The 2 Part Ultimate Guide to Rogues.
Within this Guide are the Combined efforts of a fair few people, taken from the stickies and condensed into 2 threads. As and when it is required a third thread will be posted with any new information that may arise in the future.

Currently:
Part 1 - Starting your Rogue and Leveling
Part 2 - Advanced Rogue techniques and info



Part 1
Starting (Choosing) your Rogue and Leveling

Content:
Choosing the Race for your Rogue

Rogue 20-40 fast leveling guide

Level 60 grinding guide

Rogue Leveling Guide for The Burning Crusade

Lockpicking leveling guide

End of Part 1

Original Content by Ferius
Choosing the Race for your Rogue

Alliance

Dwarves

The stoic dwarves of Ironforge are an ancient race of robust humanoids who live beneath the snow-capped mountains of Khaz Modan. The Dwarves have always been fast allies with the Humans, and they revel in the prospects of battle and storytelling alike. In past ages, the Dwarves rarely left the safety of their mountain fortresses.
However, whenever the call to battle sounded, they rose up to defend their friends and allies with unmatched courage and valor. Due to a recent discovery that uncovered fragments of their ancient origins, the Dwarves have undergone a remarkable transformation. The discovery convinced the Dwarves that the mighty Titans created them from stone when the world was young. They feel that their destiny is now to search the world over for more signs and proof of their enchanted heritage and to rediscover the Titans' hidden legacies. To this end, the Dwarves have sent out their Prospectors to all ends of the world in the hopes of discovering new insight into their shrouded past.
These journeys led to Dwarven excavation sites all over the known world, some of which serve as outposts and some of which serve as potential hunting grounds for enemies of the Dwarven race.


Start Location: Dun Morogh
Home City: Ironforge
Racial Mount: Rams


Starting Stats:

23 Strength, 19 Agility, 24 Stamina, 19 Intellect, 19 Spirit, 40 Armor, 85 Health


Racials:



This racial for a rogue can be VERY very nice. It basically lets you remove bleed effects and poisons at your own whim, including enemy rogue Blind while blinded. This allows you to remove things such as Rupture, Deep Wounds and Rend in order to restealth without worrying about being brought out by the DoT damage.

Also helps clear Devouring Plauge.


This is pretty much an irrelevant racial for you as a Rogue.



Not a huge deal, since 10 Resistance isn't much, however its a microscopical advantage against Hunters traps and Mages.



Finding treasure! Its a cute thing to have indeed, but nothing to base your race choice on.

Pictures:

Male Dwarf Rogue

[url=http://]Female Dwarf Rogue[/url]
<coming soon>

Videos:

Male Dwarf Rogue

Female Dwarf Rogue

Gnomes

The eccentric, often brilliant Gnomes are one of the most peculiar races of the world. With their obsession for developing radical new technologies and constructing marvels of mind-bending engineering, it's a wonder that any Gnomes have survived to propagate the species.
Thriving within the wondrous techno-city of Gnomeregan, the Gnomes shared the resources of the forested Dun Morogh Peaks with their Dwarven cousins. Though the dwarves of Ironforge also have a propensity for technology and engineering, it is the gnomes who provide the critical, visionary designs for most of the dwarves' weapons and steam vehicles.
The Gnomes served the Alliance well during the Second War, but strangely, they refused to send any personnel to aid their allies during the Burning Legion's recent invasion. Though their designs helped turn the tide against the Legion, the Dwarves and Humans were shocked by the Gnomes' decision to withhold their courageous troops and pilots.
When the war ended, the Alliance discovered the reason for the Gnomes' sudden withdrawal. Apparently, an ancient, barbaric menace had risen from the bowels of the earth and invaded Gnomeregan. Knowing that their allies' priority was defeating the Burning Legion, the Gnomes decided to make their stand alone. Though they fought valiantly to save their beloved city, Gnomeregan was irrevocably lost.
Nearly half of the Gnomish race was wiped out during the fall of Gnomeregan. The ragged Gnomes that survived fled to the safety of the Dwarves' stronghold of Ironforge. Committed once again to the Alliance's cause, the Gnomes spend their time devising strategies and weapons that will help them retake their ravaged city and build a brighter future for their people.


Start Location: Dun Morogh
Home City: Ironforge
Racial Mount: Mechanostrider


Starting Stats:

16 Strength, 26 Agility, 20 Stamina, 24 Intellect, 20 Spirit, 54 Armor, 45 Health


Racials:



This racial is a powerhouse. It removes, among other things, Hamstring, Crippling poison, Wingclip, Frost Nova and Frostbolt slowing effect. For a rogue, this racial is very strong, meaning that you can save your vanish/clos/impsprint for a later time instead of using it on a slow.




For a rogue, this is pretty much an irrelevant racial.




Microscopical chance of resisting that dreadful Sheep! Very ignoreable racial.




Well if you are an engineer, you stay 15 points ahead. Nothing special here either.

Pictures:

[url=http://]Male Gnome Rogue[/url]
<coming soon>

Female Gnome Rogue

Videos:

Male Gnome Rogue

Female Gnome Rogue

Humans

The Humans of Stormwind are a resilient breed, having survived an invasion by the savage Orcs during the First War. During the Second War, the armies of Stormwind rallied with the Alliance to reclaim their homeland of Azeroth. After the success of the Second War, Stormwind was rebuilt and Human civilization began to flourish once again throughout the southlands. With the recent invasion of the Burning Legion - which left the northern kingdom of Lordaeron in ruins - Stormwind now stands as the last bastion of human civilization. Following the heroic examples of the legendary Sir Lothar and King Llane, the defenders of Stormwind are considered to be among the fiercest warriors in the land. They stand resolute in their charge to maintain the honor and might of humanity in an ever-darkening world.


Start Location: Elwynn Forest
Home City: Stormwind
Racial Mount: Horses


Starting Stats:

21 Strength, 23 Agility, 21 Stamina, 20 Intellect, 21 Spirit, 48 Armor, 55 Health


Racials:



This is a nice talent for when you enter locations where you suspect stealthers would be, like for instance around nodes in Battlegrounds, or in Arenas. And as a rogue, you remain stealthed while using it, making you detect them, but staying undetected yourself.




Not a big deal for a rogue, it does help the health regen a tiny bit. Nothing noticeable.




This is a great racial no matter your class selection. Reputation gain is quite important in this game, as it leads to great rewards most of the time. Definately a worthy racial.






Both of these used to be very strong, until Weapon Skill was changed. Nowadays this racial, while being a small boost in PvE, isn't as strong as it once was.

Pictures:

Male Human Rogue

Female Human Rogue

Videos:

Male Human Rogue

Female Human Rogue


Night Elves

The reclusive Night Elves were the first race to awaken in the World of Warcraft. These shadowy, immortal beings were the first to study magic and let it loose throughout the world nearly ten thousand years before Warcraft I. The Night Elves' reckless use of magic drew the Burning Legion into the world and led to a catastrophic war between the two titanic races. The Night Elves barely managed to banish the Legion from the world, but their wondrous homeland was shattered and drowned by the sea.
Until recently, the Night Elves closed themselves off from the rest of the world and remained hidden atop their holy mountain of Hyjal for many thousands of years. The Legion's invasion brought the Night Elves out of their long period of slumber. They now have renewed interest in shaping the world, and for the first time are allying themselves with other races to insure the continued survival of Azeroth.
As a race, Night Elves are typically honorable and just, but they are very distrusting of the 'lesser races' of the world. They are nocturnal by nature and their shadowy powers often elicit the same distrust that they have for their mortal neighbors.


Start Location: Teldrassil
Home City: Darnassus
Racial Mount: Nightsabers


Starting Stats:

18 Strength, 28 Agility, 20 Stamina, 20 Intellect, 20 Spirit, 58 Armor, 45 Health


Racials:



For a rogue, this actually double as a passive +1 Stealth level racial. To put this into perspective for you, 1 talent point in Master of Deception equals 3 points of Stealth, while this racial grants you 5 points of Stealth.

In addition, Shadowmeld can be used in its active form to stealth prematurely while waiting for your Stealth cooldown.




Very insignificant racial, but nice none the less. Dodge is always a nice thing to have.




Very very soothing when youre wiping on a boss in an instance alot and have to corpserun, and while PvPing to get a headstart over others for resurrecting.




As all the other Resistance talents, the protection it grants at lvl70 is minimal.

Pictures:

Male Night Elf Rogue

Female Night Elf Rogue

Videos:

Male Night Elf Rogue

Female Night Elf Rogue

Horde

Blood Elves

For nearly seven thousand years, the high elves cultivated a shining magical kingdom deep within the forests of northern Lordaeron. But five years ago, the undead Scourge invaded Quel'Thalas and drove the elves to the brink of extinction. Led by the evil death knight Arthas, the Scourge destroyed the mystical Sunwell, thereby severing the elves from the source of their arcane power. Though the scars of that conflict are evident, the remaining elves have banded together and retaken much of their homeland. Calling themselves "blood elves", these grim survivors are committed to regaining the vast powers they once commanded.
Inspired by the leadership of their beloved prince, Kael'thas Sunstrider, the blood elves now seek out new sources of arcane magic and the means of defending their land against the undying horrors of the Scourge.


Start Location: Eversong Forest
Home City: Silvermoon City
Racial Mount: Hawkstrider


Starting Stats:

18 Strength, 25 Agility, 19 Stamina, 24 Intellect, 19 Spirit, 54 Armor, 100 Health


Racials:



Obviously only beneficial if you are an enchanter.




This obviously does not apply to you as a rogue.




This is, as it says, an instant AOE silence effect. Used properly this can be VERY powerful. There is no Deathcoil if the Warlock is silenced . Very nice racial, especially if you take the time to Mana Tap for the energyboost it grants you.




I can only repeat myself here: resist racials have no real impact due to the small boost they give.




Obviously a nice way to stack for the energy gain given once you release the Mana Taps during Arcane Torrent.

Pictures:

[url=http://]Male Blood Elf Rogue[/url]
<coming soon>

[url=http://]Female Blood Elf Rogue[/url]
<coming soon>

Videos:

[url=http://]Male Blood Elf Rogue[/url]
<coming soon>

[url=http://]Female Blood Elf Rogue[/url]
<coming soon>

Orcs

The savage, green-skinned Orcs are one of the most prolific races of Azeroth. They are commonly believed to be brutal and mindless, possessing no humanity or empathy for other races. Born on the hellish world of Draenor, the Orcs were brought into the kingdom of Stormwind through the dimensional gateway known as the Dark Portal and manipulated into waging war on the Humans.
Although few are aware of their history, the Orcs once cultivated a noble, Shamanistic society on the world of Draenor. Tragically, the proud Orc clans were corrupted by the Burning Legion and used as pawns in the Legion's invasion of Azeroth. The Orcs managed to rebel, however, and they were ultimately able to help turn the tide against their demon masters.
Led by the young Warchief, Thrall, the Orcs have reclaimed their strength and honor. Now, the Orcs stand ready to fight not for the sake of conquest, but for their right to survive in their adopted world.


