Comments

Comment by ViceVersa

One of the rare tier items in Dwarf Archaeology.
Requires 150 Dwarf Archaeology Fragments.
Keystone: Dwarf Rune Stone

Common tier Dwarf items:
Belt Buckle with Anvilmar Crest
Wooden Whistle
Bone Gaming Dice
Ceramic Funeral Urn
Worn Hunting Knife
Pewter Drinking Cup
Moltenfist's Jeweled Goblet
Stone Gryphon
Silver Neck Torc
Ironstar's Petrified Shield
Bodacious Door Knocker
Scorched Staff of Shadow Priest Anund
Dented Shield of Horuz Killcrow
Notched Sword of Tunadil the Redeemer
Winged Helm of the Corehammer
Mithril Chain of Angerforge
Boot Heel with Scrollwork
Golden Chamber Pot
Scepter of Charlga Razorflank
Scepter of Bronzebeard
Skull Staff of Shadowforge
Dwarven Baby Socks
Warmaul of Burningeye
Silver Kris of Korl
Spiked Gauntlets of Anvilrage
Word of Empress Zoe
Pipe of Franclorn Forgewright

Rare tier Dwarf items:
Clockwork Gnome
The Innkeeper's Daughter
Chalice of the Mountain Kings
Staff of the Sorceror-Thane Thaurissan

Comment by paddymew

I accidentally Ragnaros.

Comment by 139841

For how cool the icon is, and how much lore is associated with the staff (Of which I know none) I really hope that the current model is just a place holder.

Comment by Thrar

Don't know if it is common but the default enchant glow is not overwritten. Was kinda disappointed that power torrent doesn't overwrite it. At least the default enchant doesn't look too horrible :)

Comment by Kamikaze28

I have postponed my efforts for this staff in favor of researching all the other races. I'll briefly discuss my findings and then explain the theory I modeled thereafter.
As I already had dwarves, fossils and troll completed, I decided to go to Outland and burn through orc and draenei in the most efficient way. I looked up how many fragments I need to build everything once, farmed that many fragments and then started building. Result: The only thing I missed is Arrival of the Naaru. I did get Headdress of the First Shaman as well as The Last Relic of Argus. There were no repetitions.
My next destination was Northrend to complete vrykul and nerubian archaeology. Due to the rarity of nerubian digsites, I am still working on the fragments for them, but I finished vrykul and got all items, including Nifflevar Bearded Axe without repetitions.

These observations lead me to the following conclusion. There are 3 kinds of rare archaeology projects:

Fun items with no combat related effects whatsoever.
Combat relevant items below your character level
Combat relevant items appropriate for your character level

Category 1 & 2 have a very high chance of being your next project. They do not appear twice. If you gather enough fragments for all artifacts of one race you are almost guaranteed to find all of them.
Category 3 (which the staff in question belongs to) functions brutally different in that they have a low chance (my guess: between 1% and 5%) to be your next project regardless of what you have already completed or what achievements you already got. Proving the existence of an achievement-related mechanic behind all this would be awfully cumbersome, it would require a lot more data and time and in my opinion is not worth it.
My recommendation for all of you out there is this: go after the other parts of archaeology, they are much more rewarding than farming for this staff. After you have completed the other branches you can still come back for the staff - maybe your chance improved maybe it didn't, but it surely saved you from going insane ;-)

Good luck nevertheless.

Comment by Kanegasi

Dear casters farming for this item. I would be happy to trade you this useless staff for Zin'rokh, which by murphy's law, probably dropped for you. Thanks.

Comment by 332936

Ok if there is a 1.6% according to a post above. I was wonder what range of finds will 25% to 75% of the people get this staff. I don't really know the equation for this type of math and was wondering if anyone on here does. I feel like those numbers would give the best idea of when you should expect to get this unless you are unlucky or lucky.

Comment by amzraptor

Did someone check if chances are good if you got certain rare artifacts already?should we head for Outland or Northrend look for other types of artifacts? OR
Perhaps solve only dwarf artifacts?

Comment by 100422

Is anyone as highly disappointed that blizzard was extremely lazy with this item, and not only gave it an existing model but one of the worst staff models that wow has ever had?

I mean it's this epic staff used by a sorcerer king that is max level and bind on account, you can't even give it a new model?

For shame Blizzard. For shame.

Comment by NefariousNilbog

I would just like to say I've just uncovered this beaut and I'm working towards it. I'm actually working towards the Troll sword. My data so far is that I've uncovered every other dwarven common and rare, I didn't use any missing runes on the previous common either.

In my efforts to find the Troll sword I've looked at any hints and tips I could find, but I've just checked my dwarven commons and I've actually only made 43 compared to my 90 odd Troll commons.

