World of Roguecraft

The following is a compilation of Lock picking information that I have modified and updated but was gathered by Laenis, Tyknee, and the Rogues on the World of Warcraft forums.

Q. How do I get the skill lock picking?
A. A rogue trainer (a major city one) will give you a quest at level 16 that gets you thief tools (for free) and teaches you the skill.

Q. Okay, I have the quest, but my skill is super low I can't complete the quest, what now?
A. In the same area as your lock picking quest, there should be some chests you can level up on. These chests are orange at skill level 1 (see below for color explanation) and don't go grey until about 100. Also, see down below for a 1-300 skill up guide.

Q. What do these colors mean? Red? Orange? Grey? I'm colorblind!
A. Every lock you pick has a 'skill level'. Just like with trade skill items, they are color coded.

Red = can't pick the lock at your skill level
Orange = guaranteed skill up
Yellow = good chance for skill up
Green = low chance for skill up
Grey = no chance for skill up

Note:
There is a list down below for commonly found items and their skill up numbers in reference to lock difficulty.

Q. Do I have to visit a trainer to get journeyman/artisan/safecracker rank in Lock picking?
A. You don't. Your skill scales with level: every level you gain as a rogue translates into 5 extra points to your lock picking cap.

Lock picking Guide from 1-300
1-100 - Keep picking the instant respawn chests near the lock picking quest.

100-175 - You can pick the Polly quest chest (Horde LP Quest chest), OR you can use either of the chests in the Poison quests (Alliance OR Horde) you get at later levels. You will have to click on your lock picking skill first before clicking on the chest.

For the Polly/Poison Tower chests: You NEED to activate (CLICK) your lock picking skill icon first, then (CLICK) on the chest as your cursor will NOT change automatically like it did during the quest or before it.

175-225 - Pickpocket mobs for Sturdy Junk boxes. Several mobs drop them, check thottbot and pick the best location for you. I recommend mobs in instances, that way you can pick it clean, reset the instance, and then go to town again. You can also pick doors in instances at this range. I personally picked the door in the Scarlet Monastery cathedral from 180-225 in a single day by repeatedly resetting the instance.

225-280 - There is no real easy way that I've found to skill this range other than to keep doing junk boxes. You can use the gates in the NE corner of Searing Gorge, but there is no reliable way to reset them (see notes below for more information). Also opening lockboxes in your faction's major city will get you skill ups.

280-300 - There are 3 doors in Blackrock Depths that are very close to the zone in that you can use to skill up this.

Trivial list
If your skill is lower than "orange" number, you won't be able to pick the lock (It won't even let you try). If your skill is higher than the "grey" number, you won't get a skill up from that item. A "?" marks information that might be wrong, multiple "???" mark missing information.

Stuff from pick pocketing:

Battered Junk box (Orange: 25? Green: ??? Grey: 100?)
Worn Junk box (Orange: 100? Green: ??? Grey: 175)
Sturdy Junk box (Orange: 175 Green: ??? Grey: 275?)
Heavy Junk box (Orange: 250 Green: ??? Grey: never?)

Dropped Chests - These are extremely random, so don't try to camp them.

Heavy Bronze Lockbox (Orange: 50? Green: 75? Grey: ???)
Ornate Bronze Lockbox (Orange: 75? Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Iron Lockbox (Orange: 75? Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Strong Iron Lockbox (Orange: 125 Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Steel Lockbox (Orange: 175 Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Reinforced Steel Lockbox (Orange: 225 Green: ??? Grey: never)
Mithril Lockbox (Orange: 225 Green: ??? Grey: never)
Thorium Lockbox (Orange: 225 Green: ??? Grey: never)
Eternium Lockbox (Orange: 225 Green: ??? Grey: never)

Doors:

Doors in the normal world (not in instances) are usually on some sort of timer. In other words, you can't repeatedly pick the same door over and over again for skill ups. The mechanism of the timers is not well known. Some people say if you pick something else (anything else) in-between attempts that it will reset some timers. Others say that if you pickpocket a mob, or kill a mob, or so something else, that this will reset the timers. It may be different for every door. Suffice to say that reset an instance always (to my knowledge) resets any doors inside, so use that method when you can. I am leaning towards the pickpocket theory for now.

Gnomeregan (Orange: 150? Green: 200 Grey: ???)
Scarlet Monastery (Orange: 175 Green: 226 Grey: 275?)
Searing Gorge Gate (Orange: 225 Green: ??? Grey: never)
BRD Shadowforge Gates (Orange: 280 Green: never? Grey: never)
BRD Prison Cells (Orange: 250 Green: never? Grey: never)
Scholomance (Orange: 280 Green: never? Grey: never)
Dire Maul (Orange: 300 Green: never Grey: never)

From Fishing:

Battered Chest (Orange: ??? Green: ??? Gray: ???)
Small Locked Chest (Orange: ??? Green: ??? Gray: ???)
Reinforced Locked Chest (Orange: ??? Green: ??? Gray: ???)
Sturdy Locked Chest (Orange: ??? Green: ??? Gray: ???)
Ironbound Locked Chest (Orange: 175 Grey: 250?)