Start Location: Durotar
Home City: Orgrimmar
Racial Mount: Wolves


Starting Stats:

24 Strength, 20 Agility, 23 Stamina, 17 Intellect, 23 Spirit, 42 Armor, 75 Health


Racials:



This one... is nice. It basically lets you powerup your attacks without needing a trinket for it. For a rogue, this is a very nice racial indeed.




Now this is yet another great racial. 15% chance to resist stun effects makes other rogues cry in their sleep, makes Paladins find their happy place, and makes you feel like making love explosion in pants. Very cute racial, this is, especially if you combine it with the talent Nerves of Steel in the Combat tree, boosting the resist by yet another 10%.




Well as a rogue, you don't have a pet. Useless for you.




Since rogues can't use axes, this is also an ignorable racial.

Pictures:

Male Orc Rogue

Female Orc Rogue

Videos:

Male Orc Rogue

[url=http://]Female Orc Rogue[/url]
<coming soon>

Trolls

The vicious Jungle Trolls, who populate the numerous islands of the South Seas, are renowned for their cruelty and dark mysticism. Barbarous and superstitious, the wily Trolls carry a seething hatred for all other races.
One tribe, however, was forced to overcome its prejudices when it encountered the Orc Warchief, Thrall, and his mighty Horde. The Trolls of the Darkspear tribe, long since exiled from their ancestral lands in Stranglethorn Vale, were nearly destroyed by a band of aquatic Murlocs, but Thrall and the Horde managed to save them. In return the grateful Trolls swore an oath of eternal allegiance to the Horde.
Led by the cunning Shadow Hunter, Vol'jin, the Darkspear Trolls now make their home in Durotar along with their Orcish allies. Their village, named after their fallen tribal elder, Sen'jin, lies along the eastern coast of the harsh, rocky land. The Darkspear tribe also occupies tracks within the nearby jungles of the Echo Isles.
As part of the Horde, the Trolls have extended their loyalty to the mighty Tauren, but they have little trust for the manipulative Forsaken, whom they believe will visit only misery and strife upon their allies.


Start Location: Durotar
Home City: Orgrimmar
Racial Mount: Raptors


Starting Stats:

22 Strength, 25 Agility, 22 Stamina, 16 Intellect, 21 Spirit, 49 Armor, 52 Health


Racials:



Again, resistance racials have an ignoreable impact on the game.

Pictures:

Male Undead Rogue

Female Undead Rogue

Videos:

Male Undead Rogue

Female Undead Rogue

Original Content By Mistopheles
Rogue 1-40 guide

Foreword:
This is a strategy and grind area guide, it doesn't cover many quests for various reasons. I know that questing can be a lot faster than grinding, but grinding is incredibly reliable, more profitable and more mindless, which are things a lot of people are looking for. If you want to know how to quest fast then check Joana's Horde Leveling guide out (it'll cost you, but it's worth it), or one of the many free guides out there.

This guide is written from a Horde player’s perspective, if you play alliance then take that into consideration and I'm sorry.

1-12
These levels are simple if you know how, and even with a minimum amount of skill and focus can be blitzed in, relatively speaking, seconds. You should be around level 12 when you finish the quests in your second town (the one with the mounts in, Brill for Undead, for example.). The key is to stack the quests you get given and then hand them all in at once, only returning to train, and to throw away meat and suchlike if you run out of space. The Blood Elf and Draenei areas are more coherent and faster areas from my experience.

12-20
I highly recommend going to The Barrens at this point if you’re not already there, it’s an amazing place to level. Use this!: http://www.wow-pro.com/node/660 This guide is incredibly good, running you through all of the quests and basic strategies step by step in a very new player friendly fashion, and is also extremely fast and efficient. However, I wouldn't recommend doing the Ashenvale run, it's slow for the XP. This guide ends you at level 20, at which point you can do The Wailing Caverns, aka the Labyrinth of Ultimate Boredom. The quest reward sword and the mace (if it drops) are excellent to dual wield, and your damage output at level 21 or so, which you will be by the time you get hold of them, will be phenomenal for your level.

Professions

Primary professions slow your leveling down. I'm sorry, but they do. If you really want to level quickly then don't bother with them, you can get 300 (or 375) mining/skinning/herbalism in a day with ease with a high level character. Thanks to lockboxes dropping loads of blinding powder and the thistle tea nerf, herbalism is no longer as much of an asset as it was. All gathering professions will make you cash, high level engineering/weaponsmithing etc is something to think about when you hit 70, in my opinion.

Secondary professions include cooking, fishing, cleaning and first aid. Cleaning has been hit with the nerf bat pretty heavily so I'd advise against it unless you want to spend all your hard earned cash on refreshing spring water and bleach. Fishing and cooking are time consuming and relatively useless.

First aid is amazingly good, as I'm sure you know. One of the biggest things I don't see people do is level their first aid as much as they can afford to and then get a friend or an alt to make them high level bandages. Go for Runecloth (not Heavy), it makes downtime nothing and additional mobs a joke. Concentrate on killing the first mob while your health diminishes, then gouge the second one and bandage. Two or three ticks is more than enough to ensure the infidel's death.

Bags, buy full 12 or 14 slot bags as soon as you can. If this character is an alt then you’ll be able to pick them up very soon, and otherwise you’ll be able to when the money kicks in.

Talent builds
This is a tricky one, but with rogues you can’t really go wrong as long as you get a few, core talents. I’ll explain what I went with and why, I’m sure everyone will have their variations but just hear me out and decide. In my opinion, the first four talents are a must for any serious leveler. (Note: This is chronological)

Improved sinister strike – 2/2
This is your bread and butter skill, and the big difference is that when it costs 40 energy, you get 3 off in rapid succession. 100 energy + 1 tick (2 seconds) = 120, = 3 sinister strikes. At early levels enemies generally go down before you hit the fourth or sometimes third one, depending on what level creeps you’re grinding, so this is vital for maximising your dps.

Remorseless attacks – 2/2
As at low levels the mobs die so darn quickly, 40% more crit with your first sinister strike is pretty huge, and you’ll really feel the difference. I also found that with this skill I feel a bit more pressured to get onto the next mob, so I concentrate a little more, and hey, who doesn’t like crits here?

Malice – 5/5
More crits, big dps increase. Every rogue gets this at some point, I like it early.

Improved Eviscerate – 3/3
More eviscerate damage. You can also opt to get Murder 2/2 and 1 in this, it’s your choice. A lot of the time you don’t need eviscerate early on, and there are the dry couple of levels before you improve it where it just plain sucks. Ruthlessness is NOT a useful talent for grinding 20-40, steer clear of it. You should be using at max one finishing move per fight.

Relentless Strikes – 1/1
This talent owns you. As this build is great for grinding green humanoids, especially ones in cloth, you destroy the enemy incredibly quickly with a few sinister strikes (with the probable crit) and probably a 3 point eviscerate, shift click or quick loot -> next.

Lethality – 5/5
This skill adds to that big burst of damage before your energy runs out. With Remorselessness, Malice and good agility gear you’re pretty much guaranteed a crit every fight, and this adds extra damage to those babies.

At this point some people respec to combat to pick up dual wield specialisation
Personally I've never experienced combat without 5% crit, 2/2 remorseless attacks and relentless strikes. If it's worth it then fair enough. I also dislike having to invest in a weapon specilisation when you're never sure where your next weapon is coming from. A simple breakdown:

Sword spec is heavily reliant upon both weapons being swords (and also your main hand should be slow and your offhand fast, which can be tricky)
Fist spec is great but there are very very few fist weapons early on.
Dagger spec won't apply to your main hand and as a result is completely worthless.
Mace spec reduces downtime but is reliant for effectiveness upon both weapons being maces. Stun doesn't increase xp/hour as much as damage, the reduction in downtime isn't very noticable.

However, Blade Flurry is great for quests and for those pesky adds, and it's well worth a point invested.

General gear guides: (Yes, at some point we’ll get onto the grind areas, but this is a general guide. Feel free to skip it if you think you know best)

Rule number 1: Gear isn't that much of a big deal. Seriously, it isn't. Your main hand weapon should be the only thing you worry about at night, not the fact you have 5 less agility on your bracers than your friend does. It all adds up, but at the end of the day you still have a lot of base damage simply from your skills and poisons. Eviscerate doesn't scale very much with damage (although it does with crit, but that mostly comes from talents at low levels), SS has builtin damage and poisons only rely on weapon speed and hit rate.

Rule number 2: Stats to look for on items: Agility, attack power and stamina are your friends. Strength is ok, everything else is rubbish. Resistances, spirit and intellect aren't doing you any favours. (note: procs, hit rate and crit rate are fine, but you won't see many of these at low levels).

The Auction House (AH): Logout and check your level 1 alt in town for leather and weapons. Bid on things you want for later, you get them cheaper and if/when you win them you’ll have something to drive for, which is very satisfying. There’s nothing worse than hitting an odd level, realising you get no more skills, no more gear and the talent you just put in gives you “1% extra dodge chance”. Woot. Buyout items which are a reasonable gear increase right now or that you really want later and can’t be bothered with losing.

Also, try to pick up the following: Agility potions or scrolls; Strength potions or scrolls; Armour potions or scrolls; Troll’s blood potions; Armour kits. These will all be very, very useful for helping maximise damage and minimise downtime. Remember : you won’t get any snacky gear from instances if you don’t run them, so stock up on good blues when you can. A couple of pieces of armour that served me well were:
Swampwalker Boots (20-25g).
Wolffear Harness (25-30g).
Ring of the UNderwood is also very nice.
The Butcher I got it for 20g which I thought was a bargain, considering it’s basically a perfect weapon. 2.8 Attack speed with main increase in agility? You’re joking, right? (Plus it looks pimped out)

Remember, you want a fast offhand for poison application and spell disruption and a slow main hand for extra sinister strike damage and therefore overall damage output. Howling Blade served me well in my offhand for a while, but any fast dagger with +agility, AP or stamina from the AH is perfectly fine, even if its damage sucks. Instant poison >

Never return to town purely to auction things and "say hi" to friends. Buy enough poison stuff and you should only go back every even level for training. Send all of your saleable items to an alt standing by the Mailbox in Org (or wherever), it’s a lot faster that way and easier to stay focused, which is key.