All seems pretty random to me, just keep plugging away everyone and don't focus too much on getting it right away. To keep myself from going insane I've put a daily cap of 200 segments each day for the Troll's and there's just so many dwarven digsites they come up pretty quick.

Best of luck everyone, you'll get it eventually :)

(now back to the sword searching...)

Comment by 321408

For raid entry, the staff (which I'll be finally piecing together tonight after servers come back online, after 75-odd dwarf artifacts) has better totaling offensive stats of crit & haste, as wells as spell power, both raw and from Intellect.
The heroic level (346) off-hands come from Inscription as a Bind on Equip, drop from Beauty in BRC, or are sold for 950 Justice Points by respective faction vendors.
The biggest difference between the one - hand / off-hand set-up is hit, as the Staff has no hit without reforging. That is the only downside of using the staff. Carving off either haste or critical strike for hit would give you with 91.2 hit and 136.8 of whichever stat you reforged from.
So unless you get Maldo's Sword Cane for yourself, or find it if someone puts it up for Auction for a heck of a lot of gold, it's probably better to just go ahead and equip it and maybe accidentally summon the Fire Lord. Too soon, if I may say so.

Comment by Kamikaze28

Yup, that is basically all you can do to not go insane. Other great tips include:

Watch your favorite series
Listen to audiobooks / podcasts
Limit yourself as to how many fragments you farm per day

And most importantly: if you start to hate WoW and everything else for not getting this staff or Zin'rokh, then better stop looking for it. I have read posts from people who quit WoW just because of the obviously bad design of Archaeology, which I can fully understand, but also saddens me. Don't force yourself until you break. In the end, it's how you take it psychically, really. If you are frustrated after every project which did not bring you the item you desired as your next project you will most likely go berserk somewhere along the way.
Fishing for the Sea Turtle was a perfect preparation for this grind by the way. And yeah, I got that one too (after around 5,000 casts or so).

Comment by 798842

I would just like to add that apparently a GM confirmed that the droprate for this is 1.66% ... which I find quite high, I expected it to be 0.5% according to what I read here. Then again I've also read about ppl who got on their 50th or even 8th dwarven solve so I guess It might be true.

You know I don't mind grinding a lot of artifacts for this but have you guys also noticed that the spawnrate for dwarven sites is ridiculously low? Yesterday I went through 8 digsites just to get one dwarven and then they all turned troll/fossil/nerubian/night elf again ... getting the dwarven site to spawn for me is just an added pain. Or is it just me?

Let's hope the magic of Wowhead brings me luck!

Comment by jokerdonny

How to obtain this artifact and not go insane:

Step 1: Play some amped up music.

Step 2: Survey, Survey, Survey. Collect. Survey, Survey, Survey. Collect. Survey, Survey, Survey. Collect. Fly to new location. Repeat this step until you have enough fragments to solve an artifact.

Step 3: Solve the (common) artifact in hopes that the rare you want proccs. Resist the urge to Falcon Punch your monitor, or rip out your hair when it doesn't procc. (Note: The urge to do both things exponentially increases as you solve common artifacts and don't get the rare.).

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3.

Step 5: If after a few solves (25 or so) you don't see results, get up from your chair and grab a soda. Walk around a bit. Go outside and curse the heavens. Come back in, sit back down and begin again. This is so you can release some frustration and not get discouraged.

As a side note, if you find yourself starting to lose your mind, remember that it's the Old Gods trying to get to you, especially if you had he Deadly Boss Mod "Make archaeology interesting" option checked when it was still around, and heard C'Thun whisper to you and you didn't know why... And then when you asked other people about it, no one knew what you were talking about, so you actually thought you were going crazy.

All in all, once you get the staff, be sure to wear it proudly upon your back. You will be the envy of you caster dps friends that may also be looking for this. I personally have never seen this staff on someone during a random, and have only seen the troll sword a couple of times. It does take discipline, but once you have it (with your monitor intact and you hair safely upon your head) you know that your resolve has been fully tested and you passed. And then you can go do other things, such as, wait for the Time-Lost Proto Drake or the mount in Deepholm if you haven't gotten them. Go fishing for the Sea Turtle or Magical Crayfish. Farm Stratholme for the Rivendare mount. After you have done all of this, NOW go get the Insane title, because well, you my friend, have earned it.

Comment by buzz3070

I wonder how this staff survived the owner being incinerated by the emergence of Ragnaros.

Comment by 297712

I accidentally Ragnaros.

This made my day.

Comment by h44mm00

This is a mad resto druid staff. If you have plenty of spirit you won't even need to reforge the crit -> spi.

Comment by Ustilo

In the patch notes for 4.1, here is what was said for the changes in archaeology:

•Archaeology

•Six new rare items have been added.

•Players now have a much smaller chance of getting a dig site for a race for which they have completed all rare finds.

