Volatile elements are valuable and sought-after materials in Cataclysm. They’re used in many endgame crafting recipes, but can be challenging to farm. This guide will cover general tips for farming volatiles. Visit our individual guides for each of these items for specific locations and maps.
There are five of these items: Volatile Air, Volatile Earth, Volatile Fire, Volatile Water, and Volatile Life. The first four elements – air, earth, fire, and water – can be looted from specific mobs in the world, usually elementals. Volatile Life is a little harder to find as it does not drop from any mobs. Some professions are able to collect these volatiles in other ways, which we’ll detail below.
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Transmute: Living Elements (Alchemy)
If you have 
Alchemy, you’ll be able to learn Transmute: Living Elements, which can allow you to transform 15 Volatile Life into 14-16 of one the other four volatiles. Which volatile you get from this transmutation is random by default, but you can guarantee the result by using the recipe in the associated zone for the volatile you want:
- Volatile Air – Uldum
- Volatile Earth – Deepholm
- Volatile Fire – Mount Hyjal
- Volatile Water – Vashj’ir
Note that instances inside these zones do not count for this, so don’t waste your craft inside a dungeon or raid. This recipe has a 1 day cooldown.
Electrostatic Condenser (Engineering)
If you have 
Engineering and one of the three gathering skills (
Herbalism, 
Mining, or 
Skinning), you can make yourself an Electrostatic Condenser to carry around that will allow you to get some extra Volatile Air when gathering. Keep in mind that this will happen very rarely and is not a reliable method to farm large quantities of the item.
Here are the materials needed to craft it:
Fish Pools (Fishing)
Volatile Fire and Volatile Water can both be obtained via 
Fishing, but not the other 3 volatiles.
Volatile Water has a chance of being caught from any fishing pool in level 80-85 Cataclysm zones. There is also a chance of catching it in open water in these zones, but it seems to be very low.
Volatile Fire can be caught from Pools of Fire, which can be found in the lava lakes in Mount Hyjal and Twilight Highlands.
Herb Nodes (Herbalism)
Nearly the only means of acquiring Volatile Life is through the Herbalism profession. Any level 80-85 Cataclysm herb node has about a 35% chance to give a Volatile Life in addition to its own herbs. The best way to go about farming it is to just focus on the herbs you want or the herbs that are easiest to gather, as you’ll naturally collect this volatile alongside them.
Ore Nodes (Mining)
Mining any level 80-85 Cataclysm ore node has a chance to give you any of the volatiles except Volatile Life. The volatiles you get this way will be completely random, so this isn’t a reliable means to farm any particular volatile.
Strange Bloated Stomach (Skinning)
Skinning mobs in level 80-85 Cataclysm zones can rarely net you a Strange Bloated Stomach, which has a chance to contain 1-2 of any of the five volatiles. The low chance of getting the stomachs and the randomness of the volatiles you get from them means this is not a reliable means to farm them, however.
Potion of Treasure Finding
Finally, there’s Potion of Treasure Finding, which is crafted via Alchemy but can be used by anyone. This potion will cause you to occasionally loot a Tiny Treasure Chest when you kill an enemy in any of the major level 80-85 Cataclysm zones (Mount Hyjal, Vashj’ir, Deepholm, Twilight Highlands, and Uldum). These treasure chests have a chance to contain up to 10 volatiles along with BoE equipment, ore, or cloth. This is not a reliable means of farming any particular volatile, but it can net you some extras while you are working on other tasks.
Here are the materials needed for each Potion of Treasure Finding:
- Cinderbloom x8
- Stormvine x4
- Heartblossom x6
- Whiptail x4
- Crystal Vial x1
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