Coffee, music, R&R: Being awake enough to play but asleep enough not to die of boredom is a fine, fine line to gain mastery of. I like Radio Nova http://www.novaplanet.com/ when I can’t be assed to make my own playlists and when shuffle is killing me. Don’t chat if you want to get levels. It loses you huge amounts of xp, you should always be doing something. If the grind is really killing you, kick it back with a couple of quests, do some PVP or an instance, play an alt or log off. I think having a level 19 character is a good way to chill for a bit, it’s simple stuff, easy to get a character there and always good for a game when your character is in the very low tier of the current PvP bracket. I’m not talking about a twinked character, just one with standard/good gear for their level. No expensive enchants, assassin’s blades or what have you, just some good clean fun.

OK. Excellent. Groovy. Anyone still reading now must be hardcore enough to actually do this grind. I’ll just list some strategies before I get into good areas, as areas are something that are widely available to find and widely disuputed, and I’ll only be talking about a few of those, wheras strategy is key. Also, I recommend Titan Bar for its gold/hour, exp/hour and general coolness.

For those of you used to seeing rogues running around with daggers and planting it firmly and squarely in peoples’ backs, this is not the way to go. The time spent sneaking up on an opponent, even with ambush/weapon switch into swords, isn’t worth it, and having to gouge your opponent to get a backstab off is incredibly time, energy and damage/second inefficient. A slow sword and sinister strike ftw.

Technique: Early on, 20-23 especially, you don’t really want to use eviscerate at all. Sinister Strike (SS) does way more damage if you have the right weapon, until you have 4 or 5 combo points, by which time the enemy is dead, especially if you hit a crit. Run up, mash sinister strike, loot and move on. Eviscerate (EV) levels at 24, but it still kinda sucks, work out when to use it through a bit of practice. Hotkey wise I have SS in the Bottom Left 1 and EV in Bottom Left 3, which I have hotkeyed Q and E respectively. This makes them very easy to press while keeping a normal position on WASD. Try it out. I dare you. Energy tickers aren’t really that useful, as you want to get in there ASAP anyway, so I wouldn’t recommend them. The constant moving of the yellow bar kinda freaks me out anyway. One that only activated when you’re stealthed would be cool, but the only one I found had an option to activate either only in combat or only in combat/when stealthed, which was annoying, as I didn’t need it in combat. If it’s really a problem, use distract while stealthed and count the timer yourself.

Casters and their crazy, crazy ways: (aka don’t always use kick) I found that fighting caster mobs posed an interesting dilemma: do I spend 25 energy on a tiny bit of damage and reduce the damage I take, or do I save it for another SS and kill them faster? I found more killing time and a sooner downtime was more useful, as often they died before they got more than one spell off, and with the bandages of ultimate beardiness (see First Aid section above) the downtime was of homeopathic quantities (read: piss all).

Cooldowns: After you’ve ground an area for fifteen minutes or so you’ll probably grasp when to use these pretty well, as sometimes you’ll clear one section and sprint to the other every 5 minutes or so, or there’ll always be an add you hit Evasion for somewhere etc. Use them. Use potions when you need them, they’re cheap or free. Dying SERIOUSLY sucks. You lose all your buffs, have to run to your corpse, get demoralised, people laugh at you, your gear gets screwed, you get screwed, you’re screwed. Basically. I prefer to use evasion and cream the suckers rather than Vanish and run, plus it’s free! Sprint is generally for moving between areas or for kiting mobs/running away (or towards) gankers. Make sure you keep some crippling poison on you so that you can vanish and apply it to take down that pesky hunter that keeps trying to gank you.

Grinding mobs: Basically, I like to grind greens and low yellows. I find the XP as good or better than equal yellows, and there are a few other key advantages: We’re taking advantage of remorselessness and the extra crit damage as the mob dies really quickly (larger %age of health goes to the instant damage), the money ends up being better, the people questing (fools!) in the area will be lower and thus scared, and there is much less chance of adds due to the decreased aggro range. All in all it’s safer, and remember kids: safety first! Humanoids are good to grind as they drop cloth which is good for first aid or selling (Wool especially, ouch) and silver. The ones in leather and cloth are brilliant, they die so quickly, and you can sap them if there is a particularly large group around a chest or something. Or execute the old “sap /dance” routine used around the world. ‘What’s “sap”penin’?’ Ouch, burn. Nagas also die pretty fast, but there aren’t many around, so catch them if you can.

Ok, so you’ve read loads and loads of text. Or not. Whatever. I don’t remember the areas I hit at each level, but I’ll list some of the best places to grind and anything specific about them. A lot of these were taken and tested from other grinding guides, props to you guys, please don’t flame me, I’m just elaborating and collaborating everything into one smooth guide:

A GOOD GOAL IS AROUND 1K/LEVEL/HOUR XP. At 20 I was on 20+ and at 40 I’m on 40, but it fluctuates depending on weapons and grind spots. The levels will take progressively longer, but it wasn’t until about level 35 or so that I found it was much of a mission.

Bristlebacks NW of Taurajo 18-21 or so: Around 44,5 and 42,46 (North/NW of Camp Taurajo) in The Barrens there are loads of Bristlebacks. The casters drop so fast it’s crazy, there are some herbs around, an occasional elite (or maybe rare, I can’t remember) that is sometimes worth taking (although your xp/hour will drop a lot, and if you die then you’ll cry for your buffs). Make sure you get the blood shards and the buffs from Camp Taurajo (the armour, move speed, strength and agility ones) for some hardcore super fast grinding. I would run up to the NW camp through the other camp, run back to hit the respawns and then go and repair and sell greys if necessary. You level so fast around this level people will be asking you for your hax. Keep as many Shards as you can reasonably carry, 80 is a good number, for the next part.

Excavators in Bael Modan 22-25: Bael Modan, the lower section vs Excavators and Foremen. This place is pure sweetness for us. Basically, pick up the quests from the dude walking around on the road down there from Camp Taurajo (Bael Modan is South down Gold Road at 48,69) and do them if you like. Make sure you get the buffs from Camp Taurajo, the run speed will get you there faster and the others will help the grind. These guys drop pretty quickly, have a good chance of dropping nice items and the respawn pretty much fits the time it takes to kill them, even at 24 or so. The excavators are easy to pull alone and stick to the sides with the pretence of mining, although there is nothing there to mine. Seriously, I turned up with my Shaman, who has mining, and checked. THEY KNOW THINGS WE DON’T. Anyway, err…yeah. The foremen have a nasty little fire DoT they throw at you if you approach from a distance, and at the lower bracket you’ll end up aggroing fairly easily. As they had to effectively “cast” it, I found gouging them as you run up and then hitting them immediately to be effective, as you can’t bandage with the DoT on and it does a fair bit of damage to our low hit points. Later on you may want to grind the riflemen and officers, but I only did the ones outside repeatedly for the quest, as there are a fair few linked mobs (that always pull together, or at least are so damned close it makes no difference unless you spend ages luring them apart) and they aren’t too hot.

Keep an eye out for Blood Ring I found two here and they sold for 20G each to those richboy twinks, don't let them have it cheap! I also found Firebane Cloak here, which is worth a few bob.

I've been reliably informed that harpies in 1k Needles are great to grind on. I don't know the levels, but they're up a ramp to the south as far as I remember.

Satyrs in Night Run in Ashenvale, 25-28: Do http://www.thottbot.com/?qu=6441 while you’re here. Night Run’s found at 67,54, but you’ll have to get round the cliffed edges by going in from the north of the river at 74,47. For those without locations, a little east of the words “Raynewood Retreat” on the map there are two little stones surrounded by cliffed edges. You want to head here. Basically this place is usually unoccupied, and the mobs are pretty easy and drop Shredder Manual Pages, which sell nicely on the AH (I sold mine at 8s/12s buyout, which is pretty reasonable, and over half of them went every day). I picked up a couple of blues in the time I spent here. There is only enough space in the little circuit for one person grinding, you complete the route around the time the ones at the beginning respawn. Some of the mobs are casters which silence (? what are these spells I cannot cast ??) you, they drop really quickly. Others are stealthed, I recommend opening with cheap shot if you end up losing a lot of hit points to them, as you’ll kill them slower but lose less hit points, and a 5 point eviscerate with it newly levelled at 24 hits some sweet damage. I ran around in a circle, occasionally killing the bear or spider on the run over the tree to complete the circuit, usually while sprinting. There are often three grouped around the tents/fire, make sure you don't break stealth by running on the fire. This is where you blow your evasion and possibly vanish. Once you clear it once there are usually only two there on the next circuit. I wouldn’t bother with the Satyrs in Satyrnaar, you get this horrible stun curse debuff, some of them have pets and some of them are pretty rock solid.

[b]Centaurs North of Freewind Post 27-33: I did this place for *so* long, I knew it inch for inch and it kills me to see it again. Directly North of Freewind Post are a bunch of centaurs, and there is a cave on the North wall at 44,37 called Splithoof Hold. Basically, kill the mobs outside (scouts etc) if you’re not comfortable killing the ones inside. There are two 30 fire guard dudes that spawn, drop down on those and cheap shot one, hit evasion and take one down really quickly, then the other one should be a breeze. Avoid them until you’re about 28 or 9 though imo. Half of the Centaurs inside are casters, they die stupidly quickly, the other half take a bit longer but aren’t much of a problem. There are loads of chests in the cave too, which is always a bonus. You can do a full circuit and most stuff will have respawned, even at level 33, when you take them down really quickly. Drops aren’t too hot if I recall correctly, standard cloth and money and a few healing pots which I chugged when necessary. A few pesky questers will turn up sporadically, but usually leave fairly soon when they finish the quest due to everything being dead J. /me waves goodbye at you, you poor, poor quester. You may as well pick up the centaur killing quest from Freewind Post while you’re here, as I ended up fragged scouts in the entrance when the mobs dried up.

