Quests?

There are a couple of quests which will put your Rogue in front of the chance to work up that lockpicking skill. One's the basic Rogue Lockpicking quest and the other's the poison quest.

Once past the poison quest towers there isn't any particular "lockpicking quest" so start yer grindin"! To get past 300 skill you'll need to have The Burning Crusade installed.

Rremember that the basic skill rank formula is 5 x level, so the max Lockpicking skill for a level 50 character is 250.

You'll get the lockpicking skill (and tools) from your rogue trainer at level 16. He'll give you a quest, so go do it, hand it in, and you'll have your skills and tools. Open all the chests in the quest area until your skill is high enough.

By the way, don't forget to ask your friendly Rogue trainer where to go for lockpicking. Sometimes the info is actually useful.

Blood Elf Lockpicking 1-100

If you had the good taste to roll a Blood Elf then here's what you do: You'll pick the chests in the Armani Catacombs, just west of Farstrider Enclave. Kill trolls and pick locks until your lockpicking is 100, the chests turn grey, or you just can't take it anymore.

Your skill will cap at 5x level, so at lev 16 you'll max out at skill level 80. make sure you're at least level 20 to get to 100 skill.

Blood elves can also find lockers in Zeb'Nowa and Zeb'Tela in the Ghostlands.

Other Horde 1-100 Lockpicking
Rogue Polly Quest - Go to Ratchet, get on the ship, feed Polly a cracker (before Polly eats you, and unlock chests on the boat until they're grey. Click here for Polly tips. You don't actually need the quest to pick the locks, but since you're a Rogue and should be doing that quest anyway...

If you are Alliance and like to live dangerously, then this is a good place to go.

See below for the video.

Alliance 1-100 Lockpicking

In Alther's Mill, in the Redridge Mountains region, there is a quest to lockpick a series of chests to find a quest item. Like all your skills it's capped at 5x level.
Quest details.

There are a couple of ways to go here, depending on your level. You can pickpocket level 30+ mobs for their worn junkboxes (lockpicking 75 to open) or you can do the chest in the poison quest.

You can also swim around in Lake Everstill (alliance) or off the Zorma Strand (Horde) for "waterlogged footlockers." I suggest an elixer of water breathing to make your swim easier.

The Poison Quest Chest - Quest details are here.

Both Horde and Alliance have a poison quest (at level 20) which involves entering a tower, killing an Elite mob, and picking a chest. I couldn't handle an Elite mob at 20, but if you can then go for it. Otherwise take a team or come back to that chest later.

The cool thing here is that the chest respawns after being picked, within seconds, and you can pick it over and over again. Doing this will get your skill as high as 175, if you're patient. Of course, you'll have to be at least level 35 to get to that 175 skill.

The Horde tower is in the Sludge Fen area of the Northern Barrens, just NW of the Goblin plant.

The Alliance tower is Klaven's Tower in Westfall.

You'll get poisoned with "The Touch of Zanzil" when opening the chest. If you're on the quest you'll find a cure at the end of the quest. Otherwise any level 25+ anti-venom should take care of that Touch of Zanzil. I bought mine off the Auction House, but you can make anti-venom with your first-air skill.

Note: Don't get rid of zanzil until you're done with that chest, though. Zapping it everytime you open the chest is pointless.

Other Lockpicking Areas

Durnholde Keep in Hillsbrad Foothills. There are footlockers scattered around the grounds requiring a 110 skill. Kill off the level 20 something mobs in the area and work these until you get bored (or hit 170 or so.) You can also pick lockboxes off the mobs here, but they require skill 1 to open, so are probably worthless to you.

The 160(ish) to 200+ Grind:

Once you hit Locpicking 160 or so, from the poison chest, the skill leveling will be slow. Getting to 175 will take awhile. If you're up for a swim then you can try the sunken footlockers off the Naga area of Sar'theris Strand in Desolace (bring your Elixer of Water Breathing.)

You also have the choice of looting the the footlockers in the upstairs area of Angor Fortress in the Badlands (the upper floor footlockers require a skill of 155, the lower footlockers require 175+.)

One you hit 175+ you can go to the lower level of Angor (for dented footlockers) or swim a bit deeper off Sartheris Strand (for mossy footlockers.)

At 175+ you can also start picking pockets for higher level junkboxes. Since you're going to be killing piles of thee guys anyway you might as well check their pockets first, right? This will get you to well over 200 skill.

As mentioned above: pick the pockets of all humanoids - ogres, goblins, humans, centaurs, Nagas, undead, etc., always. You'll get boxes every now and then which can be picked. These boxes generally contain rogue poisons and flash powder (for your vanish) so you should be pick-pocketing them anyway.

