In today’s guide, I am going to discuss an easy way to farm some Volatiles on any realm. The only thing you really need is a high level character in order to kill the higher level mobs quicker, however, you can still kill them and get the xp at a lower level. The item that we are going to farm today is Volatiles. The launch of Cataclysm brought with it the new and improved tradeskills. All of the major tradeskills; Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, Tailoring, and Engineering, uses Volatiles in some way. Generally speaking, when the recipe requires Volatiles, it takes anywhere from 3 to 30+. Considering each person that has a major skill, or someone who wants an Epic or Rare level item from a crafter needs Volatiles, your pool of demand is HUGE. I will discuss where to farm each Volatile type and Mobs to look for, all for the purposes of placing them on the auction house for easy gold.
Volatile Air
Farming Volatile Air will more than likely be your bread and butter to making gold. It is more difficult to obtain than the other Volatiles, has a super high demand, and thus sells for more gold on the auction house typically. You will first need to go to the zone Uldum in Kalimdor. You will be looking for Scion of Al’Akir mobs. Typically they drop around 1 or 2 Volatile Air (when they drop), and tend to respawn fairly quickly. Also, if you have the Engineering profession, you can obtain Volatile Air with the Electrostatic Condenser.
Scion of Al’Akir mobs in Uldum
Volatile Water
Farming Volatile Water is a little more forgiving than Volatile Air, however, you are fighting more difficult mobs. You will need to travel to TWILIGHT HIGHLANDS in order to farm the Muddied Water Elementals. The drop rate is a little better than the Volatile Air Farming. You can also use your Fishing profession. You need to fish pools in the Cataclysms zones. Normal fishing pools will NOT provide you with Volatile Water.
Volatile Water farming location.
Volatile Fire
If you plan on farming Volatile Fire, then your luck has changed slightly as there are multiple zones and mobs you can choose from to do this. You can travel to Mount Hyjal and kill Flame Ascendants
Volatile Fire farming location.
Or you may choose to travel to Twilight Highlands and kill Unbound Emberfiends and Enslaved Infernos.
Volatile Fire farming locations in Twilight Highlands.
The drop rates for both of the mobs are typically the same. You can also use your Fishing profession and fish the Pools of Fire. There are only 4 pools, and only 2 pools are active at anytime, so competition to farm these pools is steep. Generally speaking, the pools provide 1 or 2 Volatile Fire per catch, with 5 or 6 catches per pool. You can easily get your hands on 8-12 Fire, with no fighting in less than 5 minutes. You don’t need to have a max Fishing skill to fish the pools, level 1 fishing will work.
Volatile Earth
Volatile Earth can be found in Twilight Highlands from the Obsidian Stoneslaves and in Mount Hyjal from the Scalding Rock Elementals. Mining the dead mobs from both of these places can also provide bonus Volatile Earth.
Volatile Earth farming location in Twilight Highlands.
Volatile Earth farming location in Mount Hyjal.
Volatile Life
Volatile Life is really only obtainable from the Herbalism profession. Those of us that are not Herbalists, will not be able to farm these with any ease. All of the Cataclysm zones offer nodes to farm and each node provides a high rate of volatile farming. Supply is usually higher than the demand, so the auction house prices are typically pretty low. You can occasionally obtain Volatile Life from killing random mobs, or other random drops, but there is no guaranteed constant drop.
Besides the listed farming locations, an alchemist can use the Transmute: Living Elements to make other Volatile Life into other Volatiles. The transmute takes 15 Volatile Life, and upon use will provide 14-16 Random Volatiles. However, the Alchemist CAN make the Volatile of choice by flying to each Volatiles specific “home” location and using the transmute cooldown there.
- Uldum – Volatile Air
- Vashj’ir – Volatile Water
- Deepholm – Volatile Earth
- Mount Hyjal – Volatile Fire
Remember, with any farming to always obtain the highest level flying you have available. The more efficient you can be with your time, the more mobs you kill, the more drops you get. Thus, more gold. And that is the key to it all. Be smart, look at what is selling on your realms auction house, and farm when the time is right. Farming at high use time is not as good as farming during the hours when nobody is on. Don’t undercut prices just to get rid of your stock, if that means holding on to something for a while to wait for the prices to go back to normal, wait. Demand will usually go back up, and supply will almost always run out at some point.