Lets talk about Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian in Retail

Community General Discussion
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So! For anyone who does not know what this item or weapon is, it is the legendary caster staff from the original pre-wotlk Naxxramas, had an incredibly good questline tied to it and the model is insanely clean looking, i’m sure there’s the “Project30” twinkers and collectors alike still looking to get it.

And now to the main point of the discussion; Bringing it back, the why, the how and all the rest of it:

WHY?:

  • Very few people ever got it to begin with, so to let basically 99% of the rest of the playerbase to obtain it.

  • It’s been so long already, and there is no excuse not to add it as being obtained again considering both the weapon and the wotlk naxx are level 30+ items / content now.

  • It’s still the only legendary weapon appearance we still can not get for no reason other than the splinters not being available, everything needed for the questline will still work perfectly in the retail version of the game, except storywise, but most of that old content has already been changed up / retconned or made completely irrelevant a decade ago regardless

  • Think of the collectors and Achievement / Transmog Collectionists or Completionists

THE HOW:
How should we obtain it were it to return?

  • The Splinters of Atiesh could be tied to the special Naxxramas vendor tokens for one, or as possible random boss drops (like they were originally) to the Naxxramas bosses again

  • It could be a pricy crafting goldsink progress much like the T3 sets are

  • Perfect chance to introduce more of those cool old world questlines like we’ve had recently with the unlocking of the old Scholomance in retail once again

I’ll try to make this quick and concise, Share toughts below, and for any naysayers; come tell your opinions aswell if you disagree and the reason why :exclamation:

5 Likes
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The reason I stopped playing Classic was because people told me I could never get Ateish as a transmog in retail. All types of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is draconian design and punishes people for not playing the game 24/7 for years on end.

4 Likes
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fair enough.

loud slurp from soda. Uh huh.

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It’s also something that very few people even in current classic will ever get to experience, and a huge chunk of the playerbase exclusively play retail for one reason or an another, FOMO for something like atiesh applies considerably more because barely anyone ever got their hands on the staff to begin with in the original vanilla, it just doesn’t make sense for it not to be obtainable in retail, and i’ve been wanting that freaking appearance eversince i heard and stumbled upon it on wowhead after looking it up during legion

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There was a thematically similar staff in the Trading Post a while back… Somethingsomething Guardian. To me it looked stupid, because the bird on the top of the staff had its wings spread, which looked off.

EDIT:
Found it!

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/23944892/pay-homage-to-medivh-with-the-guardian-pack-transmog-set

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yep, and only one way to earn that Atiesh feat of strenght anyways!

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I really liked what they did with Naxrammas. You can get the old sets now, but the journey there is only for the most dedicated collectors out there.

So I see no reason why Atiesh should not form part of that grueling process.

Especially because of this:

The reason so few people got it is because so few people actually raided in Naxxramas. It was a time where the “seasonal” design was still in its infancy. And with out catch up gear and proper progression most of the guilds were tiers behind in progress/farming.

They fixed that really quick in TBC…

And the “failure” of Naxramas raid was so… deep… in the Devs heart that it was one of the reasons why they put in WotlK.

1 Like
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Sure why not?

This item.is actually so incredibly rare I have only seen one person in 20 years.

But don’t make it a gold sink. Not everyone enjoys the gold making side of the game. Make it a actually good long quest chain with some grind

3 Likes
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making it a gold sink is merely a suggestion, one of many ways it could be done but definetly on the less preferrable end, but it would be so swell to be added back

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not fair .share your soda

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Getting Atiesh back in the day was a monumental achievement. It took 40 dedicated players showing up, week after week, overcoming one of the most unforgiving, end tier raids the game had to offer. And unlike today where we have guides, addons, optimized strats, and minmaxing down to a science, back then, players were figuring it out as they went. There were no safety nets, no conveniences, just raw effort, coordination, and a bit of thottbot. And of course, one lucky player would get to be the wielder.

The staff remained obtainable up (if memory serves) until Cataclysm, still requiring a big time investment, but at least it was there for those willing to put in the effort (it was far from easy, even later on).

I get the appeal of wanting something that was removed from the game. Personally, I would have loved (having mained a mage for years) to own it, simply because it’s an item steeped in WoWs deepest lore & tied to major characters. Back when lore actually mattered and wasn’t just flavour text.

Fomo is real, and I dislike it just as much as anyone here. But bringing back yet another significant item just to please the insatiable masses? Hard pass. Not because I’m just some bitter oldschool player clutching a pitchfork, but because some things in an MMO should stay exclusive. And yes, I know Blizzard gave out the Ashbringer skin, and yes, they’ve brought back other previously rare items. But not everything needs to be obtainable again. Some things should remain legendary, not just by name but by meaning.

In my 19 years of playing retail WoW, I’ve seen maybe three (3) players with Atiesh. And every time, I stopped. I admired. It meant something. It was a symbol of prestige, of effort, of something truly rare. Tossing it onto a vendor with just a timegated currency grind? I am sorry but that would cheapen it beyond belief. Just like they’ve cheapened T3 sets. If you have a mountain of gold, then you are a T3 owner.

