by in
A rogue without lockpicking is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Niche reference, sure, but hopefully you’ve got the picture.
Below we have listed how we grinding to 300 lockpicking back in Vanilla WoW. There may be more streamline methods available, but we did it again on Classic without any issues. Due to the ease of the dungeons these days, lockboxes are also plentiful.
Lockpicking 0-100
Alliance (Redridge) Alther’s Mill: Lockboxes in the rear of the sawmill.
Horde (Barrens) Pirate ship south of ratchet: Lockboxes first level down.
Lockpicking 100-128
Alliance (assorted): These levels are a bit difficult for alliance members, I recommend going to Desolace and Pick Pocketing all 3 centaur clans (east side of zone). You will find a locked junkbox from one in every 9 pockets picked on average. The other option is engineer made practice locks, or a combination of both.
Horde (Barrens) Pirate ship: Move down to the single chest at the bottom of the pirate ship at this point.*
Lockpicking 128-175
Alliance (Westfall) Poison quest tower: Named is a lvl 26 elite with a 5-8 minute repop. Kill him (Asmi’s note: I can solo him at 36 with a swords/cheap shot/kidney shot but he still brings me down to 100hp) and pick the quest box, you will get the curse of zanzil again. Higher level druids/paladins can remove the curse…as will death.*
Horde (Barrens) Pirate ship: The box on the lowest deck is still yellow at 128.*
Lockpicking 175-178+
At this point we move onto doors… for both sides, Gnomeregan (near Ironforge) workshop door will be yellow and the Armory and Cathedral doors to Scarlet Monastery (near Undercity) will be orange. Unfortunately, these seem to be bugged, I only got one skill up per door when picking them. Apparently the refresh on the skill-ups from the doors is 20 minutes give or take; if you have time to waste you can sit just inside one of them and pick for one skill up every 20 minutes, not my cup of tea but an option.
At this skill level, I have yet to encounter a lockbox or chest I cannot open. However, the gate to Searing Gorge in Loch Modan is still red to me.
Lock picking is a very important skill, once you begin to do instances you/your guild will be receiving high-level lock boxes which need to be picked by a skilled rogue or a high-level smith. Also, instances such as Scarlet Monastery are full of locked boxes and trust me, you will not be happy when you beat the boss, go to pick the lock and realize you must leave it behind because your skill is lacking.
* = If there is no lock pick icon on mouseover of the box it can still be opened. Simply clicking your lock pick skill and again clicking on the chest will indeed open it.
Creature level to pickpocket junkbox.
- Lvl 22-32 Battered Junkboxes
- Lvl 32-42 Worn Junkboxes
- Lvl 42-52 Sturdy Junkboxes
- Lvl 52+ Heavy Junkboxes
Skill required to pick boxes - Battered Junkboxes(100-128)
- Worn Junkboxes(128-175)
- Sturdy Junkboxes(175-250)
- Heavy Junkboxes(250-?)
- Heavy Bronze Lockbox
- Ornate Bronze Lockbox
- Iron Lockbox (80-?)
- Strong Iron Lockbox (130-?)
- Steel Lockbox (175-?)
- Reinforced Steel Lockbox (225-never)
- Mithril Lockbox (225-never)
- Thorium Lockbox (225-never)
- Eternium Lockbox(?-?)
Skill for Doors - Gnomeregan (150-200)
- Scarlet Monastery (185-?) (Timer)
- Searing Gorge Gate (225-230 skill) (Timer)
- BRD (280+)
- Scholomance (280+)
Others - Chests from lvl 16 lockpicking quests (1-105)
- Bottom of Ratchet boat/Klaven’s Tower (80-175)
- Engineered Practice Locks (1-75) (single use only)
Tips to raise lockpicking skill
Get to 80 skill off the initial lockpicking quest. At lvl 35, head to Ratchet and go to the pirate ship on the coast, head to the bottom deck and LP the single chest (you won’t get an icon, so activate the skill and click on chest) to get to 175 skill. From then on, I suggest you pickpocket junkboxes and fill a bag with them. Do NOT pick them. Head to SM with the bag, pick one of the doors, then pick a junkbox. You’ll have reset the door-skill up. If you don’t LP a junkbox between attemps of door LP, you will have to wait 20 mins between skill ups. This way, you can get 20 skill-ups instead of 12.
