Lockpicking

Lockpicking is one of the Rogue's often-forgotten abilities. Ever since release, many Rogues have overlooked this skill past their first few levels, not paying it enough attention, and then suffering every now and then from frustrated players within Instances when they finally have to say "Sorry, I can't pick that locked chest". This is where TenTonHammer steps in and helps you get your Lockpicking Skill up quickly!

First and foremost, let's look over the basics as to why you would ever use Lockpicking.

Lockpicking is useful for:

- Opening Lockboxes for Green Items (or better!)

- Opening Locked Chests in Instances

- Opening just about any kind of Locked Door (yes, even Karazhan's if maxed!)

- Obtaining the epic thrown weapon, Spinesever, from one of the Locked Boxes from Outland

As you can see, this is something you should be keeping track of, and hopefully, maxing it will give you a lot more benefits than the few hours you spend leveling this skill up. While it is recommended you do so while leveling, many will leave it until they reach 70 to come back and do their Lockpicking Skill up. Lockpicking, past your first Quest, will be going up by 5 skillups per level, just like Poisons do. The maximum skill you can attain is 350.

First of all, make sure you've obtained the skill from your trainer and completed the relevant Quest, and make sure to bring your Thieves' Tools with you at all times to be able to use it. You will need to stand beside the Locked Box/Chest/Door and Right-Click it. To open items you have in your inventory, you will need to click your "Pick Lock" skill in your Abilities section and click on the locked box.

Lockpicking Areas

Alliance: Redridge Mountains: Alther's Mill - you may use these boxes that continuously respawn to level your skill up to 100

Horde: Ghostlands: Amani Catacombs and Zeb'nowa / Zeb'tela - you may use these burial chests and primitive chests to lockpick up to 100

Alliance: Westfall: Duskwood Chest from the Quest Klaven's Tower - you may pick this chest up to 170. Alternatively, you may go to Ashenvale's Zoram Strand or Redridge's Lake Everstill for Waterlogged Footlockers up to 150.

Horde: The Barrens: Tower in the Sludge Fen, for the Quest Mission: Possible but not Probable - you may pick this chest up to 170. Alternatively, you may go to Ashenvale's Zoram Strand or Redridge's Lake Everstill for Waterlogged Footlockers up to 150.

Past 150 Skill, you may choose from Durnholde Keep in Hillsbrad Foothills, or head over to the Sar'theris Strand in Desolace. Underwater, there are lots of chests you may pick up to 225 or so. If you want to head out somewhere else, you may try the Angor Fortress in Badlands at 150-175 to keep obtaining skillups.

At 225 Skill, you may head over to Tanaris's Lost Rigger Cove, picking the Pirate Dented Footlockers in the area up to 300.

Another good opportunity arises when you hit 250 Skill, and is the recommended one to hit 300 skill with. You go to Eastern Plaguelands, to the South-east corner of the map, and you will find yourself in Tyr's Hand. A former farming spot, this area is now usually empty with the Expansion, however, it will be for the best. You may see a few Scarlet Footlockers in the Area, but the real advantage comes from pick-pocketing the monsters in the area. Even if you don't get anything in the first 5 to 10 tries, you will be getting Sturdy Junkboxes from these monsters at a very acceptable rate, which require you to have 250 skill to pick. You may use this to level to 300.

300 Skill

Feralfen Village in Zangarmarsh is your best bet here - the monsters are easy enough to avoid or pickpocket, and there's a wealth of Wicker Chests that respawn continuously scattered throughout the village. It is not hard to hit 350 skill here within 30 to 45 minutes of pickpocketing monsters for lockboxes and opening Wicker Chests.

Blizzard has added a lot of zones with items to try your lockpicking on, however, the ones above are the ones that will definitely be easier for you to get to and use to get to 350 Lockpicking Skill the fastest. Remember to pickpocket high-end monsters for Junkboxes that may have green, blue, and epic items inside in Outland!

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