Pre-patch 39, GM tinker box were able to be attempted with 76 shown lockpicking (0 detect hidden). As the patch notes confirm this does not make lockpicking easier, has it increased the difficulty of boxes? If difficulty has changed, should be noted in patch notes.
The difficulty of picking locks on locked containers has neither increased nor decreased with patch 39. The detect-hidden bonus to lockpicking simply allows you to begin attempting to unlock a lock at a lower level than was previously possible, by having skill in detect-hidden. Characters with skill in lockpicking but no skill in detect-hidden will see no change.
I haven't tried it myself but 2 people (Phyze being the 3rd) have had problems with 95 lockpicking, and not being able to attempt to open level 4 dungeon chests.
I just got my lockpicker (Tom Brokaw) to 94.5 (real) skill and will be hitting a few of the boxes in the next few days and will confirm on this thread with findings. Note: I have 0 detect hidden.
It's currently based on real skill to determine when you can attempt the chest, So for the time being it takes 95 real skill with zero detect hidden or 90 real skill + 100 detect hidden to attempt a level 4 dungeon chest. This most likely will change for patch 40 as we are still working on it. Detect hidden adds a lockpicking bonus of 1 points for every 20 points of detect hidden.
There has also been reports of inability to work this skill naturally in the game world. Without using crafted boxes, one should be able to take trained skill into the field and attempt low-level containers, right?
Yep it should work fine, however its the ability to re-lock a container that would limit the ability to gain effectively.
It doesn't. Nelvin's naturalist character has been unable to even attempt to pick locks in the field with NPC trained LP. Unless I'm mistaken in that detail. I'll test a bit later.
I can pick the "strongbox" / "metal box" that are commonplace in NPC shoppes from NPC trained LP levels, and some of the random crates that are off to the side (not all, though). I am still able to fail on them, so I guess technically able to gain. I can gain from a ~30ish real Tinker skill lockbox, as well - just don't want to power game it on this particular character. Cannot attempt the lowest level dungeon boxes until 52.0 Real, according to my findings on Test. I guess I will just put this on the back burner on my Naturalist until the next patch addresses it and move forward from there. If there's any testing/etc that needs to be conducted by players to aide in this, just drop me a PM in IRC and I will be glad to assist. I have been looking into DetectHidden as well, because I think the re-use timer is too long, but haven't found anything about skill timers as of yet. Will keep digging a bit here and there, unless the timer is not up for debate. I seem to remember that on my 79.9 DH/20.1 Tracking char I could nearly spam DH every second or so while targeting the ground, which was part of why this setup "worked" even against GM Hiders: You might fail once or twice, but the re-use was so short that it wasn't a big deal if it took 3x to reveal them. EDIT: Something on Detect: (bleh, the link won't go directly to the page, it's under "PROFESSIONS" > "THE DETECTIVE") Which seems to support what I remembered: Targeting the ground (area) was a shorter re-use timer than targeting a specific container. *I know Stratics essays aren't great "proof", but it's a starting point.