Footlockers:

A number of areas in the world have footlockers in them. These areas are in place for rogues to visit to increase their lock picking skills. The contents of these footlockers are only token amounts of treasure, but they should allow for a more interesting experience while increasing lock picking skill. The difficulty of the locks in the area corresponds to the level of the zone, so if your lock picking skill is around 100, you would go to Durnholde Keep in Hillsbrad. But if your skill is 250, you might head to Tyr's Hand in Eastern Plaguelands.

Hillsbrad Foothills - Durnholde Keep (Orange: 100? Green: 130? Grey: ???)
Redridge Mountains - Lake Everstill (Orange: 100? Green: 130? Grey: ???)
Ashenvale Forest - Zoram Strand (Orange: 100? Green: 130? Grey: ???)
Stonetalon Mountains - Windshear Crag and Associated Mines (Orange: 100? Green: 130? Grey: ???)
Wetlands - Murloc Camps (Orange: 130? Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Desolace - Sar'theris Strand (Orange: 150? Green: 200? Grey: ???)
Badlands - Angor Fortress (Orange: 180? Green: 230? Grey: ???)
Swamp of Sorrows - Pool of Tears (Orange: ??? Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Searing Gorge - The Slag Pit (Orange: ??? Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Tanaris Desert - Lost Rigger Cove (Orange: 225 Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Azshara - Bay of Storms (Orange: ??? Green: ??? Grey: ???)
Eastern Plaguelands - Tyr's Hand (elite) Orange: 250? Green: ??? Grey: never)

Other Stuff:

Most of the following are chests used in quests that you can pick after you complete the quest. (See note below for all of the following.)

Instant respawn chests from respective lock picking quests (Orange: 1 Green: ??? Grey: 105)
Main chest in lock picking quest (Orange: 75 Green: ??? Grey: 175)
Poison quest chest (Orange: 90 Green: ??? Grey: 175)
Polly chest (Orange: 90 Green: ??? Grey: 175) (*See note below)
Engineered Practice Locks (Orange: never Green: 1 Grey: 90?) (You can only pick these ONCE, so they are WORTHLESS)
Cozzle's Lockbox (house by the Venture Co. STV, it's on a ~20m timer) (Orange: 150? Green: ??? Grey: 250?)

Notes:

1.You will probably need to activate your picking skill first, then click on the item as your cursor will not change automatically like it did during the quest or before it.

2. Links for lock picking quests with respective insta-chests:
Alliance:

http://thottbot.com/?q=1165
Horde:

http://thottbot.com/?q=799

List of things that increase Lock picking:

Dark Leather Gloves (+5 LP)

Various notes and other information:

1. Alliance rogues using the Klaven's Tower (Poison quest) chest: I just did this at 39, go to Westfall to where the poison quest is at, top floor, Klaven can take me down to half health at 39 if I don't dual-ambush so he kind of hurts. Hopefully you can also be outside his agro range to practice. To do this just go behind his table (after he spawns he walks around the top of the tower, wait until he is done and ends up a bit away from you), there should be two chairs, jump over the chair closest to the chest and from behind the chair pick the lock. Don't worry about Touch of Zanzil: a death or Jungle Remedy from STV or cure poison from a high enough player should make it all good.

Note: You must be of a high enough level not to agro Klaven!

2. You can skill up eight times on the doors to SM, there are four doors, two inside the instances and two outside. They are on timers which can be reset. (See confirmed information above)

Library: Chest in a cubby before the Gallery of Treasures, guarded by 3 mobs. Another chest that spawns in one of the hallways close to Doan himself, guarded by typically 2 mobs + one roamer.

Armory: Chest either in the Training Grounds (guarded by 2 mobs + 1 roamer) or inside the first part of the armory (guarded by 2 mobs + 1 roamer.) I can't remember location of other chest off the top of my head.

Cathedral: Chest on either the left or right side of the fountain. Another chest that spawns either by the monk guarding Fairbanks' hiding spot, or spawns on the other side of the cathedral (guarded by 3 mobs + 2 that roam close and may agro.)

Note:
Only about half of the above mentioned chests can be picked and are trivial at 175.

5. South of Ratchet along the coast a short way is a beached pirate ship. No pirates around ship, they are camped south of it. It's a bit tricky getting the jump up onto the prow of the ship so you can get onboard, but can try repeatedly with no hassles. The chest is by itself downstairs in the back. Just keep opening it until you hit 175. No fuss, no muss and NO FIGHTS! (This is the location of the Horde lock picking quest and is in Horde controlled territory. Not recommended for Alliance characters on a PvP server).

Thanks to : Too many people to list so I thank: The WoW Rogue Board!