Lockpicking

Template:Lockpicking

Lockpicking is a rogue class skill. The trained ability, [Pick Lock] (learned at level 16 or above from any Rogue Trainer), allows rogues to use Lockpicking to open locked doors, chests, and lockboxes. Lockpicking operates like a profession; the rogue begins with a minimal initial lockpicking skill, and must raise lockpicking skill through practice by picking locks. There are no profession-like proficiency levels to be trained; rather lockpicking skill is capped at five times the rogue's current level. Like gathering skills (such as Fishing, Herbalism, or Mining) the rogue must have at or above a certain level to open locks of that level of difficulty, and only locks near the rogue's current skill level have a chance to provide a skillup. This skill typically doesn't advance quickly enough with casual use; rogues must occasionally go out on runs to improve their lockpicking. Fortunately, your rogue trainer can point you to areas which contain footlockers at your skill level.

Strategy

Please note that while this guide covers the best ways to power-level your lockpicking, it is perfectly feasible to level the vast majority of your skill simply by choosing to work quests that involve humanoids that can be pickpocketed for lockboxes, which can then be picked to raise your skill, and which also will sometimes contain Rogue poisons, thus increasing the value of this approach.

1 to 170

Early on you might get some [Practice Locks] from an engineer to increase your lockpicking up to skill level 80. The quest to obtain Lockpicking will point you towards plenty of practice chests.

The best way for Alliance rogues to get their lockpicking skill up at level 16-20 (after getting the [Pick Lock] skill) is Alther's Mill in the Redridge Mountains region. The quest Template:Questclass requires lockpicking a chest in Alther's Mill for a quest item and is close to the practice lockboxes. These chests respawn very quickly (you can stand between a couple or three and alternate between them) and may be practiced upon from 1 to over 100 skill. You do not have to be on the quest to pick these, so you can come back later to raise your skill when your level based skill cap is higher. If you do the quest at level 16, you should probably return at least once when you are over level 20. Horde rogues can similarly gain early levels from an equivalent quest on the ship off the Merchant Coast, south of Ratchet in the Barrens. Additionally, blood elf rogues may take the quest, Quest:Greed in the Ghostlands at level 16, which takes them to the Amani Catacombs where they may practice lockpicking up to 100 (currently level * 5). In addition to training, these chests contain treasure.

(Note: The above mentioned chest are not faction specific. If preferred Alliance characters could just as easily skillup lockpicking on chests found in the ship at the Merchant Coast. Vise-versa, it is possible for Horde characters to level on the chests found in Alther's Mill.)

The rogue poisons quests for Horde and Alliance provide the next opportunity for solid skill gains. The quest can be picked up at level 20, although it may be too difficult for many players at level 20. The item required to complete this quest is contained inside a locked chest that can be picked repeatedly up to 170. (You are likely to hit your skill level cap first, if you are on the poison quest.) If you've already finished the quest, you can still use the chests to gain skill. The chests don't highlight when you mouse over them after the first time (when you obtain the quest item), so you have to activate your lockpicking skill first and then click the chest. The chest will be empty if you already have the quest item or have completed the quest. Be sure to close the empty loot window in order to speed along the chest respawning (it is very quick if the loot window is not left open.) The poison [Touch of Zanzil] is applied every time the chest is lockpicked. The poisons can be dispelled if you have the cure from the poison quest chain, [Anti-Venom] skill (and Anti-Venom in your pack) from the First Aid profession, or by the dwarf racial [Stoneform]. The boss guarding the chest will probably respawn a couple of times while you are leveling your lockpicking skill on this chest. (It appears that either faction could use the opposite faction chest; not tested.)

Also, level 1 Battered Footlockers can be pickpocketed from the mobs around Durnholde Keep in the Hillsbrad Foothills. Continuously make routes around Durnholde Keep and pickpocket mobs for Junkboxes. Note again that these are level 1, so if you have already leveled up using the lockbox in the rogue poisons quest, these will be grey and therefore useless for leveling your skill.

At Bluegill Marsh in the Wetlands, there are Battered Footlockers with varying skill level requirement of 105, 110, and 115.

150 to 225 Alternate Path

If you don't like the water, you can head to Angor Fortress in the Badlands. There are two types of footlockers inside the fortress, Battered Footlockers and Dented Footlockers. The Battered Footlockers are located upstairs, and you will be able to open them immediately at 150; however, the Dented Footlockers will require a skill of 175 to open.

If you are level 30-40 you can go to Desolace, bring 2–3 hours worth of water breathing potions, and pick your way into the mid 200s. There are Waterlogged Footlockers around (37,21) off the northwest shore. There are level 33 mobs you will have to deal with while doing this. There are also Mossy Footlockers in the deeper areas that can get you to 225. These can be found in a NE running trench near the big island off the coast, around 36,11. Though they are few and far between here. A better place to find these is in the lake that surrounds the Sunken Temple in the Swamp of Sorrows.

