Knifey's Lockpicking Discovery
Keys are for honest people, and Knifey has been happy to bypass as much security as possible. I've been helped by relieving suckers of their locked containers, found by picking their pockets, and unlocking them to raise my skill level. But there are only so many pockets to pick and locked containers to find, so it's handy that my class trainer knows where there are some lockboxes scattered around the world where I can practice my lockpicking skills.
At first, the lockboxes are easy to find and practice on. Starting in Redridge Mountains with only the threat of an occasional passing spider I was able to stand within reach of four lockboxes and, like a trained monkey, unlocked each of them such that the first had respawned by the time I got to the third. Easy lockpicking skill improvements! From there I was able to get locked containers from suckers often enough to improve, and there were some lockboxes in The Cauldron in Searing Forge that were straightforward enough to get to.
It was when I got closer to level 60 that my trainer started to annoy me. Go to the seas of Azshara or Tyr's Hand, he says, for there are lockboxes there that you can practice on. Great, I can spend my time swimming, risking the occasional elite giant, or I can take on the might of the Scarlet Crusade elite guards in Tyr's Hand, just to practice lockpicking. After one fateful trip to Tyr's Hand I decided that Azshara was probably a safer location, and whilst it certainly is safer it is also almost bereft of lockboxes. I can spend half-an-hour swimming without finding one, which is a pretty pointless use of my time, and that's without having to get to one of the most remote corners of Azeroth first. I decided that I would rely on looting containers from mobs for the time being.
My mind was changed when my friends and I decided to head in to Blackrock Depths. We got our group together and headed down in to the, uh, depths of Blackrock Mountain, pausing only to say hello to Overmaster Pyron with our swords. Rather than trudge through the dozens of mobs I wanted to get to the heart of the dungeon, so headed to the door to the left of the entrance. The locked door, which requires the Shadowforge key to open. Of course, no one had the Shadowforge key yet, not having completed the quest to get it, so the Shadowforge was closed to us and the doors could not be opened. But they could be picked, and I had the skill to do it.
I picked the lock on the first door, and that leads to the second door, which I also picked. There may have been a third door to pick, I'm not sure, as I was a bit dizzy from all the excitement of seeing my lockpicking skill improve faster than it had in the past month, but I know that after all the doors I then had the lock on the Shadowforge itself to pick. More lockpicking skill improvement! I felt a bit dumb that I hadn't considered this before, nor remembered about these locked doors. I know they are there now, and I'll be going back to improve my lockpicking skills further once I gain a new level. I'll pop in to Dire Maul's library soon too, as I have a neat book to show them.