Where to find Volatile Air in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

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This rare resource is used in several crafting recipes.

WoW Cataclysm volatile air
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Volatile Air is one of the new crafting materials exclusive to the Cataclysm zones in World of Warcraft.  It's used to craft various items, including gear and enchants, and it's also required for at least one alchemy transmute, making it a pretty valuable resource. 

Deathwing, caused a huge upheaval in Azeroth's landscape, bringing big changes to the Horde capital Orgrimmar, and changing some other zones significantly. As well as the big, obvious changes that come with any expansion, all new Cataclysm-specific items and crafting materials have been introduced, too. In this guide, I'll explain the best place to find Volatile Air and how to farm it efficiently. 

Where to find Volatile Air 

Kill Scion of Al'Akir enemies at the first location or clear the trash to the first boss in the Vortex Pinnacle dungeon. (Image credit: Blizzard)

Volatile Air can be found in a few of the Cataclysm zones. For the most part, it is dropped by certain enemies but if you want a good amount of it, either for crafting or to sell on the auction house for extra gold, there are a couple of options available to you.

If you're level 85, the Vortex Pinnacle dungeon on normal difficulty is the best place to get it consistently. You don't need to do the whole thing—just kill and loot all the trash enemies up to the second bridge. Once there, jump off the edge and get teleported back to the beginning of the instance where you can leave, reset the dungeon, and repeat. You can do this at least five times before you hit the hourly lockout.

If the dungeon method above isn't an option, the Scion of Al'Akir enemies in Uldum are another. You can find these to the west of Ramkahen at the location marked on the screenshot above. These enemies respawn relatively fast, so, assuming the area isn't over-populated with players, you should be able to get a few stockpiled. 

Sarah James
Sarah James
Senior Guides Writer

Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.