Obviously you'll come across lots of humans, orgres, nagas, cetaurs, etc. while doing quests, in your travels, and while /www.squidoo.com/wowgrindingguide target=new>grinding, so pick all those pockets before you kill their owners.

Note: It's good etiquette to kill them after you pick their pockets, so that the rogues coming after you don't have to pick empty pockets.

The boxes need lockpicking 70 until the mobs hit 40+, then they'll need lockpicking 175.

If your skill isn't 175 by the time you're hunting these guys just save the boxes in your mailbox or in the bank until you can open them.

Battered junkboxes can be picked from level 22-32 mobs and require lockpicking 1

Worn junkboxes can be plucked from level 32+ mobs and require skill 75.

Sturdy Junkboxes come from level 42+ mobs and require a skill of 175 to pick. The pirates of Ogres of Tanaris dropped a number of these for me. There are also dented footlockers in the pirate area.

You should be able to find these sturdy junkboxes from 42+ mobs just about anywhere.

The Scarlet Monastery - The doors in SM should work to get you to over 200. The ones outside the instance are on a timer so you can only do those a few times every so often. What you do is hit up all the doors on the way in, go into an instance, unlock more doors, open chests, and pickpocket junkboxes all the way to 225. Keep your vanish ready, just in case...

Gadgetzen/Ferales/Badlands - pickpocket ogres, humans, pirates, etc. You'll get those 175 sturdy junkboxes. Keep working those until they grey out.

The Sunken Temple, in the swamp of sorrows, has submerged footlockers that are calling out for your 175+ lockpicking skill.

Sar'theris Strand - off the Naga area swim a bit deeper and look for those mossy footlockers and bring your 175 skill.

The Bay of Storms in Azshara is supposed to have a a few mossy footlockers (skill 225,) but I only found a couple. One on land, one under water.

Any time you're in the big city you can post announcements (in chat or trade) offering free lockpicking (and list your skill.)

You don't actually have to take possession of the box first. Your skill level will still go up if they put it in the "will not be traded" section of the trade window. Be nice, don't loot the box. :) If you find that picking locks in the "do not trade" window *doesn't* increase your skill then you'll have to take possession of the box first.

At 225, go to Searing Gorge. Down in the slag pit are Dented Footlockers. You can open all of them and pickpocket the mobds for junkboxes. Stay here until you have at least skill level 250.

Being the lone Horde of any level (48 at the time) in an area that, at the time, was dominated by higher level Alliance, on a PvP server, was interesting...

A solid place to go to get your skill from 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 make a full circle of Tyr's Hand, the starting point will be pickpocketable and have boxes respawned. Do this until 300.

From 270-320 you can go to the far southeast corner of the Eastern Plaguelands. Forget about the boxes on the ground -- there are very few and they're surrounded by 53-57 elites. Instead, pick-pocket everyone! The guards there drop junk boxes about 10% of the time. You can easily gain 30 lvls in an hour.

Get 5 point skill boost with these gloves, for those times when you need just a bit more...

WoWwiki has several tables which list the various boxes you can come across.

Fishing for loots - while fishing you'll pick up the occasional box that will require picking (most of these boxes won't require it.) If you fish the wreckage pools you find here and there you'll get more of the boxes.

Why get to Lockpicking 350? Bragging Rights!

You'll be able to open anything, plus you'll have the bragging rights that go with any 350 skill. Since your lockpicking skill is locked to your level (5 x level) you won't get past 350 without some kind of buffs, but then again, youi don't need to.

Once you're in the Outlands, whether you're Alliance or Horde, you'll have the opportunity to pick the pockets of lots of orcs and demons and other humanoids. Do this regularly and your lockpicking skill will keep pace with your level.

There are several ways to go from 300-350. One of these is pickpocketing the Boulderfists in Nagrand for Strong Junkboxes.

Khorium Lockboxes are randomly dropped in the Burning Crusade zones, but mostly found in the new Burning Crusades instances. Just make it known that you'll be happy to pick everyone's box during, or at the end of, the run/raid. For free, of course.

A great location for leveling lockpicking between 300 and 350 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.

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 place at 70 is outside of Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley (very east side, hunk of land sticking out). Stay near the Blood Elves that are not the demon hunters. Pickpocket these and kill them to have them respawn. Continue this from 300-350 for the most efficient skilling up.

The Ultimate Rogue

Would your rogue perform better with swords, maces, or daggers? Is that Hunter getting you down only because you got the wrong talent build? Does it take so long to get your final mount, because you do the wrong quests or farm gold in the wrong places?

Imagine that you simply knew the answer. You wouldn't need to spend endless hours on frustrating trial and error attempts. Instead you would be standing in front of the auction house answering tells about that devilish looking sword at your side. The World of Warcraft Rogue Guide shows you how to get there!