The Art Of The Pickpocket
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iTZKooPA on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 15 Comments Tags: fun macros, glyphs, gold, lockpick, pickpock, pickpocketing
iTZKooPA on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 15 Comments Tags: fun macros, glyphs, gold, lockpick, pickpock, pickpocketing  This is known "in the biz" as the distract method. |
For starters, the D&D-inspired spell is usable on almost any mob, especially anything that was humanoid at one point in time. Creatures, such as wolves, spiders, and the like, is the only mob class that cannot be pickpocketed. Essentially, if it is a sentient being, and not a named mob, then the thief comes out in me. The amount of applicable mobs means that thieving in Azeroth is, like the Internet, serious business.
At the very least, every successful pickpocket will net the evildoer a handful of silver. I say successful because you can "fail," which means the mob saw you before you got the dastardly deed done. Or after, forcing you to kill him instead of sneaking away. Had Blizzard implemented player housing, Solidsamm's humble abode would no doubt be filled of books, effigies and other junk. Once he opened that closet door and became buried in a mountain of gray items and forced to live on his mother's preserves, he would think twice about his storage and let the vendors deal with it.
It isn't all junk and silver though. Pickpocketing is incredibly useful while you are leveling up, since it becomes an easy way to level your Lockpicking skill as well. If you can pickpocket a mob, then you can also score yourself junkboxes. Although they are highly unusual and likely clumsy items to steal, they allow us to skill up, and even drop some rogue-centric goodies such as poisons, potions and more vendor trash. Then there is the item class that actually perked this whole discussion, food.
I was chatting with my GM during my dailies this morning and found out that he was hard at work on acquiring his Everlasting Underspore Frond, an incredibly awesome item given out during the leveling period in TBC. For me, the item was cast aside once I started needing far more than the 4500 HP it recovers. Rather than sitting for 90 seconds to fill up, I just ate better food. His reasoning? He was sick of having to pay for food, something that I don't think my rogue has ever done. By pickpocketing every mob that I come across, Solidsamm often ends up way ahead of his food consumption by the end of the day, and it isn't crappy food. This stuff often fills me up well before the timer runs out. It seems to have taken me 4+ years to realize just how awesome pickpocketing is, not that I ever doubted its usefulness.
Here are two useful things you may not have realized about the ability:
- If you pickpocket a mob before you attack him, you can estimate how much money he will drop. I discovered this during my Tyr's Hand farming days, an invaluable finding that allowed me to maximize my monetary income during those hard times. Elite mobs drop 3-4 times the amount you pick from their soon to be empty pockets. If you pick a small amount, then simply move on. With the advent of dailies, this is far less useful.
- Screwing with other citizens is always fun. Most players know this isn't possible, but it still gets some player's panties in a bunch. Just run around your favorite city with the following macro: /me pickpockets %t for 3g4s6c.
If you ever wonder why the rogue in your party is taking so long to sap a mob, now you know. My fellow rogues, have you done your unfair share of looting lately?
Reader Comments (15)
NIce
lol man I wanna play me rouge now....2nd?
I love PP. A few times I've gotten a blue gem from it. ^^ or just a nice dose of health potions
On my weekly Baron runs in Strat, I also hit up the living side, just to sneak around and pickpocket everyone. Money is money is money, and if all I have to do is hit one button, count me in.
Its the first thing I do always. I have gotten tons of health potions and food with it. To be honest it has kept me from buying either since i picked up the skill.
here's a handy lil' macro i made up soon on, and would list its benefits but you basically did it for me
On top of the reg. pick pocket button for if you're not messin with the mobs, now you can not even think about pickpocketing and reap its benefits.
Because Pick Pocketing doesn't use up a global cooldown, heres what you do:
Make sure AutoLoot is turned On
Make a macro:
#showtooltip {opener}
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast {opener}
{opener} can be anything, from sap to ambush to cheap shot
example:
#showtooltip {opener}
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast Ambush
Then, whereeever you have that ability on your action bars, replace it with the macro.
