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Being a Rogue in the World of Warcraft, besides being pretty cool, has certain advantages. One of these is that you
are the only one who can pick locks. Others can blow them up, but you don't have to resort to such crude methods.
Still, you can't quite go to a trainer and just buy the skill as you would if it were mining. You're going to pick up the
lockpicking skill from your friendly (?) neighborhood Rogue Trainer, at level 16, but he has this little job for you to do...
In addition to lockpicking you'll also get the Pick Pocketing skill a little earlier in your training. While neither of these
skills is essential to being a Rogue, they're both useful and fun. They won't earn you honor points in the arena, but you
will pick up some decent loot.
So why bother with lockpicking and picking pockets in the first place, if they're not essential skills? Here are three reasons,
but you may come up with more. Note: I''ll be using the term 'mob" several times. This refers to any of the computer controlled
entities you'll be encountering in the game. Other players aren't mobs, despite how they may act, and you can't pick their
pockets.
1) For the Rogue loot. You'll pick the pockets of mobs for boxes, which will require your special skill to open. These boxes
contain stuff you need for your poisons and your vanish ability (flash powder.) They'll also have some vendor junk and every
once in awhile will have some other useful thing, such as a potion of healing. I've picked at least as many potions of healing
from pockets as I have boxes. That's money you won't have to spend at the auction house.
2) With a high lockpicking skill you're a little more useful to your group, since you can open locked chests and doors and
open any boxes that may drop when mobs are killed. Offer free lockpicking to any member of your guild. Heck, offer it in the
trade chat when you're in the big city. It's an easy way to up your skill a bit and you'll pick up some cash tips.
3) Footlockers are found here and there, lurking, waiting for your skills. Sometimes they contain interesting loot, so picking
them is worth the effort, beyond just leveling up your skill.
When you get your lockpicking Rogue quest you'll be sent to an area with lots of chests that quickly respawn. You'll either
get the mill (alliance) or the ship (horde) or the dungeon full of chests and trolls (Blood Elf.) Stay there and work on your
lockpicking until you're at least at 70 skill, but try to get up to 100.
At level 20 you'll pick up your Rogue Poison Quest, but since there's a level 23 Elite mob at the end it might be tricky to
finish. When you can get past that guy, on your own or with a team, you'll find the target chest, which needs to be picked.
The interesting thing is that the chest respawns almost immediately after you pick it. This means that you can hang around
and pick it up to skill 175 (and kill that Elite Mob a few more times.) Although the skill leveling gets really slow after
160, it's still faster than swimming for footlockers.
Speaking of swimming for footlockers... You can find these under the water in the Naga areas in Zoram Strand and Sar'theris
strand. Take a water breathing elixir and pick these boxes till you're bored or you don't get any more skill increase.
As you wander the world of Azeroth you're going to come across many humanoid mobs. Pick pocket all of them for the boxes,
dead bugs, potions, pocket dust, coins, etc. By the way, Nagas and Centaurs and Satyrs all have pockets, just as Pirates and
Ogres do. Just don't think too much about what else is in that Naga's or that Ogre's pockets...
Mobs of level 42+ have boxes that require 175 skill and your mobs of 52+ have boxes that require 250 skill. The more pick
pocketing you do the less you'll have to wander off and find lonely footlockers.
By the way, picking a mob's pockets doesn't in any way effect what drops when you kill that mob. You'll get the same loot
when you kill him regardless of whether or not you picked his pockets before your attack.
Speaking of footlockers...Footlockers in places like Durnham hold require 110 skill. If you can open those then you aren't
going to get a skill increase from the boxes you pick out of their pockets. Footlockers, in general, require a higher skill
to lockpick than the boxes you'll pickpocket off any mobs in the area.
Greg has written a number of articles on the World of Warcraft, inclucing
a more complete Rogue
Lockpicking Guide and a World
of Warcraft tips blog.
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