Satyrs in Xavian in Ashenvale 30-33: At 78,85(at the very north of the river where it joins go a little bit east to where the stone henge type thing is one the map) there are a load of 29 or so satyrs. The annoying ones are the rogues, they take the longest to kill and do the most damage. There are two caster types, one that casts corruption on you (use kick) and another that casts fireballs (kick if you feel the need), both of these go down really quickly for some nice XP. There is also a rare that spawns around here every couple of hours, and the Shredder manual drops and greens are prolific. These mobs will try to full heal themselves at around 15 or 20% of their life with a 4 or so second cast spell, they’ll usually die when you hit your eviscerate. However, if you’re fairly low (29 or 30) then you may want to lay down a stun just to be sure, as missing the eviscerate or not doing quite enough damage can mean them getting all their hitpoints back. I like to save a bit of energy after the first couple of SS’s so I can hit a SS and evisc in rapid succession rather than being at 0 energy all the time, or have some spare for a Kidney Shot (KS). Evasion is useful for clearing the camp area, evade/then kick the caster, take him down fast, then the other guy (rogue), then bandage/restealth etc.

A comment on STV: This area is really nice for grinding in and has absolutely ridiculous amounts of good herbs in, as well as looking pretty cool, but there are a couple of major disadvantages. One is that you’re on another continent and cannot fly to anywhere to get trained, you have to zep and then run in. Another is that loads and loads of people quest here (and run round stealing your herbs) from both factions, so you’ll both be contending with other horde players for grind space and also worrying about some gnome mage frostbolting you while you’re creeping. Seriously, they just bust in behind you and freakin’ hit you with that shizz. Something about frost spec gnome mages that just makes a person bitter…or maybe a person is bitter and so they roll a frost gnome mage. If the hair’s pink, run. Psycho alert, gentlemen, psycho alert. 60s also love to camp the Nesingwary’s Expedition area, but if you’re cheeky you can sneak up, hand the quest in, vanish/sprint and get away, or just /yell to get some backup.

Beasts in STV 33-39: You can grind on the various beasts at this level, so you might want to zep it to Grom’Grol from UC. Pick up the Mastery quests from the hippies at their camp at 34,11 (North of Grom’Grol, just south of the kink near the river’s top) and do the early stages of them, the exp is pretty good, and when you can grind on the gorillas, they’re the best by far. Around 38,17 is good for 32-33 gorillas, loads of fadeleaf and goldthorn around this area too, but the respawn is slow so you’ll have to switch to killing other stuff for a bit. Around 36 I’d pick up the other quest for Lashtail Raptors in Grom’Grol and stack kill them until both quests are done, and do Mok’Thardin’s Enchantment alongside the Shadowmaw Panther mastery quest when you hit 38.

Humanoids in STV 33-35 and 38-40: Go to Kurzen’s compound around 45,9 (run directly east of the northernmost section of the river until you see humanoids) and kill the guys outside it. There are two kinds you’ll kill at the lower end of the bracket, the healer dudes who do an instant cast heal over time a la renew and then try to do a full heal on themselves later, and the combat dudes. They’re a bit hard to start with so you might want to cheap shot open, but it’s all good. There are loads of chests and herbs around here, and the guys in the middle can be pulled in groups of 2. Make sure you don’t pull two healers at once unless you use blind or sap, as if one of them gets the heal off it’s a full heal and really hurts. The guys here drop Green Hills pages, which are worth a bit at the AH and you can even try to do the quest if you want, heh. The medicine dudes also drop herbs, most notably fadeleaf, which owns, and you get Jungle Remedies (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=6017) off most of these guys, which are worth selling on the AH, although I kept them and have used them to great effect.
Once you get 36 or so you can do the front section of the cave, but the stealthed guys are fairly hard and do an annoying stun before they die that slows down grinding more than is optimal, so I wouldn’t grind here during that period. I’d wait until around level 38 and hit the witch doctors and elites deeper in the cave, these both die easily. You can run into the section where the Captain is, run back up with sprint once it’s done and kill the elites and witch doctors just before where the subchiefs start (don’t bother with those, they hit some nasty flame shock damage, pull socially a lot of the time and generally annoy you). The respawn isn’t *quite* fast enough for me at 40, and I was hitting 40-41k/hour off them, which was nice. I found a couple of blues and a load of greens too, as well as all the silk in the world. What am I doing, tearing their clothes off? Jeez…

Basilisks in the south of the Shimmering Flats 34-37: Around 78,88 (due south of the Mirage Raceway place, where the tiny pool is on the map) there are a load of really easy to kill basilisks. These guys drop godly vendor trash and die really quickly, as long as you can kill the stun ones before they get the stun off. These guys are good XP and not that many people turn up here.

I don’t recommend grinding on the water elementals in STV or the earth elementals in the badlands, as they just take too long for the XP and drops. However, if you are lazy and hate the AH then they both give great vendor trash money, as the water elementals drop loads of water which vends nicely, and the other guys drop stones. Also watch out for Elemental Earth that they drop sometimes, it's worth about 1g each on my server, probably due to being able to make these http://www.thottbot.com/?i=36214 amongst other things. Remember also that poisons don’t work on these guys, so a major advantage we used to have goes. If you're a bit stuck between 35 and 38 then you can hit the Swamp of Sorrows and grind on the Green Dragon Whelps, they drop Small Flame Sacs which are used in Dragonbreath Chilli.

Original Content By Prancer
Level 60 Grinding Guide

I saw noone was gonna copy this one so here goes (using this right now on my rogue and it's great:):

This is my updated grinding guide, I posted it a while ago also, but I have made some changes and additions to it…
This Grinding guide is based on what is good for a rogue, so this may or may not be viable for other classes, I can’t say, I can just say that it is very good for rogues.

A few tips you should always remember when grinding:

-Always remember bandages and food, grinding is no good without it.

-Getting into big discussions/chats in the /gchat or /wchat or whatever is always fun, and it definitely makes the grinding less boring, however it will slow you down… You can go from 40k/hour to 30k/hour just by having a conversation in the chat which doesn’t seem to take up a lot of time… Keep that in mind if u really want to lvl fast.

-If you can’t stand to grind non-stop, just combine it with some questing to ease it up a little...

-If you go back to IF/Orgrimmar every half lvl to check AH, you will lose a lot of time with the travelling… Although u may have your hearthstone there, the trip back again will cost you a lot of time…
There’re many reasons to go back to the main city during your grinding, but I guarantee you most of them can be done with a lvl 1 char sitting in the main city, just to check the AH and buy stuff for you… You mail some gold to it to do your dirty work, and it can mail the items back to you.

-Always remember to sit your character at the nearest Inn when you log off, to gain rested time… It is really worth it, or rather: Not worth not to do it .

I am very well aware of there’s some very good grinding spots in AV, however I highly discourage this, you will take up a spot in the battleground and you will not help ur team… You will actually help the opposing faction win, which is just stupid… Do not do this if you have any respect for your own faction!

Talents/Gear
This was encouraged, and I find it a good idea as it may help some people…
I have tried about every build a rogue can try, those that make sense anyway, and found this the most effective at grinding…
Everyone that has tried this build while grinding haven’t regret it.

First off, swords are best for grinding, you can’t backstab a mob if you have aggro from it, so you would have to stun it every time to do a new backstab, and that is not viable… Use swords!
Agility, +crit% and attack power, those are the 3 stats you will want to have on your gear when grinding… Stamina is nice, but the other stats have priority. That’s really all there is to say about that, simple right?
If you're very new to rogues or the game in general, you can check out the other stickied guide by Nefari, it shows just about every gain from every stat, I highly suggest looking at this, even the experienced rogues... You may just learn something
http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-rogue-en&t=102215&p=1&tmp=1#post102215

I don’t have room to write very much, so I’ll write the talents I find best for grinding, in the order I suggest taking them.



You can choose to respect when you hit level 30 to get Blade flurry early, it’s a very good grinding skill, however that’s a personal choice… This is my preferred grinding build!

Should you feel Hemorrhage was better for grinding, I can understand that, however you would miss out on either the combat tree or the assassination tree, and those are simply the best two talent trees for grinding… So I would not propose that.

I did not find grinding to be very useful up until these lvls, there’re tons of quests all over the place which lvls you quite fast… I may be wrong on this, but I just don’t think it is fast enough to grind for 2 hours to get a lvl at lower lvls, it can be done faster with quests.
I apologise for the lack of spots from 20-28, however it has been so long since I’ve been low lvl that I can’t remember the good spots, other than those I have written.

18-20: Bristlebacks just north of Camp Taurajo in Barrens, there’s so many of them you can’t run dry, and they die quick… If your horde you will have a couple of quests here as well, and if your alliance, Well, you don’t wanna be here if your alliance.

21-23: Duskwood, cemetery, south of Darkshire, half casters half warriors, an alright grinding spot with good drops… I always find my first blue item here on all of my chars. Wool and silk cloth are also a nice addition at this lvl. This place is mainly for Alliance though…

22-24: Dunhold keep, in Hillsbrad foothills, not a very known place, rogues and horde have a quest there, but that's it... they are humanoids, die really fast, drop a nice amount of cloth and there's tons of them.

28-32: Centaurs, in thousand Needles, a little north of Freewind post. There’s 28-30 centaurs outside the cave, and 30-32 centaurs inside the cave, a very nice place, they die really quick and drop nice silk cloth. Although this is a horde dominated area, it work for alliance as well, there isn’t as many horde as you would think.

29-31: The underground of raven hill cemetery, in Duskwood, there are 2 areas of underground, one with skeletons and one with zombies, and they are connected through a small and hidden path at the end. This is a very good place to grind, start from one end and go to the other, then back again. It’s an alliance area so if you do it at primetime, you will have some problems if you’re Horde. I did it with my shammy though, and it still works, usually if you leave them alone they will leave you alone as well.

32-34: Beasts, and lots of them, do the hunter quests from Nesinwary’s camp in Stranglethorn Vale, and then keep grinding those beasts after you have done the quests… Especially the Mistvale gorillas, these are probably the only beasts in Stranglethorn Vale that you don’t get a quest to kill, and funny thing, they are the best ones to grind.

34-36: Kurzens compound, all these fellows are really good to grind, specially once you get the sword from Scarlet monestary. They also drop fadeleaf from time to time which is always appriciated. A chest spawns every 15 minutes, can contain blue items, overall a very good spot!

34-37: Basilisks, yes, you heard me, basilisks, the shimmering flats in Thousand needles. Go the ruins all the way down south of the shimmering flats, those are the ones you want!
They are pretty good to grind at these lvls, you’ll never run dry cause there’s just so many of them, they don’t have much life and drop some decent vendortrash.

37-38: The water elementals on the haunted island in stranglethorn vale is very good grinding at these lvls, the only downside at these are the drops, they really suck, but you don’t grind for loot, u grind for xp.

