The first player in WoW Classic has crafted the legendary staff Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian. Players have been able to farm it since the opening of Naxxramas, but typically need much longer for it. A warlock and his guild were quite lucky with this.
What kind of staff is that? Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian is one of three legendary weapons that players can regularly obtain in WoW Classic. We’ll leave Ashbringer aside due to the many legends surrounding it.
It is also the “last” legendary weapon that can be obtained in the vanilla version of World of Warcraft. Atiesh comes in different variations for druids, mages, priests, and warlocks.
The staff actually belongs to the Guardian of Tirisfal, an important figure in the history of Azeroth. It was last wielded by Medivh until he was defeated. Atiesh then went to Khadgar (who still carries it) – and to the warlock Caranthir, who was the first to obtain the staff in WoW Classic.
Why is it so special? The components of Atiesh drop from the bosses in Naxxramas and must be painstakingly farmed. The chance of obtaining one of these shards is normally only about 30% per boss.
Naxxramas opened on December 3, 2020. Caranthir therefore needed only about five weeks and six IDs for it. 40 shards are required, and 13 bosses can drop the shards per week.
This results in a loot chance of just over 51% per boss, more than one and a half times that of other players. Caranthir is likely among the luckiest players in Classic – even though one guild had even more luck with Thunderfury back then.
Only 5 weeks for the best staff
How to get Atiesh: After collecting the 40 shards in Naxxramas, the corresponding player must assemble them into the base staff of Atiesh. This item starts the questline for the actual staff.
In the course of this, players must first defeat C’Thun, the final boss of Ahn’Qiraj, with their groups and then Kel’Thuzad. These are the two hardest raid bosses in WoW Classic overall.
Finally, players must visit the dungeon Stratholme and defeat the demon Atiesh there. He has over 200,000 hit points. For comparison: some bosses from the Molten Core have 350,000. The group for Atiesh consists of only 5 players, not 40.
Therefore, the staff requires quite a bit of work. But it is worth it.
What makes it so powerful? Depending on the version, the staff has various properties that support both the bearer and his group. In Caranthir’s case, he receives:
- A 2% increased chance to critically hit with spells
- Up to 150 more points of damage and healing from his spells
- An increase for damage and healing from spells of all group members within a radius of 30 meters by 33 points
He can also open a portal to Karazhan, the Tower of the Guardian. This serves as a 10-player raid in the expansion following Classic, The Burning Crusade. Perhaps Karazhan can even be visited again soon – a release date for Burning Crusade Classic has already been leaked.
