So this relates to the pickpocketing ability and level scaling. This is not about what the results from pickpocketing can yield, but instead how pickpocketing doesn’t interact well with level scaling for the content around it.
So first lets talk about it, pick pocket as an ability is level 24.
Griftah in both Warlords of Draenor and Legion has content and quests that relate to pickpocketing and can be accepted at level 10 due to the new shadowlands scaling. Which while you can accept the quests, you can’t actually do these quests until your level 24and learn this ability. You can actually get a decent chunk into either questline until you are asked to actually pickpockets.
In addition it is possible to research and craft the Glyph of Disguise which allows you to take on the appearence of what you pickpocket for 5 minutes. This is possible because while at level 10 you can’t enter zones like Ul’dum, you can however enter Tol Barad at level 10, hop in the river and farm the herbs there till you successfully research it. In addition the Glyph of Disguise has a min level requirement of 11 to be able to use it, but you can’t apply this glyph until your level 24 when you learn that ability.
Just figured I would share experiences/observations I made.
It really feels that pickpocket hasn’t been loved since the Legion gold reward might have been tuned too high. It’s a sore topic for me, and I’m a loud shrieker about it. To me, Pickpocket is Rogue. (Backstab too.) And I find myself hoping for someone in dev to realize it too.
Ty both. It is rather sad that rogue has ended up in this state. I remember I would used to spend entire evenings just picking pockets and treating WoW like a stealth game. Would do this on classic as well, using an addon to just track gold accumulated as a sort of high score feature.
Anyway, I’ve decided to publish a bit more of my observations in this post.
This relates more to the lockpicking side, as in the past you would normally get pickpocket first then lockpicking. As of the current build of the game, you get lockpicking at level 14.
The main usage for this would be open world locked chests and instanced content involving locked doors and/or chests.
Since a rogue can’t learn to pickpocket and get access to a potentially higher percenatge of lockboxes, what would be the lockboxes they could obtain based on the shadowlands scaling?
Well from what I compiled based on drop rate and a range of 1-23 for when looting the corpse of a mob while leveling:
[Lv10] Ornate Bronze Lockbox (0.7 to 0.02% instanced, or 0.4 to 0.02% open world)
[Lv11] Heavy Bronze Lockbox (2 to 0.08% instanced, or 0.15 to 0.07% open world)
[Lv13] Iron Lockbox (1.2 to 0.09% instanced, 0.3 to 0.15% open world)
[Lv15] Strong Iron Lockbox (1.9 to 0.09% instanced, 0% open world)
[Lv 17] Steel Lockbox (2 to 0.09% instanced, 0% open world)
[Lv 20] Reinforced Steel Lockbox (0.5 to 0.12% instanced, 0.11% open world)
The last one at 0.11% for a Reinforced Steel Lockbox is from the Sewer Beast rare located in Stormwind in the open world.
And to be honest, lockpicking (lv14) and pickpocketing (lv24) need to trade places.
I actually picked up a second copy of Mark of the Ninja and started the game Styx as well, just because I couldn’t find this in WoW anymore.
Every playthrough of Skyrim is max thievery and Thieves Guild full clear on priority. IDK what’s wrong with me, but that gameplay is very compelling to me too.
Mark of the Ninja though is a great recommendation, if you haven’t checked it out already.
I strongly recommend a mouseover pickpocket macro, if you haven’t already. It makes pickpocketing so much cleaner!