39-41: Earth elementals down south in the badlands are awesome here, so easy to kill, despite the fact that there’s no casters amongst them, and the stones they drop will make u rich by the vendors.
There’s also lesser elementals a little east of Kargath, which are a little lower in lvls, but doesn’t drop quite as good, and there’s usually people on those…

40-44: Feralas grimmtotem camps, the tauren there die so fast it s almost pathetic.

42-43: Nagas at the southern beach on the island of the feathermoon fortress, we all love nagas, and these are quite good, many casters among them, only bad thing is the disarm they sometimes do, but considering their low armor/health it's still a very good place!

44-47: Nagas are simply the best thing to grind, here u move on to the cave on the isle of dread also in Feralas, it's the fastest grinding I've ever done there, so awesome... Only very rarely do other players come, and those that do come, come to do a fast quest then they leave again!

44-45: Ogres down south in Badlands, next to the earth elementals, they drop a bit of mageweave and silver, but as all other ogres they die really fast, so they are nice to grind. A lot of casters amoung them which is always nice.
Mithril spawn in the cave often and a chest every 15 minutes.

45-47: Ghosts at Azshara lvl 45-46, Good at that lvl, half casters, half warriors, none of them have any special attacks so it’s very easy and u won’t get surprised by some high damaging spell.
Should u decide to want to grind these at an even higher lvl, u should keep in mine that there aren’t a lot of them, so u’ll have to combine it with the satyrs just north of there… But at 45-46 there should be plenty to keep u going on them alone!
Good mageweave drops, some silver and an occational rare mob.

46-49: Feralas, ogres down south at the big ruin. 45-47 is their lvls, drop decent mageweave, and if u go down to the cave all the way down at the bottom, u will almost only see casters inside.
Because of the packs u may get, I suggest not going here til the stated lvls, instead of when ur the same lvl as the mobs which would usually be my suggested lvl range to grind them.
Also the warlords call for help when they get low, attracting other ogres that are near.

48: Quests in Searing gorge, u should gain an entire lvl if u do them all, very fast, can be done in a matter of a few hours!
And ofc the trinket reward "Luffa" u get from one of the quests is not to be underestimated when u as a rogue fight a warrior (Or farm gold at Deadwind pass , damn that rend they got)!

49-51: the cactus-guys way down southwest of Tanaris, those die so fast it's hardly believable... very good grinding here!
If ur a fan of Un'goro u can always combine with some questing there, it's right next to it, and is good at that lvl.

The deadwood village in Felwood is also very good at these lvls, but it's always filled with both horde and alliance, so no point in going there unless it's at some hour where the server is almost empty

One thing you should keep in mind after hitting lvl 50, is that reputation with Argent dawn can be a pain to get, so it might be a good idea to start grinding a bit in western/eastern plague lands, the latter at a higher lvl since it is a tough place to grind.
Make sure you do not turn in the stones you get before reaching 6000/12000 honored reputation, because after you reach that point you will no longer get reputation for killing mobs, only by killing bosses and turning in stones… So you’ll get more out of it if you save your stones until you reach that point!

50-53: Nagas at the beach in Azshara, they die relatively quick due to their low armor/hp, just as any other naga in the world.
Unfortunately they also drop as bad as all the other nagas, the silver is alright, but that’s about it,
Unless ur lucky enough to find a golden pearl in one of the clams they drop.
A good place to go if the satyrs are taken and u don’t feel like wasting your trip to Azshara.

50-53: Another option is satyrs in Ashaera, these are 51-53, but die so quick they can easily be grinded at lvl 50. I did this, combined with searing gorge and the cactus guys, just because some lvl 60 is always on the satyrs, and there isn't enough for 2!
The fact that they drop Felcloth and traveller’s backpacks and cards for the faire is just a nice bonus.

51-53: Sorrow hill in western plague lands, some people like this place although I don’t hink it’s very good, due to the fact that there’s no casters. It’s all melee mobs, and they don’t drop very fast. If u want rep with Argent dawn however, this may be a good place to start. Good runecloth/silver drops and Librams have a decent chance of dropping here as well.

52-53: If u haven’t done them at an earlier state, the quests in Un’goro would be excellent here… Even if u did do some quests earlier, u can’t have done them all cause there’s a lot of 52-55 quests which are almost impossible at lower lvls unless u go with a group J

53-55: The blood elves in Ashaera die really fast… They’re the same lvl as the satyrs, however they all do this nasty AoE which can get a bit too much if ur not high enough lvl… And they’re placed kind of tight some places, which inevitable makes u aggro one too many… However still very good to grind, they drop a lot of runecloth and silver as well, being humanoids and all.

54-57: Ghosts by the lake in Winterspring, these are a little tricky for a 54, due to the DoT the give u, which prevents u in bandaging, but still good to grind!
These can be grinded all the way to 60, I’ve seen it done and it works fine… Although there are better places after 57…

55-57: Furlbogs just south of the entrance to winterspring. Decent amount of hp/armor and throw faerie fire on u, but there’s good things aboiut them as well… Good silver drops, good chance of blue drops, a chest with guaranteed green item (And often healing potions) and everyones favourite potion: Winterfall firewater drop pretty often from them, although this should change in patch 1.9 according to the patchnotes.
Give reputation with the timbermaw faction as well each time you kill one, if you’re interested in that.

56-60: The birds in Deadwind pass, These are very good to grind, they die relatively fast, and drop very good vendortrash… The only downside is that they hit rather hard and put rend on u all the time which makes it almost impossible to start with an ambush… But if u use swords that won’t be a problem.
There are also very often other people grinding on these, and to be honest there’s just not enough for 2…

57-60: Yetis in Winterspring are very popular to grind, there’re tons of them and can be skinned for thick/rugged leather, they also drop silver… They do however have a lot of health points, which makes them a bit harder to kill, but if ur saving for ur epic mount, this will be a good place to get some good xp and some steady gold flowing…

58-60: The ogres in Deadwind pass, very good, just like all other ogres they die pretty fast… The amount of runecloth they drop is just unbelievable.

Original Content By http://www.mmorpg-guides.org
Burning Crusade Leveling Guide
This guide is an early Burning Crusade leveling guide. In other words, it is written for those who level in Burning Crusade within a few months of its launch. I will update it to be a guide not specific to launch and it will go into version 3.0 of my general rogue guide. This guide is also intended for rogues. However, most of this guide applies to all classes. I’m not an expert at the alliance aspect of BC but I have written this guide to be class agnostic.

As for my qualifications, I was in closed beta and took a rogue and a mage to 60 there. I almost got another to 60 in open beta, which was really just a short stress test. In retail pre-BC, I took 5 characters to 60 including a rogue of course. I’m the Guildmaster and raid leader of The Unholy Legion on Kalecgos (transferred from Tichondrius). We had more than half of Nax completed prior to the launch of Burning Crusade. I was in the alpha and beta test of The Burning Crusade and took my rogue to 70 and leveled some of my other toons to about 65.

This is not a walkthrough. I’m not going to micromanage your path to 70. I’m just going to provide you with a lot of information and you can decide what paths to take.

GEARING UP IN BC

The rules have changed a bit in The Burning Crusade, but rogues stick with the AEP system:

1 agility = 2 strength = 2 attack power = 1 stamina = 1 AEP

You will gain an insane amount of hitpoints as you increase in level. This is far more than we got before. This will devalue stamina in the AEP system but frankly for grinding, more stam=less eating or bandaging, so let’s stick with the original formula for grinding. The AEP system also varies now by build but let’s not get that granular for the grind.

Many will ask how important crit and hit are. You should definitely maintain a decent amount of hit. Crit isn’t key for leveling but it always helps. One percent to crit is worth about 20 attack power.

If you want a better description of the AEP system, go to http://www.shadowpanther.net

Don’t buy any pre-expansion gear. The worst greens in Outland are better than Shadowcraft and Darkmantle. These greens won’t fall out of the sky, so don’t think that you will be upgrading everything overnight, but you will be picking up new pieces. Use the AEP system formula I listed above.

For example:

Darkmantle Boots: 24 agility and 10 stamina = 34 AEP

Level 60 Green Boots of the Monkey (Outland): 18 agility and 18 stamina = 36 AEP

The green boots are better. It’s only 2 AEP though. If you have a 7 agility enchant on your Darkmantle then they will still be better. I absolutely don’t recommend enchanting every new piece you get. In beta, not everything was itemized yet and I had replaced 9 pieces of gear before level 70 including the second best boots, 3rd best cloak, and the best rings in the game (all pre expansion). A lot of your gear will come from quests. Most of the blue quest rewards are up to par with the AQ40 set and even tier 3.

Most green swords, fists and maces are better than Krol and Sacred Charge after about level 63. I think they start at close to 146 max damage and quickly get to 160 before level 64. The first instance you go in can drop a blue sword that is better than Brutality Blade.

A NOTE ON STEALTH

Many of you are going to feel like stealth got nerfed. Even with MoD, I found myself getting busted out of stealth a LOT. Now before you go screaming about this on the boards, keep in mind that before BC it was rare for you to ever sneak up on and solo mobs that were 60-62. Without MoD, if you walk up to the front of a mob, spamming cheap shot on the way in, you will agro them 100% of the time. But only about one in 50 will nail you before you get your CS off. Don’t feel like you need to make big circles around mobs or feel like you need to put MoD in all of your builds. It’s no big deal, just keep it in mind.

Vanish served me well in alpha and beta. Has it been fixed? I don’t know, I honestly never thought it was broken. But I’m also very good about gouging, then running, then vanishing rather than just standing there while 5 mobs beat on me and upset because vanish isn’t an invulnerability button.

GENERAL LEVELING

DO NOT level in Azeroth. A level 58 mob in Winterspring or Eastern Plaguelands will give you about 300 XP per kill while a level 58 mob in Outland will give you 500 XP per kill.

Green is good. Whether it be questing, grinding or instance runs, the best XP per hour I was able to muster in BC came from killing mobs that were 3-5 levels below me. This is the best advice that I can give you. I saw this a lot in BC beta. Everyone wanted to do stuff 3 levels above them. This is a tragic mistake. Can I handle mobs 3 levels above me? Heck yes. I can handle mobs 7 levels above me. But the rate in which you kill them is not worth the minimal XP bonus you get. You’ll have to heal yourself more often, you will die more often and you will level incredibly slowly. From 69-70 I solo grinded on mobs 5-6 levels below me and I was one or two hitting them. It was 100K XP per hour unrested.

