What level to start lock picking.

[Bitly]

I've recently started a little rogue and have been 3x in picking and disarming and while picking my own boxes am still breaking lock picks left and right. I'm only at level 4 at the moment, is there some tipping point at which it becomes realistic to start opening boxes? I'm breaking picks so often it's not worth it at the moment.

[Larch]

Depends on your ability to tolerate broken picks/loss of life. You could start now and suffer the occasional death and silver cost to replace picks. You could start when you pick up 403/404 and always use those, taking experience loss in exchange for safety. Or you could wait until lvl 15.

At level 4, you can use an alum pick (https://gswiki.play.net/Lockpicks) and should be able to pick pretty much any box in your level range, but it'll still break from time to time and cost you 23k to buy. Glaes picks are strong and cost 9.5k with a decent pick modifier. I wouldn't want you picking near me though because if your box is trapped there's a good chance you won't detect it or will set it off trying to disarm it.

I focused all my stats and skills towards hunting when under level 15 (high STR, DEX, AGI, LOG, THW, CM, Dodge) and then switched to my long-term picker build. At 15 you start to approach being a full-fledged picker when 3x pick/disarm with guild access, vaalin picks, and enough training to feel reasonably safe. But many people start picking for the public before that.

[Taernath]

My 2x rogue was able to pick his own boxes reliably from about 10 onwards, but the key is to get better lockpicks than the coppers and silvers you find as loot.