WoW Classic WotLK: Lockpicking Leveling Guide (1-400)

Image: Blizzard via HGG/Sarah Arnold

Human Made

Penned by Sarah Arnold

Sarah loves RPGs, sandboxes, and sims. She's played every expansion of World of Warcraft and WoW Classic and spent hundreds of hours modding and playing Bethesda games.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Lockpicking is a unique skill in WoW Classic: a kind of class-specific profession skill for rogues. Blacksmiths can also pick locks and engineers can blow them up, but it requires materials to do so, whereas rogues can freely open any chest or lockbox they have the skill for. In this leveling guide, we’ll cover the best places to level up Lockpicking from 1-400 in WoW Classic. But first, we’ll go over some general tips to help you through the process.

Popular Destinations..

World of Warcraft Waystone | Navigation Page

World of Warcraft: News, Events, Patch Notes

Guide to Leveling Up Lockpicking in WoW Classic

Let’s get started.

The Lockpicking Skill

There are no Lockpicking trainers in WoW. The Pick Lock ability can be learned through your rogue trainer at level 16. They will give you a quest that will get you started with Lockpicking, including a free set of Thieves’ Tools, which you must have in your inventory any time you want to use the skill.

The maximum Lockpicking skill you can have at any given time is five times your level. For example, at level 50, your Lockpicking skill caps out at 250. At level 80, it caps out at 400 (lower than other profession skills, which go to 450). Your current Lockpicking level will appear in the Skills tab of your character frame like any other skill.

There are two ways that you can use your Pick Lock ability in the game. To use it on a locked chest or door in the world, you can simply right-click the object, and you will use the ability automatically if you have a high enough skill level.

The other way to is to use the Pick Lock ability on lockboxes that you can Pick Pocket from humanoid enemies (or ones that on rare occasions drop from enemies). Simply activate the Pick Lock ability and then click on the box in your inventory. Another player can even have you lockpick their box by placing the lockbox in the “Will not be traded” section of a trade window and having you use your ability on it.

We suggest having the Pick Lock ability on one of your side action bars, so you don’t have to go digging through your spell book every time.

Items & Glyphs for Leveling Lockpicking

• Dark Leather Gloves are craftable by Leatherworking and offer a five point increase to Lockpicking. They are the only item in the game that gives a Lockpicking skill bonus.
• Glyph of Pick Lock is a minor glyph that you can pick up as early as level 16. It makes your Pick Lock ability instant, which will significantly speed up the leveling process.
• Glyph of Pick Pocket is another minor glyph that can be somewhat useful for this process, increasing the distance from which you can Pick Pocket lockboxes from enemies. It’s not as good as Glyph of Pick Lock, but still nice to have.

Pick Pocket Macros

Macroing Pick Pocket to your other stealth abilities can make it easy to get that sweet bonus loot without even trying.

Here’s a macro to use with your Sap ability, so you can pick your target’s pocket and take them out of commission at the same time:

#showtooltip Sap
/cast Sap
/cast Pick Pocket

And here’s one for Ambush, which you can replace with any ability you want to use as your opener. This will automatically pick your target’s pocket before you jump out and attack them:

#showtooltip Ambush
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast Ambush

And here’s one that will automatically target a new enemy, pick their pocket, and untarget them, allowing you to safely spam your Pick Pocket ability on anyone nearby:

#showtooltip Pick Pocket
/targetenemy [no harm][dead]
/cast Pick Pocket
/cleartarget

Lockboxes and Junkboxes

The quickest and easiest way to level Lockpicking in WoW Classic is by opening lockboxes. You can collect them while doing other activities such as fishing or leveling alts, or you can get them from other players. As far as farming them, there are three different sources they drop from:

• Junkboxes are obtained primarily by using your Pick Pocket skill
• Lockboxes are random drop from enemies
• Locked Chests can be caught by fishing, mainly in pools of floating wreckage

Here’s a table of all the boxes you can unlock along with their required Lockpicking level.

Footlockers and Chests

If you don’t have a lot of lockboxes lying around (or gold to buy them), the next best method for leveling your Lockpicking skill is by opening locked chests in the world. There are two types of chests:

• Footlockers are found out in the open world
• Chests are found inside dungeons

Here’s a table of all the chests you can unlock along with their required Lockpicking level.

Dungeon Doors

For completeness, there are also some doors you can unlock that will give you a Lockpicking level. This isn’t a very effective way to level and you won’t get any loot out of it like you will with lockboxes or chests. Most of these doors are located inside dungeons.

Here’s a table of all the doors you can unlock along with their required Lockpicking level.

Best Places to Level Lockpicking in WoW Classic

Putting it all together, you should first focus on unlocking any lockboxes you have lying around or are able to purchase for a decent price. If there aren’t any on hand, here’s where we recommend to go for each level range:

Alliance Level 1-100: Open Practice Lockboxes north of Lake Everstill in Redridge Mountains.

Horde level 1-100: Open Buccaneer’s Strongboxes near Ratchet in The Barrens.

Note: The following locations’ lockboxes do not respawn as quickly as the two starting locations above. If you don’t have the patience to wait around, we suggest focusing on Pick Pocketing lockboxes from enemies.

Level 100-150: Open Waterlogged Footlockers along Zoram Strand in Ashenvale.

Level 150-200: Open Battered Footlockers and Dented Footlockers around Angor Fortress in Badlands.

Level 200-250: Open Dented Footlockers in The Slag Pit in Searing Gorge. You can also Pick Pocket enemies in the area for junkboxes.

Level 250-300: Open the doors in the Blackrock Depths dungeon. You can also Pick Pocket enemies in the dungeon for junkboxes.

Level 300-350: Open Wicker Chests in Feralfen Village in Zangarmarsh.

Level 350-385: Open Dented Footlockers in Kil’sorrow Fortress in Nagrand.

Level 385-400: Open Scarlet Onslaught Trunks at Onslaught Harbor in Icecrown.

Join the High Ground

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this guide has helped you with leveling up your Lockpicking in WoW Classic. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, and be sure to subscribe to High Ground for more useful guides!

Happy gaming!