You want to know my personal strategy? I’m going to be sitting at my trainer in Org ready to train anything that I need to. I will immediately head to Outland. Once I get to outland there is a flight path right by the dark portal. In beta you already have the flight path to your first town so there is no need to run through all of the giant elite demons who will all one hit you.

Once I get to my first town (Thrallmar for horde, Honor Hold for Alliance) I will head straight to Hellfire Citadel with 4 of my guildmates who are ready to lay waste to stuff for the next 12 hours straight. I will run the first two instances (ramparts and blood furnace) until I hit level 63. When I hit 63, I will head to Terokaar Forrest. There are enough quests there at 63 to get me to 64. If I see so much as 3 horde in town, I will turn around and go back into HFC for more instance grinding. If that happens I will hit 65 in those instances and skip to Nagrand. My goal is to stay way ahead of the curve. Ganking and kill stealing won’t be an issue for me.

Easy for me to say, right? I got to enjoy every single quest and really got to enjoy the immersion. I have a guild of 350 that I can level with. I realize that this doesn’t make sense for many of you. I just wanted to share what my strategy is. I hate the idea of skipping some of these zones. There are quest rewards that I really want, but there is a major problem in front of us. 10,000 other people will be in those zones too. If any of you have ever been there for launch day of any server, you know what I mean. The level 1-5 noob zones are crowded. It’s not so bad, once you break out of the first zone, things fan out fast. Once you hit level 20, there are very few people in your area because there are a ton of different places that a level 20 can quest or grind.

Now imagine the 1-5 zone but everywhere from 60-70. I kid you not. If you are on a low population PvE server, you will still find yourself competing with hundreds of people in the same spot. It was like this in late beta and the population there was nowhere near what it is on my medium population retail server. The only zones that are equal in level are Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley. Every other zone will be stacked with people your level.

This is not a guide to roleplaying. I wrote this guide for those who want to level efficiently. Level as quickly or slowly as you like. But I warn you, the questing experience isn’t so fun when you have hundreds of people camping spawns. It’s up to you.

I realize that my personal leveling strategy will keep me from killing mobs 3-5 levels below me, but I will do what I must to stay ahead of the curve. Hopefully by the time I get to 67, I will be far enough ahead where I can kill stuff 3-5 levels below me. What I won’t do is try to go into zones where mobs are 2+ levels above me.

LEVELING IN INSTANCES

The fastest XP per hour possible can be earned by running instances. I don’t care how good your gear is or how aggressive you are, a good group in an instance will earn nearly twice as much XP per hour than solo grinding. Key words here are “good group”. If you are going to join pugs that don’t know how to assist, go afk a lot, wipe a lot and put little effort in, you will do horribly. I tested this thoroughly. With a well-geared but incredibly ragtag group (druid tank, shadow priest, no shaman or paladin and no mage) I consistently earned twice the XP per hour that I was able to earn solo grinding and I’m extremely efficient at grinding.

The smartest thing you can do to get good XP per hour in instances is keep them as low as possible. If the mobs are mostly green then you should be able to crush that place in record time. I plan to do the first instance until I’m level 63.

The nice thing about grinding in instances is that you will never run out of them. There are so many, they completely overlap. You’ll never run out of content.

I do warn you though, if you do not have a good, driven group, you will waste an insane amount of time. I do not recommend running instances for many who read this guide.

A lot of my guildmates have asked to form static groups. In other words, they want to have 4 of them and I in the same 5 man group for instances while we level to 70. That won’t make the most sense for me as I work from home and can’t commit to set blocks of time. This might make sense for those of you in small guilds or those of you who choose to run unguilded but have a few friends running around.

If you really want to do well in instances from an XP per hour standpoint, chain pull as much as possible. Get everyone in the mindset that they need to sit and drink and eat the moment they get out of combat because another pull is on its way. Don’t be reckless, just try to be as aggressive as possible.

QUESTS

There are endless quests. I’ve never been a big fan of questing to level, as they can be a time suck if you don’t complete them quickly. It’s no different in BC. But there are so many, you can just run around killing everything in the zone and complete a ton of them in the process of your grind. Many quest rewards are excellent.

For those of you who wish to immerse yourself into the lore of the game, feel free to use quests to guide you to 70. You’ll still have to grind, but not nearly as much as you did from 1-60. But again, I warn you, it will be crowded at launch.

I will say though that questing in BC is easier than in pre-BC. The quest descriptions are better and the objectives are easier to find in general. Questing will be a really good way to level after the rush dies down from the initial release.

Like I’ve said in the past before BC, if a quest objective isn’t clear and you can’t look it up, dump it and move on. Searching for quest objectives often turns into 10K XP per hour.

SOLO MOB GRINDING

This is how I like to level. Quests and instances are cool but I like to go into autopilot for 12 hours and just wreak havoc on everything in my path.

One good thing about grinding in BC is that Blizzard implemented code that increases the spawn rate of mobs based on the number of people in the area. This doesn’t scale enough to justify grinding in the same spot as 20 other people, but it helps if you have no other options.

I warn you, if you come into BC with full Shadowcraft, you will get pounded hard in BC against mobs your level. If that’s the case, I recommend grinding with a group and doing quests in the process. Either that or keep the mobs levels low. Don’t try to kill level 67’s when you’re 65. You can do it but you won’t do it quickly.

For rogues, the trick is to find a good mob to grind. I love humanoids casters. They’re soft and never get a spell off against me because I interrupt them. I take 2 dps and dish out 800. Some mobs hit insanely hard. So try and steer clear of mobs that force you to eat or bandage every 3-4 kills. I shoot for 10 kills per heal. There’s two ways to do this. One is by stunlocking them to death. This is a bad idea. You’ll end up doing 300 DPS instead of 900 DPS. The second is to pick good mobs. Don’t be too picky but don’t be stubborn about mastering tough mobs.

Buff yourself as much as you can when questing or grinding. Instant poison on both hands (unless you’re specced mutilate) and if you can afford it, an endless supply of potions that boost your AP and crit. Don’t waste an hour looking for a druid to buff you, but use every advantage that you can. Don’t ever leave town without at least 40 instant poison.

Use your cooldowns!!! Evasion, blade flurry, adrenaline rush, cold blood, etc. Use them constantly. I don’t care if the opposite faction might jump you at any time, focus on the timers. It’s not painful when it becomes second nature to you. If you use your timers whenever they’re up you can grind more than twice as fast.

TALENT BUILDS

The number one question that I get from people has always been and will now even moreso be, “What is the best build…”

It’s a viable question. My biggest advice is for you to pick a good build and stick with it. Don’t try to be an innovator. Let someone else blaze the trail for you. I have spoken to THOUSANDS of rogues (I’m not joking) who have taken a standard tested build and made gigantic changes to them. A sprinkle of this and a sprinkle of that to cater to your gameplay, fine, but don’t put together some wild build and then ask someone later if it’s any good. I’m not saying this because I’m irritated with any factor of this because I simply am not. I’m just trying to save you folks some time and gold. Others have blazed the trail for you. Enjoy the game and benefit from that knowledge.

You’re going to want to test all of the new skills and talents. Try to refrain from doing so. You’re going to get pounded out there and will want to respec to minimize this. Just try to be better at the build you have unless it’s horribly flawed. If you don’t know whether or not your build is horribly flawed, then it probably is.

Before I get into builds, let’s cover talents that are good and bad for leveling.

First off, I don’t like most of the survivability talents. Reduced chance of being stunned, feared, extra HP, chance to resist spells, all have their applications. Grinding isn’t one of them. I might have some of this stuff in my builds but only because there are no better options. I don’t like MoD except for daggers where I kind of have to get it for improved ambush. But even then Camouflage has served me much better in my grind. Improved ambush is an excellent talent to max out. Open with big crits and end it fast. Also, if you are a dagger rogue, remorseless attacks is your best friend. While I don’t really need it to get a lot of ambush crits, it guarantees it and keeps me driven to move from mob to mob.

Also note that these builds might change at the last minute before BC comes out as they are constantly changing things.

Combat Swords
Level 60 Build for Combat Swords

Level 70 Build for Combar Swords

I actually did a Mace version of this because my maces are a lot better than my swords. Claws are fine too; just stay away from combat daggers. It’s great for raids but rough for grinding. Save daggers for SF/Mutilate.

I warn you, you will take a lot of damage with this build. You will open with CS, get 2 SS’s in, will have 4 combo points, the mob will no longer be stunned and you will take a pretty heavy beating for 6 seconds while you wait for enough energy to gouge or continue on doing damage.

Use this build aggressively. Every two minutes you should be fighting two mobs at once with blade flurry. Every 5 minutes you should be fighting 3 mobs at once using blade flurry and adrenaline rush at the same time. Just be careful when pulling multiples, BF and AR are amazing but they don’t make you Superman. The combo should be CS, evasion, AR, BF, SS, SnD, spam SS.

This build feels slow and clunky when you’re not using BF or AR. Those of you who used a heavy subtlety build to grind to 60 will especially feel this way. CS seems to last a split second because of its energy cost. You find yourself waiting and waiting while you just do white damage and wait that seemingly loooooong 4 seconds to do another SS. My advice is to muscle up and just pump it out. You’re going to take damage. Just bandage once every 5-6 fights if you have to and trust the fact that this is probably the best DPS leveling build.

Mutilate
Level 60 Build for Mutilate

Level 70 Build for Mutilate

This build isn’t for everyone but for me it was the hands down best solo grinding build possible. Mutilate is fantastic for grinding if you are comfortable with daggers. I don’t know if I’m killing faster than I did with a combat build but I certainly had more fun with it. It’s very efficient. I take very little damage and the mobs drop fast. Here’s a common combo: Ambush, wait, gouge, wait, KS, mutilate, mutilate, evisc. I know that’s a lot of waiting, but those pauses are also followed up with some monster hits. With improved ambush and remorseless attacks you are pretty much guaranteed a crit opener. When you ambush and gouge you will almost always have 3 combo points. If you put smart pauses in after ambush and after gouge, you will have a full energy bar when dropping that KS.

Note with these mutilate builds that I made some changes to what you probably had in your pre-BC mutilate build. First off, I have instant poisons maxed out. This isn’t absolutely necessary but getting your target poisoned early is important for efficiency.

Yes, I have improved SS in this build. It’s not a must, but it’s nice to have when both your gouge and kidney shot miss/dodge/parry/block. It doesn’t happen often, so there’s no crime in spending your points elsewhere.