What will happen:
You run up to a mob and click your opener
As you look at your attacking mob, a quick loot screen will open and close in the top left part of your screen. (This loot window lasts at a maximum of half a second)
As your fighting, little objects go into your inventory
Finally, you WTFPWN your enemy
I found it annoying to have to click on Pick Pocket on every mob, even with its benefits. since that macro, it hasn't even crossed my mind. All you fellow Rogues (yes, thats R-O-G-U-E-S) out there use it, you'll love it.
The only complaint i've seen is that if its a beast, a tiny error message will pop up (like can't do that while stunned kinda thing or not enough energy) and then dissapear.
All dem fellO rogues out there, enjoy!!!
-Biggest PL Fan and Altaholic ever
If a rogue couldn't PP i think i would have quit.
Autoloot on (or shift + click macro)
/cast sap
/cast pickpocket
/cast (whatever opening you like best)
is my favorite macro ever. I am the one who farmed the isle for the nightblade (sorry for not killing all the mobs other rogues).
Also, to those that complain that it takes to long (no me with autoloot) part of PPing is showing ur skillz. When a group really wants to "run" through an instance that is when i am sad. Although with this macro (even though you are in combat and can't sap it still PP the target before i swing and since the target has other focus I rarely get caught.)
Rogue 4 the Win!!
I'd avoid pickpocketing in parties before you sap. It can be "resisted" and you aggro. If the healer tries to save you, its a wipe.
Additionally, sapped mobs can resist pickpocket and put you in combat. Take heed.
I don't pickpocket in groups, (especially not since nobody wants CC anymore, so I'm not sapping anyone anyway) because wiping the group for a handful of greedy silver isn't cool. I do love picking pockets when by myself, though. I often wish I could just get some of the "Collect X number of Y items" quests done by picking pockets instead of by murder.
PP also is one of the reasons I rolled a rogue, and am still trying to get her to 80!
That, and the fun of sneaking behind a humanoid mob, stealing from them, then BACKSTAB before they see anything coming :D
Koopa.... I didn't want it JUST because im sick of paying for food. I wanted it so that when im at 95% life I don't waste good food on a small heal. In addition today was the last day my shaman's account was active so I figured if I was going to dual box underbog, today would be the day to do it.
:)
I'm levelling my 2nd rogue now (sue me!) and I always have more lockboxes than needed to level my lp at the end of a level (since you're lp skill is level * 5). I also use a pickpocket macro with the mod lightfingers (only autoloots on pp) :)
I love my rogue and PP makes a healthy gold return when used regualrly
But dont forget the most holy of PP reward Krol Cleaver and Spineslicer. These drop from Junk boes (Reinforced), so pick pocketing increase change to get the boses, therefore increase chance to get these amazing items
@ rhev how do you get the everlasting underspore frond? is it just grinding out underbog?
and i have a rogue myself, yes it is my main and i did get a good dagger but i sold it a while ago as i got better items but it was the dagger of (some animal name i can't remember) but i was wondering are there any other weapons other than the krol cleaver, spineslicer, and nightblade that drop from boxes?
i also find it a pain to level my lockpicking skill and i have found that in groups no one wants to wait for you to pickpocket sadly.
demondagger
executus
On my rogue i always enjoy pickpocketing bosses...mainly because it shows how sneaky i can be...but it also gets me a little extra cash...i remember one shattered halls run where i was picking pockets and i had a macro at the time just for fun...it was:
/cast pickpocket
/s i got your wallet!
after a few times my group members asked me what i was doing so i told them i was picking their pockets...they thought i was joking because they forgot rogues had the ability...then i did it again and got a potion and it showed up in the loot so they beleived me....eventually someone said (jokingly) i should count the money and split it up...the rest of a run was a continued joke about me stealing wallets and how i was probably grabbing more than just pockets...it was a fun night hehe