Outland Rogue Lockpicking 300-350

Lockpicking is an essential Rogue skill and service, and it needs to be leveled up like any other profession! Throughout Azeroth and Outland there are many things which require unlocking via the use of the Rogue’s Pick Lock ability, which requires Thieves’ Tools. The importance of these locks definitely varies (compare emancipating the contents a Dented Footlocker to bypassing the slime tube area prior to the first boss in the Shattered Halls).

Leveling your Lockpicking skill requires that you visit different areas throughout the world which are home to lots of different boxes, which require similar skill level to open. By no coincidence, the areas for gaining lower level skill are in lower level zones (like Alter’s Mill in Redridge Mountains) whereas higher level areas allow you to gain those higher level skill points (like the Kil’sorrow Fortress in Nagrand).

This guide will give you all the information you need to raise your Lockpicking skill from 300, the maximum in Classic, to 350, the maximum in TBC Classic. We will cover ways to level your Lockpicking while leveling your character or if you are backtracking on a higher level character, along with the best locations to do so.

Tips

• Your Lockpicking skill is capped at 5 times your character’s level, just like your poisons, weapon and defense skills
• Regularly use Pick Pocket to potentially loot lockboxes of different types from Humanoids. You can skill up from unlocking these!
• Use your Distract and Sap to make accessing lockboxes and using Pick Pocket more successful.
• Find yourself a pair of Dark Leather Gloves to increase your Lockpicking skill by 5. This will be helpful in moving on to a new leveling area sooner.

Level via Chests & Footlockers

The first and for many easiest way to level up your Lockpicking in TBC is the good old-fashioned way — pick the locks of chests and footlockers located on the ground. This way is very convenient because it doesn’t require your complete focus, but it becomes a lot more difficult if other Rogues have the same idea as you do and pick locks at the same place as you, as chest respawn rates aren’t the best.

Feralfen Village, Zangarmarsh

This is a great area for leveling your Lockpicking skill from 300-350, because there are an abundance of Wicker Chests, which have a reasonably fast respawn rate. This area is easily accessible from both Telredor and Zabra’jin. In fact, there are quests for both factions which ask you to enter this area so if you are already leveling, this is a good place to start leveling your Lockpicking skill in TBC, though you’ll likely have to come back later to max it.

The nearby Feralfen Druids and other mobs are all Humanoids, which means using Distract and Sap will be an easy way to stun and control mob positioning. If anything does go wrong, the graveyard is also conveniently located just to the north, in the Twin Spire Ruins.

The Wicker Chests are located on the sides of the buildings, near other Feralfen supplies and similar colored boxes. They can also be found inside the small tents around Feralfen Village, accompanied by one Sappable mob.

Kil’sorrow Fortress, Nagrand

In the far southeastern corner of Nagrand, you can find the Kil’sorrow Fortress – an area rife with Dented Footlockers, just waiting there for you to unlock. The footlockers are located around the buildings in the area, scattered around other supplies. Some may have Kil’sorrow Orcs nearby, but you can simply Sap them and get to Lockpicking.

The only catch: you need a Lockpicking skill of 325, or 320 if you’re using Dark Leather Gloves, in order to start opening these boxes. So you’ll likely have to pick some chests in Zangarmarsh before coming here, but this would be a great spot to come to if the Feralfen Village is crowded.

This area also has some quests that players who are leveling will naturally complete while questing through Nagrand. For example, the Armaments for Deception already has us looting from the nearby crates for quest items, so that’s a great chance to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

Level via Pick Pocket

Another option for leveling your Lockpicking skill from 300-350 is by obtaining Strong Junkboxes from using your other important Rogue skill – Pick Pocket! Nearly any humanoid enemy has a chance to yield these after being pickpocketed, but the Outland is home to numerous ogres, many of whom are part of quest objectives already, making this a great way to level your Lockpicking while gaining experience and some gold to boot. To make things even better, these junkboxes will typically have ingredients you need for your Poisons as well.

Consider making a macro using Pick Pocket and your opener of choice (ie. Cheap Shot) like the one below, to make sure you are automatically picking a mob’s pockets (if they have any) while coming out of Stealth. Just make sure you have auto-loot enabled so you don’t have to collect the loot mid-combat!

#showtooltip Cheap Shot
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast Cheap Shot

The Twin Clefts of Nagrand, Nagrand

If you are leveling your Alliance Rogue in Outland, you will already be tasked with defeating 50 Boulderfist Ogres for the Twin Clefts of Nagrand quest. Use your Pick Pocket ability on every ogre and you will likely end up with a hefty amount of Strong Junkboxes, potentially helping you get the remaining skill points you need on your way to 350.

Bloodmaul Outpost & Bladespire Hold, Blade’s Edge Mountains

Another ogre-rich area where you can Pick Pocket for Strong Junkboxes a whole bunch is the Blade’s Edge Mountains. There are multiple quests involving the Bloodmaul and Bladespire ogres of the area, making questing here a great spot for leveling your Lockpicking while gaining some gold and experience. The Bloodmaul Ogres’ Wolves are able to see through Stealth, so you probably don’t want to spend any more time around them as you need to for the quest, making the Bladespire ogres a better target.

Level via Khorium Lockboxes

The last way to level your Lockpicking is by opening Khorium Lockboxes, which are rare drops off any enemy that’s at least level 65. Other players regularly want these opened for the loot inside them, and they need a Rogue player to open them first — so by staying in a city and advertising that you’re opening boxes for free, you could level your Lockpicking with minimal effort. This way is by far the most convenient, but it can be very slow if there aren’t many players with lockboxes to open, so if you want to quickly get your skill up, you’ll have to use one of the other ways.

Note that you need a Lockpicking skill of 325 in order to open Khorium Lockboxes, so you’d have to get your skill up to that point either way — or at the very least up to 320 if you have Dark Leather Gloves.