If you hate my point of view, and I know many of you will, just halt for a moment and imagine a capital city overflowing with players equipped with what were once unobtainable, hard earned relics, items that once meant something, but now? Just another checkmark in a bloated collection. Where the only remaining measure of greatness is your seasonal score, and everything else is just forgettable decoration.

We already have an ocean of transmogs, monthly “freebies” from the Trading Post, and old raids still dropping fantastic loot. We are surely not out of options.

If Blizzard caves in and just starts handing out the unobtainables as a cheap player retention tactic, I’d be very disappointed but surely not surprised.

1 Like
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I think it should have never been unobtainable.

Why can’t I get this staff but I can still get tarregossa?
Or the hammer from ulduar or the axe fro ICC?

Either let us farm all old legys or no old legys.

3 Likes
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the staff was only available till the end of TBC, not cataclysm, it was made unavailable immediately with wotlk’s prepatch and the replacement of the original Naxxramas, less than a few dozen ever got it, so practically nobody, it was once available for a very short amount of time and there is no real reason not to add it in the present, we have every other old legendary still available, which also were, and still are monumental grinds.

even moreso calling any legendary in the game a monthly trading post freebie is just ignorant, even the most basic ones need incredible luck, the others months of grinding or epic questlines, Atiesh in that manner is no different

1 Like
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Or, maybe some legendaries can remain exclusive without it being an all-or-nothing situation? The fact that some are still obtainable doesn’t mean every single one has to be. Part of what makes certain items feel special is their history and the effort it took to obtain them at the time.

Not every legendary needs to follow the same rulebook.

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every single other legendary is still obtainable, why the one nobody ever got should be any different? there’s no mechanical hassles to adding it back, it can’t even be considered exclusive, it’s just nonexistent, the few accounts that did ever get it have been sold around and permanently banned, and every other legendary is STILL a rare admirable status icon, by your logic even the T3 armor and other naxx weapons should be completely unavailable but they were made available through CRAFTING. they still hold the status as flashy rare pieces nonetheless

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I get that Atiesh was removed earlier than I stated (my bad on the timing), but that only reinforces its rarity. It wasn’t meant to be a grindable legendary like others, it was a reward for players who raided Naxx when it was the pinnacle of difficulty.

The fact that “practically nobody” got it is THE POINT, it’s a relic of that era. Not every legendary needs to be treated the same way. Some items were meant to be a testament to a very specific time in WoW’s history. Atiesh isn’t just another grind, it’s tied to the prestige of old-school Naxx. If you start handing out everything just because “it existed once” you dilute what little remains of WoW’s historical significance. I am not sure why this is so hard for some players to grasp.

Also, I didn’t call legendaries themselves trading post freebies, I was pointing out how much content we already have access to. There’s no shortage of cool items in the game. We don’t need to strip away what little exclusivity remains just for the sake of completionism.

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they have given us everything from the original naxx anyways for years, since pandaria through the BMAH. or now with crafting which is more expensive, there’s no reason to signify bad design as an excuse not to add something back where absolutely nobody loses when and if it is, and thunderfuries and sulfurases were also barely obtained by anyone back then. It wasn’t till wrath of the lich king where they really started popping up because people could finally start soloing or 3 manning molten core, over 15 years later and here we are, thunderfury is still an insanely appreciated and loved weapon which an insane amount of players are STILL farming, Keeping Atiesh as is is like adding something really cool into the game files, making it available for a day and randomly giving it to 10 people who logged in only for 9 of the 10 people to never show up again, it’s not a status symbol at all, it’s bad FOMO design where everybody loses if nobody can get it and nobody has it but it still existed

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We’re just not going to agree on this. You see old, removed items as a mistake that needs fixing. I see them as part of WoW’s history. Some things being rare and unobtainable isn’t bad game design, it’s what keeps them meaningful.

And no, Atiesh isn’t like a one day giveaway, it was a grind that required dedicated raiders at the highest level of play at the time. Just because other legendaries became more accessible later doesn’t mean EVERY single one should follow that path.

Again: we have more transmog options, more loot sources, and more customization than ever. Not everything needs to be added to the pile. You don’t have to agree, but that’s where I stand, and I am not backing down on it.

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Well, currently Atiesh is missing; maybe they would create a new HD version as a caster legendary in the next raid.

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naw, Naxxramas - the classic one - was removed, revamped and moved to WoTLK, like Onyxia Lair. Transmodification was introduced in Cata so many, many items “were lost to time”. I think that Corrputed Ashbringer still makes you firendly with scarlet crusader and you still get access to their vendors that way, but you won’t be obtain it anymore.

Didn’t done attument quest and didn’r raid and didn’t have enough luck back days? Well sorry to be you :wink: and you had like 6 months to get it done bfore TBC was released.