If for whatever reason Blizzard decided to remove the big money rares, they would have said something. In the past there has been speculation (and rumors) about items being removed from the game, but they have ALL been proven to be false. Example: Baron Rivendare will not drop his mount after Lich King opens, and you cannot get the black drake from OS after the Ulduar patch. So, the luck sucks as does the drop rate, but I am sure the staff still drops.

But not in 229 dwarf solves for me...

Comment by spinegrinder

I'm not too well versed in such matters, but I was wondering if this BoA becomes soulbound when you enchant it with power torrent? I wouldn't have thought so, but I wanna know before I go and make a mistake...

Comment by Jaydeetoo

Question... has anybody ever found this before they were level 85? I have two 85s and four other toons I have been levelling and the other four toons have focused on archy to level cos for me it's easier...

Has anybody ever got this staff, or the troll staff, or the fossil shield before the toon was 85?

Comment by Jaydeetoo

*troll sword sorry

Comment by Thiagorz

I got this staff with 495/525 archaeology on my alt.

I already have Zin'Rokh already on my main (Death Knight).

Comment by Tomro

Previous archaeology epics based on lvl 60, 70 and 80 epics were made useful by changing their level requirement to be significantly lower. e.g. Headdress of the First Shaman , Nifflevar Bearded Axe , Queen Azshara's Dressing Gown

Is it not time this was done for the lvl 85 ones? Almost all are outclassed by Mists greens now and would never be equipped at 85

Show us some archaeology love Blizz

Comment by 1135138

This was my 2028th Dwarf solve and 7210th overall solve thereby completing Archaeology. It appeared after a common solve in the Loch Modan digsite.

Comment by sivla

got to 600 archeology and got 3 blues and 1 purple pointless whisp.

I am beginning to suspect they have done something to this profession since 5.3, because I have never seen so many pointless and useless grey items. I have seen no armor and no weapon.

In fact I have only ever once seen 1 digsite in uldum despite continously going up and down kalimdor and or going to pandaria...something is seriously broken with an already useless profession...they desperately need to do some thing with this as soon as possible. down time or not it is with doubt the most frustrating profession ever!

Comment by itgrowls

Blizz really did a disservice when they made this the same model as one of the staffs you get from outland. This thing seriously needs a better skin preferably one that's not already available from a quest reward.

Comment by Orissan

I am just going to say this. I picked up Scepter of Azj'Aqir in comparatively shorter time (44 solves) vs this thing (on my 228th solve of dwarf, nada).

So if your looking for shinys, vent those pandaland boxes to the actual rare race ones, lest you rip your hair out in sheer frustration.

And if you have gotten all the rares for Tol'vir and are moving to the next race, and the next rarest is dwarf.
I beg you.
Stop.
You have a problem.

Comment by albinosanta

I wish these Archaeology weapons and such would be treated as Heirlooms instead of being given a set item level..

Comment by Telemachus85

27 common solved.... 2 Rare solved, Inn Daughter just proc. It will be the absolutely last thing for me, I just hope they haven't re-introduced duplicates... I really do

Comment by Ozzayel

At almost 600 solves now and no luck :(
I was affected by the complete archaeology wipe at the end of MoP and got a duplicate chalice in the time before they fixed it.
Really hope that hasn't somehow messed it up for me.
Starting to give up hope...

**UPDATE 08/05/16**
Finally got Troll @ 550 solves.
Dwarf still going at 836 solves...

**UPDATE 15/05/16**
Just reached the milestone of 1,000 dwarf solves.
I hate this... it's utterly ridiculous.
When it gets to this point, even when I get the stupid thing I won't even care... this kind of RNG for such massive time-consuming activities should not even exist.

Comment by dasquee

Managed to get this on my 673rd solve for dwarf. Been working on it and the troll sword and was glad to finally see the staff after many years of wanting it. Don't give up!

Comment by Mathurin00

Can this staff and the Zin'roch actually be found by a character below lvl 85? I know they can't be used by them, but can they be discovered by a sub 85 character then mailed to a character that can use them?

Comment by Temehh

In case you come accross this comment, don't waste your time and do something else with your life.
I'm currently at 1032 attempts and no staff :
https://i.imgur.com/zjhJ1Cl.png
https://i.imgur.com/9PaIKpi.png

Comment by zerocharisma

Took roughly 100 solves , feeling lucky with this one

View in 3D Links

Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan

Item Level 37
Binds to Blizzard account

Two-Hand	Staff

4 - 6 Damage	Speed 3.60

(1.4 damage per second)
+18 Intellect
+6 Stamina
+4 Critical Strike
+4 Haste
Durability 120 / 120

Requires Level 32

Sell Price: 1

Players can win this item when selecting the following class specializations:

Mage:
Druid:
Priest:
Shaman:
Warlock:
Monk:
Evoker:

Guides

Casual Archaeology Guide Archaeology Rares

Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan

Guides

Related