See what I go through to get you the juiciest beta information? That's three sharks I'm fighting off, all for you! Those things are vicious... but they were clearly have not been reading the beta forums, because they had no idea how overpowered Paladins are right now. But enough chatter: time for your questions!

Hoops asked....

How much gold roughly would you get from questing 70-77 (until you unlock the flying mount)? I was wondering if it would it be worth farming money beforehand or would the money from questing be enough.

I'm not 77 yet, so I can't exactly address the question as asked, but I can tell you that I've made about 400g leveling from 70 to 72. That's just from questing, vendoring trash & unneeded greens -- and it includes some stupid deaths, plenty of repair bills(I blame Dalaran for many of them!) , and training a couple of professions (35g to train a primary profession to the next skill level and 100g to train a secondary profession to the next skill level).

For more on money-making in Wrath -- and other questions! -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving things away here and there.

I was just chatting with my colleagues here at WoW Insider about Blizzard's apparent neglect of their old content (since the expansion zones actually start at 68, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon are basically useless once Wrath comes around), and now here's another sign that Blizzard wants out with the old and in with the new. We had rumored this a while ago, but now it's been confirmed by the CMs: Old school Naxxramas is going to disappear forever when the dungeon moves up north to become a raid in Wrath of the Lich King.

Which means if you want to see Naxx in its 40 man version, do it now -- I believe, as I said way back when we first heard about this, that this is the first time Blizzard has removed major content from the game completely (though it's certainly not the first time they've removed something, poor Captain Placeholder). This, of course, also leaves up in the air what's going to happen to all the items around Naxx -- what about Atiesh? Not to mention lore -- we hear that the fact that a group of players beat KT and took his phylactery and returned it to the Argent Dawn is mentioned in the expansion already -- but how did that happen if the dungeon won't be there any more?

Blizzard will probably clean it all up, and I'm sure that out of game, it'll make enough sense. But it's a shame to officially hear that 40 man Naxxaramas as we know it, the jewel of patch 1.11, will soon be gone forever.

A Discussion of the newly dropped Thori'dal bought up a lively discussion on Legendary weapons in my guild chat the other day, which has in turn set my own mental wheels turning. Looking at the difference between the pre-Burning Crusade Legendaries and the Burning Crusade Legendaries, there's one big difference that stands out (beyond the level difference): The pre-BC Legendaries were quested, while the BC Legendaries have been drops.

The clear-cut off seems to suggest that at some point, Blizzard decided that creating long, involved quests in order to obtain Legendary weapons just wasn't the way to go, and they'd rather let the RNG take care of distributing Legendaries. But the question is, did they make the right choice? There's good arguments for both sides.

When Byrthor asks whether folks attuned for the old Naxx will be attuned for it when it returns in Wrath, Drysc answers with what will sound like music to most raiders' ears: there is no attunement planned for the new Naxx. Blizzard learned their lesson in Burning Crusade about wacky attunements, and so while they're likely not gone from the game completely, there will probably be fewer barriers to raiding, especially early on in progression.

There is something else about this thread that irks me a bit, however. In the past day, the CMs have been hit with tons of questions about Wrath of the Lich King, and in almost all cases, the answer has been the same: maybe. Why don't they know what's going on? Because all indications are, guys, that Wrath hasn't even been designed yet. Blizzard hasn't determined if Atiesh will show up, or if flying mounts will work, or if we'll each get our own Arthas windup doll, because the expansion is still way into the planning stages. It's fine to be ready for 2.2, or excited about 2.3, or interested in what we might see in the Sunwell. But if you're excited to find out what's in the next expansion, have a seat and take a deep breath, because it's going to be a long, long time before the CMs can even know anything worth not telling us. Ya dig?

That said, I can't fault players for being excited about upcoming content, no matter how far off it is. But it does make me wonder about Blizzard's focus. They could just as easily had us playing Zul'Aman or even the Sunwell at BlizzCon-- both of those will show up long before Northrend will. With Wrath so far away, why did they push it so hard at BlizzCon? Why didn't they just announce it, and leave the rest of the hype to something we'll actually see before the Beijing Olympics?

Considering that Kel'Thuzad is basically "the boss of shipping WoW" (according to Metzen at BlizzCon), then Atiesh, the Legendary caster item that once belonged to Medivh, is the greatest item in levels 1-60. But we're at level 70 now, and when we get to level 80, Atiesh, a Legendary item, might end up looking more like a stick than anything else. So Asheen asks, knowing that Naxx is set to be "repurposed" for our trip to Northrend: will Atiesh make a return?

It's a cool idea. Bornakk says, "Maybe." There are a few tangles in the plan: currently, Atiesh requires a trip to C'thun in AQ to get the base (I believe because Brann Bronzebeard put it there), which is a 40 man raid that most guilds don't want to bother with. And of course the stats would need some updating-- it's a nice staff, but not exactly a Legendary level 80 any more. And finally, the staff provides a portal to Karazhan, and at level 80, will that really be as amazing as it used to be?

Bornakk also says the lore needs to be set in place, but that's a copout-- Blizzard can do whatever they want (what if the Kirin Tor decided to repurpose Atiesh and combined it with a new base that didn't need to come from AQ40?). But the biggest issue with bringing back Atiesh is that there's so many other good items that could just replace it. Medivh's staff is hardly the most important item in the game any more, and as Bornakk points out, even though Medivh had great power, it didn't necessarily all come from his staff.

I can't wait to see Naxx's new purpose in WotLK, but there are too many old items floating around for Blizzard to worry about updating. I'd rather see new legendaries, and maybe even some artifacts, come out of the new Naxx and Northrend.

Veteran readers of the blog will remember when the world first of this baby dropped, but now that everyone's 70, maybe you too can get a raid rolling in Naxxaramas, and obtain for yourself the legendary (literally) weapon of Medivh.