Some people like to grind with mutilate by opening with cheap shot. This is perfectly fine. I’m a bigger fan of the big ambush crits. Both are pretty equally effective.

Avoid using fast daggers. Core Hound Tooth is a bad mutilate weapon. It’s better than nothing, but try to use slow daggers with high max damage. Other than that, don’t worry about what gear is best for mutlate.

Most important: ALWAYS have crippling poison on your MH. Mutilate does fantastic damage against poisoned mobs. Against non-poisoned mobs, it’s terrible.

Hemorrage
Level 60 Build for Hemorrage

Level 70 Build for Hemorrage

I don’t like this build. I even less like posting it in my guide. I tested it thoroughly and I know some of you will go with a hemo build no matter what anyone says, so this is what I consider a good hemo grinding build.

The reason I don’t like hemo is that it doesn’t do very good damage. I have a ton of AP and I used Misplaced Servo Arm to test it. Against ogres my level I had to do 3 full combos to finish them in some cases. I felt like I was hitting every mob I fought with a pillow and Servo is a better hemo weapon than anything I saw before 70.

The plus side is control. You can do almost two full combos before you get hit once: CS, hemo, gouge, wait, KS, hemo, hemo, hemo hemo, gouge, evisc. Unfortunately, that won’t finish most mobs your level and you’re still going to take a lot of damage.

If you decide to go this route, load up on the attack power. A lot of gear that you will get from quests will give you a ton, so that will help if you didn’t come in with good gear.

Build that I Didn’t Include

I stayed away from a Shadowstep build. I used this to grind extremely low level mobs from 69 to 70 and did really well with it, but against mobs my level I got crushed. I also stayed away from hybrid builds where you switch from swords to daggers as appropriate. Why torture yourself with weapon swap delays? I also tested and did not like combat Hemo and Seal Fate swords. SF swords seemed interesting but your crit is going to drop as you level, so it just didn’t proc that extra point enough. Combat hemo wasn’t as good as I had expected. Adrenaline Rush is so good for leveling and you don’t get lethality maxed until level 68. Plus you don’t get Deadliness or Sinister Calling.

ZONES

Hellfire Peninsula

This is the first area that you will come to upon entering the Dark Portal. There are about a million quests here. There are quests in 3 different towns and in about 5 other locations where you can find groups of quest NPCs. I don’t like this zone. Have you ever quested in Eastern Plaguelands and been frustrated with the big cracks in the ground in how you have to navigate around them? You’ll hate that about this place. I don’t like most of the mobs. They put nasty dots on you, have a ton of armor, burrow underground and do just about everything that rogues hate.

What I do like is Hellfire Citadel. This has two instances in it that you can run immediately (Ramparts and Blood Furnace). Make sure you get the quests in town that are related to these instances as the quest rewards are really good. Both of these instances are easy to do. Most of the bosses are a simple tank and spank and only a couple of the pulls are tricky.

Zangramarsh

This is the next zone that you will get to east of Hellfire. There is a neutral town full of quests and a couple of faction-specific towns also full of quests. Most of the mobs here are non-humanoids but no elementals. There are some fantastic mobs to grind on and 90% of them are quest related. Some of the quests are tough to figure out but you can plow through a few levels here if it’s not too crowded.

In the middle of the big lake is a structure you can swim to and in the middle is a tube for you to swim down. There are more instances in here with quest givers outside. I don’t consider these instances ideal for instance grinding but they can be done for some good XP. Lot’s of heavily armored mobs though.

Terokaar Forrest

I love this zone. It’s south of Zangrmarsh. You can get quests here as early as 63 but if you don’t have good gear, you might find it a little tough. There are about a dozen quests that you can get here at 63 and almost all of them are mindlessly straight-forward. There are another 10 or so from completing quests and there might be a few at 64. The first thing that you will want to do here is go to Shattarath City. It’s the only major city in Outland and is what is called a sanctuary. You don’t even have the option to attack other players here. You should find another 10 or so quests here.

South of Terokaar is an area called the Bone Wastes. In the middle is Auchindoon. More instances. Some of them are really good for grinding but the difficulty level definitely goes up here, so bring good players. This is really the last zone that you will be doing instances in until you hit 70 unless you want to go all the way down to Tanaris for Caverns of Time at about level 67+. But the instances in Auchindoon range from 64 to 70.

Nagrand

This is my favorite zone. It’s west of Terokaar and south of Zangramarsh. There are endless mobs that are good to grind on and a massive number of quests, many of which give good items. Don’t forget to find Nessingwary. He has a new camp here. You should start working this zone at level 64. Some quests aren’t available until 65. You could easily get to 70 in this zone, 67 from quests alone.

There are no instances in this zone.

Blade’s Edge Mountains

Lots of Ogres but not a ton of quests that I like. Not bad as a quick stop on the way to Netherstorm though.

There are no instances in this zone.

Netherstorm

This is an awesome zone. There are a ton of great quests and some good mobs to grind on. Some of the quest rewards are fantastic. Don’t miss out on them.

There are instances here but you have to be 70 and have a flying mount.

Shadowmoon Valley

This is about the same level as Netherstorm. It’s smaller and probably has just as many quests. I went in there with an empty quest log and still couldn’t get all of the quests. The mobs are pretty tough. There are some that are good for grinding but not as many as Netherstorm which, despite what the map says, is much bigger.

The only instance here is a raid instance.

PROFESSIONS AND LOOT

Why both of these in the same section? Almost all of the world loot table in beta that is rare or epic comes in the form of a pattern. Blacksmith, weaponsmith, tailor, enchanting, etc. No Krol Blade types of loot, just patterns. All professions are extremely viable now. That includes leatherworking. All professions can be extremely profitable. All patterns found in the world are BOE and can be sold on the AH.

AFTER 70

Time to gear up. At this time, the level 70 PvP rewards are mediocre at best. Many quest items and a ton of instance drops are better. This is with the exception of arena rewards, but be ready for some serious competition in there. Believe me it is nothing like the easy loot that you can get from running AV, WSG and AB at 60 for the rank 14 epics.

The best way to get gear is to run instances. There is blue gear in BC that rivals tier 4 but that gap will again widen as tier 5 and 6 become available.

Head back to Tanaris and run Caverns of Time. There are some fantastic rewards there. Also run Auchindoon. The last boss in Shadow Labyrinth drops amazing stuff for all classes including a 174 max damage dagger.

You’ll find instances in general to be a lot shorter with a couple of exceptions. Most of the pre-70 instances can be done in less than 20 minutes with a good group. Tempest Keep seems long but so did Scholomance when we were in green gear.

If you raid, work on getting your factions to revered so you can get keys to the heroic modes of all instances. They’re extremely hard. It’s like doing Onyxia with a 5 man team at 60. These are moreso something to do on your free time when you’re not doing 10 and 25 man raid instances than they are for gearing up. Trust me, it won’t be a walkover for anyone.

I DO NOT recommend doing old raid instances. You will not crush through Nax at level 70 as easily as you’d think and the rewards are garbage in comparison to what you can get in 5-man instances on normal. Nax bosses, with very few exceptions require that everyone play a key strategic role. You’re not going to group up the Four Horsemen and AOE them at 70. Yes, Patchwerk will drop faster because of the extra DPS but believe me, if you don’t have serious people working hard to heal and be in position, you will not take him down at 70.

I’m not going to list all of the factions and their rewards, but you will probably want to grind a lot of them as the quest rewards are pretty good. Don’t focus on them during your grind but keep in mind what factions you want to grind and try to do their quests.

ALTERNATIVE ROLES

This doesn’t apply to rogues as the idea of being a healer or a tank is ridiculous. Yes, we can offtank for short periods of time in blue instances if people assist you. What I’m talking about is druids, shaman, paladins and priests taking on alternative roles.

Be weary of this. You will find some people who are good at these roles but not many. I know some druids that are fantastic tanks for 5 man instances. I’ve seen priests put up some decent numbers but it’s pretty rare. I’ve yet to see a shaman put up fantastic numbers. The lack of DPS will hurt you some, but the big pitfall is when you have you plus 4 healers in your group and none of them are specced for healing nor wish to play a healing role.

I’m not going to tell anyone how to spec or play this game. You’re paying your $15/month not me. But if you find yourself in a situation of not having some solid crowd control, tanking and healing, I highly recommend that you politely leave your group and find something else to do. Pick flowers, grind some faction, but these groups will suck you down.

The truth is that no one will be specced ideally in the grind to 70. A priest would be a fool to spec holy in his grind to 70. But someone does have to heal and that means getting out of shadowform and healing. A warrior would be a fool to spec protection to 70, but it’s easy to put on tanking gear and do a decent job of tanking. Just look out for warriors who want to tank in berserker. After the grind to 70 you will find a lot of people want to stay the same spec that they were before. All I am saying is that you should know what you’re getting into before joining a group. But be polite. That DPS shaman isn’t a jerk for not wanting to heal even though he does half your damage as a rogue. That’s his choice.

For those of you who play hybrid classes, my best advice is to make your mark at 70. If you’re serious about it, bust your tail getting exceptional gear and make your case when you’re sure you can be a serious competitor on the damage meters.

PREPARATION

I wanted to close with this section because I want it to be fresh in your minds when you’re done reading this guide and I have a lot more to add.

Hopefully you put together a decent bankroll going into BC. There aren’t a lot of money sinks unless you grind professions in the AH.

Empty your bank. You will no longer need your resist gear. Get rid of everything that you don’t absolutely need. Most people are terrible about this (myself included). I still have that stupid neck that turns me into a draknoid. You will need the bank space. Crafting mats will be very valuable. Drop this stuff off into your bank until the market settles and you can determine what it is worth. You will loot a lot of items that you can’t decide on. I had a hard time determining which of the 4 blue shoulders I had was best. If you made a lot of potions, you will need space to put them. Even with the extra bag slot you will run out of room. Trust me.

I’m not listing any addons right now because none of them will work at launch. Keep it simple. You don’t need much to level. You won’t need raiding addons or PvP addons to get to 70, so don’t make your lives difficult by loading up with a bunch of garbage that you don’t need. In alpha I was forced to level with no addons at all. I got used to it very quickly and my performance was excellent because of it. I will install Fubar and Perl and that’s it until I start raiding and PvPing. Scrolling combat text and a lot of other addons are going to do nothing but lag you out.

