Picking a few points from capping and having issues with temple boxes

[Neovik1]

Is it typical to get -1400 locks from the temple in teras? Last night I ran into two and couldn't get a read on them with a pick. Calipers were reading around -1400.

I'm assuming I'm gonna have to start loading up on enhancive if I want to be able to pick everything and not cheat with a wedge.

I broke a few picks hoping I'd get an amazingly lucky roll. Got a 120 on one and still no go...

For awhile I was sitting at 280 ranks and I was fine with everything in the rift... Made one trip to Terras and couldn't get a box so I dumped all the training points I was saving to ring me a few points why from 300 ranks... Which didn't help :(

[Neovik1]

Bah I need coffee... I frakked up that subject and doing it on a phone doesn't help...

[Buckwheet]

With lores? I have a 303 with lore picker and there is the occasional box from Nelemar I can't open as well.

[Neovik1]

Yep with lores, I never had issue with any boxes from there until the last few nights.

[Methais]

Was it a sentry box?

[Neovik1]

Not sure. Raincail brought them to me in FWI.

[Victorj]

Temple boxes cap at -1435 I believe. That being said, I've never seen anything over -1400. I have seen a ton in the -1350+ range though, with the highest being -1395.

[Gibreficul]

Right Victorj... Temple boxes can spike to -1435, and those are from sentries and magus, I believe. Radicals and defender boxes can get the -1350 range.

I never really had a huge issue with those boxes, but I do have some enhansives, 303 pick ranks, selfcast lore, and exceptional quality vaalin picks. In Shattered... yeah, I just wedge those fuckers. I have no enhansives in Shattered, so no sense in breaking picks.

[Neovik1]

Yeah... I should of just wedged those fuckers too... I though I would get an incredible roll by luck and break my record. Didn't happen...

[MrMortimur]

Join a bard for song of luck if you want better attempts at record breaking.

[Candor]

A question for the master locksmiths:

Isn't maxing dodging skills a higher priority than maxing lockpicking/disarming skills?

[Jeril]

If you are a master locksmith you are more interested in picking locks then hunting. You can also get by with just 2x dodge training unless you plan on hunting the scatter, then you'd probably want more, everywhere else is pretty easy.

[Candor]

If you are a master locksmith you are more interested in picking locks then hunting. You can also get by with just 2x dodge training unless you plan on hunting the scatter, then you'd probably want more, everywhere else is pretty easy.

There was a time when a master locksmith could make a decent living (silver tips, minor experience) just by opening boxes. Those days appear to be gone. Many people now just go to the town NPCs to get their boxes opened. I rarely hear anyone on the amulet asking for help with their boxes anymore.

If you want to be able to say: "Hey I can open almost any locked box", then 3x disarm/picking is important to you. But these days, I'm thinking that capability isn't worth much, except for personal satisfaction. For the training price of going from 2x-3x disarming/picking, you can go from 2x-3x dodging. It would seem that achieving 3x disarming/picking should be a later goal for most folks these days.

[Neovik1]

It sucks that most people just go to the town locksmith. But there are still people out there that don't. But I can't blame the people that go to the town locksmiths. Every time I go to the east tower (landing) and the well (Icemule) it's empty.

Either way I really enjoy picking. Of course the rewards aren't there if you are a full time picker but to me I still enjoy it. I'd be perfectly fine just picking over hunting if I have a steady supply. Damn I'm really turning into Rlen by saying that...

As for training, I maxed out picking and only have disarm up to 280 (I have an enhancive just in case), but for the most part I've yet to see any trap I couldn't disarm. I can still go do bandits and plane 4 without issue with only 2x dodge and 1x shield wearing FGB.

[Jeril]

There was a time when a master locksmith could make a decent living (silver tips, minor experience) just by opening boxes. Those days appear to be gone. Many people now just go to the town NPCs to get their boxes opened. I rarely hear anyone on the amulet asking for help with their boxes anymore.

If you want to be able to say: "Hey I can open almost any locked box", then 3x disarm/picking is important to you. But these days, I'm thinking that capability isn't worth much, except for personal satisfaction. For the training price of going from 2x-3x disarming/picking, you can go from 2x-3x dodging. It would seem that achieving 3x disarming/picking should be a later goal for most folks these days.

Even if you aren't opening many of other peoples boxes at cap with 3x pick/disarm you can easily open 99.9999% of your open boxes and save a good chunk of silver that way. All in what you want though. I know with 3x dodge I certainly die less then when I was 2x dodge but even back then I was only averaging 1 death a week or so.

[Kaldonis]

People still do the East Tower; I was this morning and hanging out with another picker, actually. I grabbed my sorcerer 30 ranks of picking & disarming recently (up to 35 now...not sure my target, 40 or 50?) and feed him boxes with a mid-20s alt. It's just rare that anyone comes to the Tower with a box Kaldonis can't get (anyway, he can pop up to minotaur worst case), since with Lore he can usually even get stone giant boxes and most of Darkstone (the Landing being pretty easy in that range). Typically the people asking me for help have very low level stuff, even nymphs and lesser shades boxes are common (which surprises me because you can hunt level 2 stuff for what, a whole couple hours?).

The trick is you need to sit there for an hour plus usually before you get a customer. But once you get a customer, they'll come back a few times within the next hour usually at the least, and bringing a friend isn't uncommon. However, these will not usually be difficult boxes. Indeed, I can rarely ever find a picker for minotaur boxes, even after checking TSC, the East Tower, LNet, and the amulet. I think if we got more people dedicated to camping the Tower, it can get a positive feedback loop perhaps.

But given how easy the boxes are that are commonly brought, it's hard to imagine 3x picking is actually worth it unless you have a lot of capped friends to hoard boxes for you. You're basically just making it harder to get experience IMO. But, I'm a n00b at all this....

[Kalishar]

I 2x picking and disarm and get most of my own boxes, but I'm not really one to sit around in the tower. It's kind of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of situation.

No one sits in the tower, people get tired of asking for pickers and go to the town locksmith. When you do sit in the tower, sure you get some customers, but usually like maybe 2-3 people an hour? Bores the shit out of me.

So I just put the SERVICE verb to work and forget about it. If people contact me and I got got spare time I help them out, but I don't wait around and delay hunting/lfm guild work for it.