I've seen it on a friends char. It is wearable by HIE now. My pally is making everyone he's helped go back to get more guts and poles! :-)
As for difficulty...Three trips for 1 pole. Each trip 2 to 4 hours. Fourth trip I couldnt go on and SEVEN poles droped in three hours. Usually instead of a pole you will get a mojo stick that claims it can only be used by two of the casting classes, but my high elf paladin was able to put in an open inventory slot and right click to cast the spells anyway. It was interesting being a wizard and a mage for awhile until the charges ran out :-)