Rogue Hits 52, Lockpicking 260
I've learned a few interesting things while playing my Rogue up to near-Outland levels.
Lockpicking Requires Diligence
One of the big things is that Lockpicking is indeed a pain in the ass to advance in the early levels, and a Rogue who wishes to have good picking skills must be diligent about it, because it's not a skill that can be advanced "incidentally" through normal play.
My personal diligence had me, at around level 32, pickpocket a bunch of humanoids lower level than me until the boxes I picked up were either "grey" or "red" for advancement - giving zero experience or being entirely too high level to open at all.
At that point, I made my way to Zoram Strand in Ashenvale and made my first round of beach-side and underwater lockpicking. To do the Underwater bit, I quaffed an underwater breathing potion and proceeded to pick waterlogged footlockers for the next 30 minutes.
Pickpocketing in Dungeons, Pickpocketing Havens
I tried to pickpocket humanoids before sapping them for dungeon groups but found it was way too slow. Occasionally I ran around pickpocketing humanoids that were already in battle with the tank, allowing the tank to build up threat before I got into the battle. My Damage Meter stats weren't that impressive (but weren't pathetic either) but I didn't pull aggro!
Zoram Strand was my pickpocketing haven for a while - at least until I could make my way to Tanaris and pick-pocket the many groups of humanoids around there... Trolls, Ogres, Pirates - oh joy! Zul'Farrak is like heaven, because even the Zombies that come out of the graves are pick-pocketable and pocketpicking doesn't raise one's threat at all!
Guild's Box Unlocker
Once I got past 125 Lockpicking, I chose to skill up mainly through pocketpicking of junkboxes, but my guildmates did provide a few boxes they wanted opened that gave me skill-ups as well.
We don't have many high level Rogues in our casual guild, and I'm the one who is on the most regularly out of all of us. I'm happy to be able to provide more lockbox-picking services now that I can open up to and including Eternium Lockboxes!
Lockpicking Level Part Of My Sales Pitch
Since increasing the number of dungeon runs I've been doing on various toons, I've seen time and time again that the majority of Rogues don't have Lockpicking skills high enough to unlock any chests in dungeons.
Therefore, I instantly recognized that by putting efforts into keeping that skill up-to-date, I would be able to stand out from the crowd of Rogues seeking the same things I'm seeking, and getting into someone else's party or dungeon group would be easier for me as a result.
So far, so good - I get party invites when I list myself on the LFG tool and enter comments that include my lockpicking level, and they've been some pretty decent parties!
Eyes Opened to Appropriate Roguely Behavior
While I learned that Lockpicking is something I can become a top percentile in, I also had my eyes opened to a Good Reason[TM] that a Rogue may attempt to solo an elite in a dungeon party situation (as opposed to focussing fire with the group), when previously I had thought the Rogue might be trying to show off in some way:
CASTERS!
Casters can do huge damage to those wearing Plate or Mail, and if the tank of the party is already occupied and doesn't seem to see the Caster, I've learned that I can serve a great purpose to reduce healing needs for the party.
As a Rogue I can disrupt most casters successfully enough times that it takes me to take him down, and because most casters have tissue paper for armor, I am more resiliant and last longer.
Thus, the Mail and Plate wearers take less damage, the Healer needs to heal them less, but the tradeoff is that I need a bit of healing myself, and I am disregarding the kill-order.
No longer will I worry so much about the Rogue taking on its own target - but I will check to ensure it's a caster they're wailing on, because if it's a Melee mob, they ARE being a twit.
Engineering Advancements
My Priest has her hearthstone in Shattrath City, but my Rogue reset it to somewhere in Azeroth at some point and now I need to find a friend or pay a Port fee to get to Shattrath and on to Thrallmar to train up to the next level of Engineering and Mining, which I became eligable for as of level 50.
I don't look forward to how expensive it's going to be to advance Engineering, considering I don't have an active Miner that is higher level than this Rogue himself.
And eventually I might need to go back to Leatherworking with this toon for gearing concerns...
But I'll ponder on that another day, and sign off for now!