Lockpick

Is a lockpick supposed to have unlimited uses? I've only used mine once, it cost 1500 gold and now it's disappeared from my inventory. I have a horrible feeling I may have accidentally salvaged it

Lockpicks do not have unlimited uses. They can break on the very first use or they might not, but its a slim chance that goes up based on your rank in two titles, Lucky and Treasure Hunter. The higher both of these ranks the more likely you will retain your lockpick.

So I just blew 1500 for nothing in other words lol I think I'll stick to keys in future!

if you arent working on the lucky/unlucky title that would be a good idea.

I usually use keys when the keys cost less than 600 gold after that I use lockpicks. (And if you ever go into hard mode or eye of the north areas--you will need lockpicks as those places dont have keys for chests).

For the longest time I used lockpicks. I was constantly broke, and even if I found something moderately sellable, I'd get 4k on a good day.
I stopped buying lockpicks around the time I got serious about VQ'ing the game, and I now have twice as much money as my previous all time high was...that even after buying 2 elite armors back to back.
If I'd learn to FoWSC and farm more ectos with my rit, I'd have my obby and I'd be at a loss to find new things to do (WoC is just pissing me off, I can't get worked up about it)

There's a hefty analysis of break-even cost of keys versus lockpicks on the wiki.

http://www.guildwiki.org/Lockpick

Enjoy.

If you have access to Nightfall (Kamadan), it's much cheaper to buy lockpicks from players at 1,250 (sometimes you can get them for less than that).

Or get factions and get into an Alliance with a town and buy lockpicks for 1.2k each. Lockpicks are alot more than regular keys but have a lot more value toward titles than just a normal key, and since the minimum cost of a Key to get a point toward treasure hunter is 600g, although you do not gain any unluck/lucky points from these such keys.

Yep, picks may very well break on the 1st use. I usually buy 81 picks for 100 Plat & only ever use them on HM chest runs. I use them for the Treasure Title, not for the practicality of not carrying lots of keys. If it makes you feel better, I did the same thing when I first started playing.

If lockpick makers made quality lockpicks they would make less money, they must have been studying same marketing 101 as in real world lol.

Not that hard to get 81-82 lockpicks for 100k.
Depending on your luck and patience you'll probably get back 60-90% of their cost on higher ranks in the already mentioned titles.

Lockpicks are by far the best way to get unlucky,lucky and treasure hunt title at the same time for the lowest cost (unless you farm like crazy some items that are only available during limited time).

You can see lockpicks as a gambling game: buy a random weapon for 1500g. The gambling is about: what weapon, is it purple or gold, what upgrades, and if the lockpick breaks or not.

It's a money sink. If you don't have enough money, and if you don't intend to raise the associated titles, don't use lockpicks and don't use keys either.

I assume you are a new player. When I was first starting out I remember the same thing. Oh, I'll just buy a lockpick so I won't need to buy keys. Not realizing they can break. And do so often especially when first starting out.

When you are first starting out, don't worry about lockpicks. Just use the keys that drop from enemies to open some chests. And enjoy the questing, hunting, etc.

When starting out in NM, keys are more viable than lockpicks. But, lockpicks are the only way to open chests in Hard Mode. Lockpicks have a base retention rate of around 50%, so they are sort of like a key that costs 750g (or half of whatever you paid for them). As your Lucky and Wisdom titles go up, the failure rate goes down. For some normal mode chests I get a retention rate around 90%.
Before you open a chest, the little box that pops up will tell you what the odds are of retaining your lockpick.

Thanks all, I'm learning a lot from this thread. I'm thinking I shouldn't even be buying keys at this early stage either. I am a noob, I've been playing for about a week now.

If you've been playing for only a week, you're totally off the hook and the confusion is understandable.

Yeah, don't bother with lockpicks until you start playing the game in HM, then you'll dump the concept of using keys almost entirely. Until then, just use the keys that drop as you play along. They're fun and at your level there's a high probability that you'll get some good stuff for your toon.

There are two advantages to lockpicks over keys. First, they are the only "keys" that will open chests in HM. Second, they can open ANY random chest regardless of zone, where-as keys are area specific in NM.

I remember when I first started playing GW on release that I hated the fact that I needed to keep area-specific keys in my inventory.

If you were truly playing since release, you might recall that there were no keys until the Sorrow's Furnace update. Prior to that, chests didn't require a key, but popped out random loot for random party members.

(Gives me a flashback to a Guild member who always tried to get to a chest first because he mistakenly thought you had a better chance to get good items if you were the one to open the chest. What he ended up getting mostly was first chance at the agro. )

I talked to several merchants in towns/outposts in Jade Sea, but lockpicks are still 1.5K each. My Luxon title is higher, I have more unspent Luxon points (9,000+ and Kurzick at 0), and belong to a Luxon Guild. What am I doing wrong? Is there a special person to talk to to get them at 1.2K each?

Yes. There are special merchants you can only access if you are part of the alliance that owns the town. If you look around carefully in lux/kurz outposts you'll find that there are certain sections that are blocked off and can only be accessed by talking to an NPC.