Name: Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian
Type: Legendary Staff
Damage/Speed: 130-243 / 2.90 (64.4 DPS)
Abilties:

• There are actually four different versions of the staff-- Warlock, Mage, Priest, and Druid. You can see all of them over at WoW Wiki-- they all increase spell damage and/or healing of the equipper (the Druid one increases AP in feral forms as well), but they also have a party bonus, too. The Druid gives 11mp5, the Mage increases spell crit strike of the entire party, the Warlock grants 33 spell damage to the party, and the Priest gives 62 healing to everyone in the party.
• Additionally, all of the versions will do something very special: create a portal to Karazhan. Nowdays, players go to Karazhan all the time, so it's not that big a deal, but back when this staff came out, no one had ever been there, and so cracking open a portal was pretty cool
• And the staff grants various amounts of Stamina, Intellect or Spirit, depending on the version you have.
• Unfortunately, the stats are no longer that great-- they're incredible for level 60, but at level 70, it's pretty easy to come by equivalent (or even better) stats, and therefore, not really worth the trouble to obtain the staff. But then again, there is an immense amount of value in the lore of this item, considering that it was owned by Medivh himself.
• Why, might you ask, does something so awesome look so plain? Don't judge a book by its cover, son-- that model, though plain, matches the models used in Warcraft 2 and 3. This is a legendary item, and real power is inside. Also, spectral birds sometimes appear flying around the staff. So that's kind of cool.
• Also, the Shade of Aran (who is of course Medivh's father) will be kind of surprised if you show up to fight him with this thing on

How to Get It: In many ways, this is the final goal of shipping WoW. To get the item, you have to first collect 40 Splinters of Atiesh, which drop from different bosses in Naxxaramas, which means you need to run the place a few times. Then, once you've got those together, you can combine them to make the Frame of Atiesh. Once you've got that, you head off to Anachronos, the great big dragon near the Caverns of Time in Tanaris.

He'll send you in search of the Staff Head of Atiesh, which Kel'Thuzad has gotten his grubby little hands on. He's trying to put the staff back together, and the Argent Dawn is fighting against him, so if you can nab the Head away from him, more power to you. And the Base of Atiesh is the other item you'll need, and it drops from C'thun, the end boss of AQ40. See what I mean about this being the final goal?

After you've done all that, Anachronos will reassemble the staff for you, but wait! It's corrupted! (Figures.) You then take it into Stratholme, and run an event in which you can vanquish the evil spirit from the staff. Along the way, you can pick up another legendary item, a 1h sword that's freakin' awesome, but disappears after only a few minutes. After you defeat the spirit, you're then allowed to claim the staff, giving you the world's phattest loot-- of 2006.

Getting Rid of It: The Greatstaff of the Guardian! The staff of Medivh himself, shattered when Archimonde destoryed Dalaran! Reassembled from shards dropped by ancient demons and cleansed by the most powerful of Azeroth's heroes! And a vendor will give you 18g 45s 58c for it. Go figure.

Curse Gaming has posted videos of three huge worldfirst events lately: the killing of Sapphiron (D&T did it first, but Beyond Redemption is shown in the vid), Nihilum's downing of Kel'Thuzad, and Risen's crafting of the the worldfirst of Atiesh.

If you're already read up on these three, the videos won't tell you much more-- watching people do this stuff is, of course, never as fun as doing it. But if you haven't made it to Naxx yet, or haven't participated in extreme endgame content, it's neat to get a look at it-- especially through the eyes (and UI mods) of some of the best players in the game.

Well, Risen's guild website is back up after the beating it recieved when they crafted the worldfirst of Atiesh, and it appears this new Legendary staff is even cooler than previously thought. Not only does it have some crazy stats worth of a Legendary item, and not only can it open a portal directly to the previously unseen zone of Karazhan, but apparently this thing even spawns Legendary items of its own.

Paladinsucks has a picture of a sword called Andonisus, Reaper of Souls, which is supposedly a brand new Legendary mainhand sword that makes Thunderfury look like a pointy piece of metal. But there's a catch-- the sword is supposed to be a conjured item (via a usage of Atiesh) that only works in Stratholme, and only for 10 minutes (or 15? or until logout?). Risen's forum has lots of people asking about Andonisus, but not a lot of answers-- one post suggests it can only be spawned during one boss fight, and another forum says it only spawns for the server first of Atiesh.

Sounds awesome, but it would be great to have some solid information on this one. Anyone from Risen want to give us the dirt? Send us a tip on the sidebar and I'll update as we hear about it.

Update: Unfortunately, from what we're hearing in the comments, Andonisus only shows up during a specially summoned boss in Stratholme that you only fight during the crafting of Atiesh. And then, it only hangs around for ten minutes. Pretty limited usage, so don't bother working this one into any of your gear builds. But it is still sweet.

Ratherbrute sends along a tip that Risen, a guild over on Alleria-A, has reassembled the legendary Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian Medivh, not seen since the destruction of Dalaran. Unfortunately, their website is bombed out at the moment, leaving us without their pics of the forming, but a few are floating around, and we're sure lots more will show up as word spreads.

Congrats to Failure, who, after recieving the world first of the item, immediately used it to port everyone in Ironforge to Karazahn, which ended up killing a bunch of 1st level alts (who had actually made a guild called "Failure's Atiesh Fanclub"-- you can see a "zomgatiesh" guild in the pic above, too). That's what you get for trying to follow in the footsteps of Medivh, fools! Congrats to Risen and Failure on picking up the world first of this incredible staff.

[ Thanks, Ratherbrute! ]

Update: A previous version of this post had the wrong server listed for Risen. Apologies and grats again.