225 to 300

Once at 205 or so, go to the Scarlet Monastery doors. Read below the doors section on what to do. Open each door, go into the instance and pickpocket 3 mobs. Come back out and open the doors and the timer will have reset for the skillups from the doors. Continuously do this until 225. At 225, go to Searing Gorge. Down in the Slag Pit are Dented Footlockers. You can open all of them, and again pickpocket for junkboxes. Additionally, you can travel to the Swamp of Sorrows. A water-breathing potion makes circling the deep water around the Sunken Temple much easier, as Mossy Footlockers spawn throughout the area. Stay in either of these locations until 250-255.

The best place to raise your skill from 250 to 300 is in Blackrock Depths. Simply go in, turn to the left and unlock the Shadowforge Gate. Continue forward and take the first right, picking the next Shadowforge Gate. Pick the first door on the left, the East Garrison Door, and then head through the door, staying on the bottom level. If you are level 60 or above, pick the large wooden object sticking out of the ground below the giant gear, The Shadowforge Lock; lower levels can aggro the mobs around it. Pickpocket the 10 humanoid mobs in the room and you should average either 1 [Sturdy Junkbox] or 1 [Heavy Junkbox] each run. You can also lockpick cell doors if you are able to solo small groups before them. Then head out of the instance and reset it before doing all four again. Note that you can only reset the instance 5 times before it disables you from entering, saying "You have entered too many instances recently". This is valid for the whole account and resets roughly an hour after you entered the first time. Keep in mind that a number of mobs will be able to see through stealth, regardless of your level, so be prepared.

Another place for 250-300 is Tyr's Hand in Eastern Plaguelands. Pickpocket the mobs and find all of the Scarlet Footlockers. In the time it takes to take a full circle of Tyr's Hand, the starting point will be pickpocketable and have boxes respawned. Do this until 300.

Yet another location to level lockpicking from 250 to 300, particularly for those above level 60 is in the mines below Honor Hold in Hellfire Peninsula. The Gan'arg Sappers can be pickpocketed for [Heavy Junkboxes]. As most have their back to the center of the mine they can all easily be robbed clean with little problem, and the only other NPCs capable of interrupting the Rogue are the patrolling Succubi, but they can be easily avoided.

300 to 375

The best place at 70 is in Feralfen Village in Zangarmarsh. This is located south of Coilfang Reservoir and Twin Spire Ruins, west of the Lagoon and east of Quagg Ridge. There are three areas of buildings clumped together with a handful of wicker chests in each. They typically spawn inside and around the huts. The tower in the western section of the village has wicker chests on the first floor and on the top floor. You can also pickpocket the mobs (levels 61-63) with an 11% chance of getting a [Strong Junkbox] (requires Lockpicking 300).

Another location for leveling lockpicking between 300 and 350 is outside of Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley (very east side, hunk of land sticking out). Stay near the blood elves that are paladins/warriors (not by name), not the demon hunters. Pickpocket these and kill them to have them respawn. As many know, there is an epic thrown weapon that can be taken out of the [Strong Junkboxes] that come out of Outland, Spinesever. Formerly a popular item, it was nerfed with patch 2.3.

350 and beyond

With the amount of humanoid mobs you'll be killing, if you make it a habit to pick all of their pockets before stabbing you'll wind up with more [Reinforced Junkboxes] than you'll know what to do with. This should allow you to easily skill Lockpicking up to 400.

Another option to consider is the Violet Hold door in Dalaran, which can be picked at 365. It is unknown what the timer is before picking the door will again reward a skillup.

The Feralfen Village in Outland is still a viable place to level your lockpicking, for 380+. The doors to Karazhan, Shadow Labyrinth, Shattered Halls, and the Arcatraz will all offer easy skill points as well, as all are orange at 350 — simply leave your keys to these instances in your bank. Stratholme doors also remain green until 400; they are less likely to give a skill point, but offer multiple attempts in a single area with no travel time.

Gear

[Dark Leather Gloves], created through Leatherworking, increase lockpicking skill by 5. They reduce the chance of a lockpicking attempt failing and also can be used to pick locks slightly out of your skill range.

Pickable Locks

Crafted Items

Crafted Items
Item Level	Item	Orange	Yellow	Green	Grey
20	[Practice Lock]	1	30	60	80

Locked Items

Junkbox/table Lockbox/table Locked Chest/table

Footlockers

Footlocker/table

Typically, unguarded footlockers have a lower skill range than guarded ones. When lockpicking, nearby mobs may also become hostile when they are otherwise outside your aggro range.