You will make a lot of money looting corpses in your grind but it won’t be anywhere near what you will need for an epic flying mount, which trust me, you want. It’s not like pre-BC where your rides are relatively short. You will find yourself flying on your mount instead of taking flightpaths. No, there aren’t many places that you can’t go to without a mount but the flying mount is faster in many cases. The wyverns and griffons fly faster than epic flying mounts but they take crazy paths, so you will save yourself a lot of time just flying to your destination yourself. Plus it’s too cool to fly in WoW.

Again, I remind you to stock up on potions. Any consumables you have will make your grind easier.

Go into BC with a plan. Do you want to stop and smell the roses by immersing yourself in the lore? Do quests, but keep in mind that you will be fighting for spawns a lot. Are you going to level with a friend or two? If so, make sure that the time that you plan to put into leveling is compatible with theirs, otherwise, consider an alternative.

Original Content By Diaz
Lockpicking - A Rogue's Guide.

FAQ:

Q: How do I raise my max lockpicking skill?
A: You will gain five points of max lockpicking per level, to a (current) maximum of 350

Q: How do I lockpick?
A: First you'll need to learn the skill at your rogue trainer. This becomes available at lvl 16. You will require a set of thieves tools, which you can purchase, but the rogue trainer should send you on a quest line that will require you to practice lockpicking, and along this quest line an NPC will provide you with a set of tools for free. Once you've learnt the skill it will (in common with every other skill in the game) appear in your skill/spell book (bound to the P key by default) under the general tab. You might want to drag and drop this button to your action bar, to save having to open your skill book every time you want to use it.

There are three ways to actually pick a lock. In the case of locked footlockers, chests, strongboxes et al (i.e. those not currently in your inventory) you can simply right click on the box and you will, dependant on your skill (see below), automatically pick the lock. In the case of junkboxes and lockboxes, you will need to click your lockpick button, then click on the box in your inventory. Dependant on your skill (again), the box will be unlocked and you can right click it to retrieve it's contents. The third method is only applicable when picking lockboxes and junkboxes carried by other players. Usual procedure, and generally best practice, is for the other character to open a trade window and drop their locked box into the 'will not be trade' slot. There will be some text beneath the box indicating that the box is locked. Click your lockpick action button again, and click the box. The text will change to 'pick lock'. Now all you have to do is both click the 'trade' button et voila, the box is now picked.

On to the tool-tip and skill dependancy. When you mouse-over a locked box, either in world or in your inventory, a tool-tip dialog will open displaying the name of the box, e.g. waterlogged footlocker, with the word 'locked' underneath it if the box is (you saw this coming) locked. 'Locked' will be coloured in a scheme that should now be fairly familiar to you. If it's red, you're not going to be able to open it; you don't have sufficient skill. If it's orange then good news; not only can you open it, you'll gain a lockpicking point for doing so. Go you. There's a slender chance you'll fail to open the lock but, in that event, just persevere; you'll get it eventually. If it's yellow, then don't lose heart; you might still gain a lockpicking point. If it's green, your chance of gaining a skill point just nose-dived, but you'll be able to liberate the contents so all is not lost. Grey, no skill point, but you get to liberate the contents (if it was your box) and feel that deep sense of satisfaction at a job well done.

Q: Where do I train my lockpicking?
A: The short and dirty answer is 'everywhere'. Not descriptive enough? Then I shall go into more detail. You might want to get a coffee.

As stated in the paragraph above, different boxes have different skill levels; be they lockboxes, footlockers, strongboxes, junkboxes or whatever. The trick is to find the appropriate boxes for your level and skill in lockpicking.

Sitting comfortably?

For the Alliance, the first 75 levels of lockpicking are a cakewalk. At lvl 16 you'll be sent on a quest to Lakeshire. There a dwarf will send you up to Athler's Mill to retrieve an item from a locked box. When you first arrive there (be wary of spiders, orcs, gnolls and wandering Horde on the way) you'll find the box in question, surrounded by an arc of smaller boxes. The quest box will be 'red' and therefore unlockable by you, but fret not, the other boxes will be within your range. Position yourself properly and you should be within range to pick three, maybe four at a time. The respawn time on the boxes is super low, so by the time you've finished picking box the first box should have repopped. Continue in this fashion until you reach skill lvl 75-100; they should all have gone grey now.

For the Horde you'll be pleased to note there's a similar situation. Your quest will send you to a ship off the Merchant Coast, south of Ratchet. In common with the Alliance quest, there are a number of boxes with short respawn times in close proximity to one another. Same directions apply.

The following levels can be approached in several ways.

My personal favourite is pickpocketing. All humanoid mobs, with the exception of the more 'bestial' worgen, yetis and the like, can be pickpocketed for cash and other items. Amongst those other items are vendor trash, occasional potions and (you saw this coming too) junkboxes. If you're pickpocketing mobs of roughly equivalent level to yourself, these boxes will likely be in the difficulty range for you to pick and improve your lockpicking skill. Here's a quick run down of various junkboxes, for the curious or those who just let their lockpicking slide and need to grind it back up:

Battered Junkboxes - lvl 20-30 mobs - Skill 50 to 125
Worn Junkboxes - lvl 30-40 mobs - Skill 75 to 150
Sturdy Junkboxes - lvl 40-50 mobs - Skill 175 to 250
Heavy Junkboxes - lvl 50-60 mobs - Skill 250 to 300

N.B. All skill levels, here and later in this guide, are predicated on the assumption that different boxes change difficulty level at 25 points per level, and as such are approximations. As far as I've been able to test this the theory seems born out. Corrections welcome

Although the drop rate may not seem amazing, over the course of a day's grind you should pick up sufficient boxes to stay on top of your skill.

If this fails, talk to your class trainer. In that first dialogue window, you'll see the option 'Where can I go to improve my lockpicking?'. I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand I can see how it's useful, on the other I recently had the trainer try to send me to Searing Gorge to lockpick boxes in the Slag Pit (I was around level 43 at the time). My feeling is that you can use this advice as a helpful guide, but it's not always practical, and is more often than not a little irritating unless you have access to water-breathing potions, as a number of the boxes are underwater, usually with a few aggressive mobs nearby that have to be vanquished before you can pick them. Personally, I found that a little irritating.

Anyway, on to the numbers:

Hillsbrad Foothills - Skill 95 to 160- Durnholde Keep
Redridge Mountains - Skill 90 to 165 - Lake Everstill
Ashenvale Forest - Skill 75 to 150 - Zoram Strand
Stonetalon Mountains - Skill 115 to 190 - Windershear Crag
Wetlands - Skill 90 to 165 - Murloc Camps, Inland
Wetlands - Skill 110 to 185 - Murloc Camps, Coastal
Desolace - Skill 150 to 225 - Sar'Theris Strand (off northwestern coast)
Badlands - Skill 175 to 250 - Angor Fortress
Badlands - Skill 200 to 275 - Angor Fortress
Swamp of Sorrows - Skill 175 to 250 - Pool of Tears
Searing Gorge - Skill 200 to 275 - Slag Pit
Searing Gorge - Skill 225 to 300 - Slag Pit
Tanaris - Skill 225 to 300 - Lost Rigger Cove
Azshara - Skill 235 to 300 - Bay of Storms
Eastern Plaguelands - Skill 250 to 305 - Tyr's Hand
Zangarmarsh - Skill 305 to 350 - Feralfen Village (Note: These will become yellow at 310, so I suggest skilling up to 325 and then go to Nagrand)
Nagrand - 325 to 350 - Kil'sorrow Fortress

N.B. Once again, numbers predicated upon 25 skill points per level; use as a guide only.

You'll also encounter doors on your travels. These can be used to increase lockpicking skill, but be aware that they all have cooldown timers on them, i.e. you will only be able to gain a skill point from them every twenty-plus minutes. Skill required:

Gnomeregan - Skill Req 150 - Workshop Door
Scarlet Monastery - Skill Req 175 - Armoury and Cathedral
Scholomance - Skill Req 285
Stratholme Gates - Skill Req 300
Blackrock Depths - Skill Req 250 - Doors and Shadowforge
Searing Gorge - Skill Req 225 - Gate
Dire Maul Doors - Skill Req 300

Of course, it's worth noting that instances are general full of humanoid mobs, so one routine would be to pick the door on any of the above, then stealth around pickpocketing everything in sight (with judicious use of distract), lockpick everything you've found outside the instance, reset it, repeat as necessary.

Once you reach skill level 200 or so, another tactic becomes viable; advertising. Across the course of their travels, your fellow adventures may happen across lockboxes which they, lacking your particular skills, will find themselves unable to open (excluding blacksmiths, who can make skeleton keys; it's worth noting those are an expendable reagent though, so they might require your assistance anyway). Travel to any capital city (usually Ironforge or Orgrimmar, where the greatest number of players tend to congregate) and advertise your lockpicking expertise via the trade channel, accessible by typing /2 (default setting) in your chat dialog, followed by your message. I say this becomes viable at 200 because by then you can open a majority of the commonest boxes, as follows:

Heavy Bronze Lockbox - Skill 25 to 100
Ornate Bronze Lockbox - Skill 50 to 125
Iron Lockbox - Skill 70 to 145
Strong Iron Lockbox - Skill 125 to 200
Steel Lockbox - Skill 175 to 250
Reinforced Steel Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Mithril Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Thorium Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Eternium Lockbox - Skill 225 to 300
Reinforced Locked Chest - Skill 250 to 300
Dented Footlocker - Skill 300 to 325
Battered Chest - Skill 325 to 350

You might want to specify in your message which level of lockbox you can open, for example:

/2 Lockpicking all boxes up to Steel Lockbox, Ironforge AH Bridge

Would provide a clear message. It's polite to relate your geographical location to prevent wasting other player's time. You might consider making this into a macro, to save having to type it out each time but beware; repeatedly spamming the trade or other lines will annoy other players and may result in disciplinary action from the GMs.

Q. Are there any items I can use to improve my lockpicking?

A. At present, I can only find one item to improve your lockpicking skill
Dark Leather Gloves

These are listed as improving your lockpicking skill slightly, which appears to equate to a +5 skill buff. Not great, but whilst leveling lockpicking at low levels it can help with those boxes that are so tantalisingly close to being in range.

As an aside, two professions offer items that supplant the lockpicking skill altogether. Blacksmiths gain access to skeleton keys, whilst engineers can create seaforium charges to blow locks open. It's worth noting, however, that both of these things are reagents, and consumed in the process of opening the lock; especially irksome in the case of seaforium charges, which require components that may not be readily available to the engineer.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. I hope this information is useful. Any corrections or additional information may be submitted in the usual fashion.

References:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Lockpicking
http://forums.worldofwar.net/showthread.php?t=289750
http://www.allakhazam.com