NBrookus wrote: »

Spend at least one skillpoint increasing the amount of items you can fence.
Go to Wrothgar or another place with abandoned buildings. Steal everything.
Pop into Outlaws Refuge and fence and launder to the max limit (do both).
Repeat daily.

You should be max level legerdemain in about 10 days.

NBrookus wrote: »

Spend at least one skillpoint increasing the amount of items you can fence.
Go to Wrothgar or another place with abandoned buildings. Steal everything.
Pop into Outlaws Refuge and fence and launder to the max limit (do both).
Repeat daily.

You should be max level legerdemain in about 10 days.

In my experience, this was the most efficient method of leveling legerdemain, though I am certain there are many other effective means as well:

Phase 1 - Make loops around Riften, picking/stealing/laundering/fencing every lockbox in every shop, trade stall, guild hall, bank, home, tavern, etc. Riften is loaded with boxes, which gives good experience towards legerdemain and a fair bit of coin, as lock boxes tend to have higher chances of getting purple items (especially if you can snag a rare motif out of one). Do this until legerdemain rank 6-7, at which point you should have 2 points into pickpocketing passive.

Phase 2 - Go to Auridon, at Skywatch. Here there are probably 100+ Skywatch Celebrants, and every one of them is an "easy" pickpocket. There are also a lot of 'mediums" here, and guards are "hard". The only catch to this is that there is no outlaws refuge here, so get good at hiding. You don't need to clear your bounty every time you get caught. See below for details on avoiding guards. Do this until you get to about legerdemain 15 or so. By this point, it should be almost a guarantee to successfully pick "mediums".

Phase 3 - It's mostly about the pickpocket now - typically I stick to Wayrest or Orsinium. There are medium/hard guards and soldiers everywhere, and plenty of room to hide, plus conveniently placed Outlaws Refuges. You'll likely still want to pick up virtually everything else you see along the way too, even if it's just some stolen rotten food or something, because all stolen items can be laundered or fenced. Be sure to launder all white/junk items and fence greens, blues, and purples (except for motifs and recipes - those should be laundered and sold to other players to fetch a much higher value). After you launder an item (because it does cost you money out of pocket to do so) take those now "clean" goods and pawn them off to a general merchant. You will make back the money you spent to launder everything.

That's basically the gist of it - both myself and a friend of mine found pickpocketing to be far quicker in terms of just leveling (though not the most efficient way to make money from it, which is important to keep in mind), rather than simply relying on killing or laundering junk found from containers. Keep an eye on you fence/launder limits - You're likely going to be stealing enough in one day (if you are really adamant about leveling it up) to meet both limits for each day. This is why you want to save your fence transactions for green-quality or better items. Always be sure to launder any type of motif or recipe that you want to sell to the general public.

Tips for Avoiding Guards:
1. Guards will drop aggro if you put some distance between them, and break line of sight. You do not have to go into stealth or invisible to lose them. Many misconceptions are that NBs are the best for this because they can cloak, but guards can see right through your cloak if you are already in combat. This does not apply if you aren't already engaged with them, or haven't yet been caught. Breaking line of sight is the best way to lose a guard, regardless of class or level.
2. Guards are not immune to all forms of CC - certain things like fear and eclipse can protect you from their chains, talons, and shield charge just long enough to get away. You only need to distract them for a few seconds, then run around a small building. Seriously - I never get beaten up by guards anymore. All I do is fear, then turn a corner and run. If they can't see you, they will give up. DKs can use flappy wings to reflect certain things (like chains, which is a spell projectile) to buy a little time to get away too.
3. Pay attention to where you're running. You won't get away if you run straight to another guard. Your best bet is to run into an alley that opens up to another street on the opposite side. Usually by the time you get to the other side, the guard will have lost sight of you and you can then sneak again. Wayrest and Orsinium are loaded with back alleys.. the perfect means of escaping.
4. While leveling, it's a good idea to have the passive to reduce bounties you willingly pay. It's negligible if you've got the coin, but sometimes going back to the refuge is a pain, and it's easier to just pay off a guard and go back to stealing.

That sums it up for now. I will add more later if I think of anything else!

Edit: Thought of one more thing. Avoid stealing things indoors. If you're indoors, like a bank or a guild hall, and you enter combat with a guard, you are guaranteed to die (because you can't interact with doors while in combat). The only exception here would be in certain buildings where there are no guards, such as the guild halls in Riften (quite a few lockboxes in there).

Edit #2: The reason that pickpocketing is more efficient than merely selling items you picked up off of a counter, table, etc. is because you get 1 point towards legerdemain for successfully pickpocketing, and a point for fencing/laundering said item. The same applies for opening lockboxes. There is a trade-off however, in that you can sometimes find junk white items to launder more quickly than you can find a lock box. When your pickpocketing is high enough, you don't even have to try to pickpocket basically - just walk up while sneaking and hit the button (no waiting for it to turn green or anything, it's glorious!)

Taryf wrote: »

My advice? Steal. Everything. Everyday.
Each day i sell 50 items and launder 50 items.
Launder only food ingredients (chaep way), sell everything (even 1g items. You need exp, not gold)

Best places:
1. Wrothgar. First trader by wayshrine (look left). Easly steal everything.
2. Davon's Watch port (other ports perhaps also). Almost no NPC and a lot of crates on ships.
3. (My favorite) Craglorn. Gem & Flask. Go upstairs and take everything. Go to balcony and steal from crates. Jump down and go to tents near wayshrine. 2-3 runs and You will got 100 stolen items.

Also pick every lock You see, and if You "feel lucky" pickpocket NPCs


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In that way i got 16lvl in skill line in short time (i start to steal at.. 4-6lvl skill) - that is enough to got 4/4 reduce stamina stealth and 3/4 force lock.
I don't waste any points on pickpocket or more items at fence.