Locked Treasure Chests

Locked Chest/table2

Doors

Doors
Location	Door	Orange	Yellow	Green	Grey	Note
The Deadmines	Gate	1	?	?	?	Can also be opened with [Defias Gunpowder]
Gnomeregan	Workshop Door	150	175	?	?	Can also be opened with [Workshop Key]
Scarlet Monastery	Armory and Cathedral Doors	175	200	225	275	Can also be opened with Scarlet Key
Searing Gorge	Searing Gorge Gate	225	250	275	?	Can also be opened with [Key to Searing Gorge]
Blackrock Depths	East Garrison Door	250	275	300	?	Can also be opened with [Shadowforge Key]
Blackrock Depths	Prison Cells	?	250	300	?	Can also be opened with [Prison Cell Key]
Blackrock Depths	Shadowforge Gates	250	275	300	?	Can also be opened with [Shadowforge Key]
Blackrock Depths	Shadowforge Mechanism	250	275	300	?	Can also be opened with [Shadowforge Key]
Scholomance	Scholomance Door	280	323-336	341	?	Can also be opened with Skeleton Key
Stratholme	Stratholme Gates	300	?	?-334	?	Can also be opened with [Key to the City]
Dire Maul	Crescent Door	300	?	?-334	?	Can also be opened with [Crescent Key]
Shattered Halls	Shattered Halls Door	350	?	?	?	Can also be opened with [Shattered Halls Key]
Shadow Labyrinth	Shadow Labyrinth Gate	350	?	?	?	Can also be opened with [Shadow Labyrinth Key]
The Arcatraz	Arcatraz Door	350	?	?	?	Can also be opened with [Key to the Arcatraz]
Karazhan	Karazhan Door	350	?	?	?	Can also be opened with [The Master's Key]
Dalaran	Violet Hold Door	365	?	?	?	Can also be opened with [The Violet Hold Key]

Skill gains on doors not inside an instance are on a timer. They cannot be picked repeatedly for skill. A certain amount of time (about 5 min) must elapse before skill gains may be realized again. As of 5th August 2008, doors within instances must also be given time to cool down before getting another skill point, even if you reset the instance

As of 16th December 2007, there seems to be a 50/50 chance that picking a junkbox will reset the skill gain timer on either or both Scarlet Monastery doors. Zoning into any of the four instances and pickpocketing at least three mobs always resets the SM door timer on both doors.

Alternatives to Lockpicking

If a rogue is unavailable, there are several alternatives.

Locks can be opened by various Skeleton keys made by Blacksmiths. There are four types of skeleton key recipes, all of which can be learned from Blacksmithing trainers. Each recipe creates two keys, which are used up on a successful pick.

Additionally Engineers can use Seaforium Charges to open locked doors and chests.

In the early closed beta, mages had a spell called [Khadgar's Unlocking] which could unlock lockboxes and doors by consuming a reagent, but this spell was removed in Patch 0.9.

Source	Item	Unlocks
Blacksmithing	[Silver Skeleton Key]	25
	[Golden Skeleton Key]	125
	[Truesilver Skeleton Key]	200
	[Arcanite Skeleton Key]	300
	[Cobalt Skeleton Key]	375
	[Titanium Skeleton Key]	430
Engineering	[Small Seaforium Charge]	150
	[Large Seaforium Charge]	250
	[Powerful Seaforium Charge]	300
	[Elemental Seaforium Charge]	350

Lockpicking etiquette

There is very little consensus on what standard policies for lockpicking are; Rogue expectations can vary wildly from server to server. Some expect a tip, and some gladly open locks for free. Common assumptions can be:

If the rogue is not sending messages via Trade, General chat, or by yelling, then it is never acceptable to open a trade with a rogue without first asking them if he can open a certain box. Among other things, it can disrupt a mail composition, an Auction House scan, or a profession crafting, and can be very irritating. Many rogues will automatically ignore people who open trade windows unsolicited. However, if the rogue is clearly stating that he/she is opening lockboxes, it can be considered even more irritating to the rogue who then has to deal with floods of whispers coming in, so simply open trade.
Rogues will generally offer their service for free; it is generally expected to offer a tip if you can afford it.
If a rogue expects a fee for lockpicking, he should negotiate it ahead of time. Otherwise, gracious players often tip anywhere between 2 and 5 to the opening rogue, based on the type of lockbox opened. Locks under Thorium Lockboxes usually are tipped 50 and Thorium and above are tipped 1 on most servers. A generally good guideline to follow would be one silver for every skill on the lockbox (ex. Thorium Lockboxes would be 250.
If you ask a rogue before opening, he/she will often open it for free.
Always ask friends and guild mates before asking strangers. You are more likely to get it opened and more likely to get it done for free or a discounted price.