The only mobs that drop study boxes are level 40-47 humanoids in various places, mainly being Ogres. You would need to pickpocket these monsters over and over to gain the Study lockboxes you need to get the points you desire.

Money as a Lock Picker

Sadly it is not customary to receive money to open chests as not a lot of Rogue’s charge for their lock picking ability. Most people want to level their lock picking so they go to a major city and offer to open picks for free. In the game’s infancy that throws the supply and demand of lock picking services way out of wack and those Rogues looking to make profit for their services are poorly rewarded. So starting a lock picking service may not make you money if you are picking for other people, but it has other benefits. Remember, there may be 300 skill chests that drop in content not yet added to the game, at that point we may see some actual payout as Rogues no longer need to level their abilities, they will be able to charge for their expertease.

Tiers of Lockpicking

Now you can level with pick pocketing or you can be patient and level efficiently through other means. Though I’m only familiar with the Alliance Rogue, I won’t be able to tell the Horde players their initial skill-up device, but if you look on the boards you shouldn’t have too much trouble. It is also worth mentioning that Horde players can use the devices mentioned below, however it may be more convenient to find closer ones that are Horde related.

The “other means” I was referring to comes in the form of unclickable chests and doors that require keys. Anything that requires a key will basically allow you to level your lock picking on it, so doors are fair game. The list located on this guide will show you what you’ll need to pick to get to 300 lock picking.

1-85
On the Alliance side you will be given a quest to venture to Alter’s Mill and practice your lock picking to obtain your Certificate of Thievery (or something like that). You’ll want to pick this lock until you reach 85 skill.

86-175
When you reach level 20 on the Alliance side, you’ll be given a quest to obtain your poisons. Within the top of the tower there is a chest that you needed to open to obtain the item for the quest. This chest will allow you to level comfortably up to 175 (though it may take some patience from 160-175). Since there is a level 26 elite mob up top, you should definitely wait till you’re high enough level to take him out safely. You’ll now be able to open various Steel Lockboxes.

175-185
This is the painful pick pocketing part that you will have to endure. Currently there is no other means of leveling this stretch on the Alliance side, so you’ll have to get 10 sturdy lockboxes from 40-47 Ogres in Tanaris. Since the drop rate is really random, just be prepared to sit there for a while as you collect your 10 lockboxes.

185-250
I particularly enjoyed this stretch because it takes you into Scarlet Monastery to pick the doors. The doors outside the instance are on a timer and you can only pick them once every few minutes to get a skill up, however the doors on the inside (near Herod and leading to the cathedral) are always available. The only trick to picking the locks inside the instance is that you’ll need to reset the instance by joining a new group after you every pick. I didn’t bother with Herod’s doors I just grinded on the cathedral doors while getting the chest on the right hand side and killing the High Inquisitioner. You can farm so many greens so fast, you’ll be an enchanters best friend. Preferably you’ll want to be level 50+ to pick these locks because you’ll need a complete lack of agro range to pick safely without getting into a fight. So just join new groups, be it allegiance or non-allegiance to get inside the instance to reset it (have your friends invite you) and grind the door to the cathedral then exit and pick the locks outside the instance in hopes that the timer has reset. It’ll take a few hours and remember to go in with a barren inventory, you’ll need the space with all the greens you’ll be looting off the chests and High Inquisitioner. After this stretch you’ll be able to unlock Mithral boxes.

250-280
There are a handful of ways to do this stretch but none are as quick and painless as the previous methods. One thing to remember is that you can always pick the Searing Gorge gates for 2 points quickly. I think they may be on a timer so you may have to occupy yourself in Searing Gorge after every pick. A common practice is opening locks in a major city to get a skill up. While I don’t necessarily enjoy the means because it is time-intensive and hard to sometimes its hard to find someone to give you the box to get the skill up, it does get some points over time. The way I leveled through this stretch was I getting my Guild to send their boxes over to me for a week, it didn’t take long before I had my 280 and I was good to go. When you hit 280 you should be able to open Thorium boxes as well as any boxes currently in the game.

280-300
Talk about easy, easy, easy. Just go into Blackrock Depths, hit the gate on the left, the door past it and the next door for a quick 3 points. Leave the instance, regroup and reset it, and re-enter to get 3 more points. These 20 points should take 10-15 minutes tops considering you have friends to reset the instance and you’re at lvl 60 to get to 300 skill. When you hit 300 you can now navigate Scholomance without a key.

Conclusion
Though lock picking is limited use, it’s a fun thing to level especially when you’ve hit the higher levels and you need a break from questing. I think the most valuable aspect is that it showed me that I could use my rogue to supply my enchanter with items found in Scarlet Monastery. Hello Vision Dust!

I’d like to give a quick thanks to Aethix for all the help as we leveled our lockpicking together on Whisperwind. Thanks Vince