El's Extreme Anglin' - World of Warcraft Fishing Guide // Fish Finder // Volatile Water

This page summarises how to catch Volatile Water.

About Volatile Water

• Use: Used in many manufacturing professions, to make Cataclysm-level items.
• Value:
  • Vendor: 8s 75c
  • Auction: 6g
• Other Tomes: Battle.net, WoWDB, Wowhead, Wowpedia

Catching Volatile Water

• Notes: Volatile Water is the Cataclysm equivalent of Crystallized Water and Mote of Water, except that Volatile Water does not combined to make a larger Eternal or Primal. Volatile Water stack in 200s.
• History:
  • 4.3: Catch rate from open water decreased from about 5% to 2%.
  • Cataclysm: First caught.

• [1] 1-2 items per catch
• [2] 1-3 items per catch

Learn More

• Valuable Fish - Details the most valuable fish, and how to catch them.
• Cataclysm Catches - Lists new fish caught in Cataclysm, including cooked dishes, alchemy and supplies, and catch rates.

Comments about Volatile Water

Below are readers' comments about "Volatile Water":

Volatile Water Drop Rate

1. Explicitname, April 2011:

   Prior to the "hotfix" today, I was open water fishing for around 20 minutes and I pulled the regular amount of volatile waters that I normally do. After closing the game and reloading it, I've been open water fishing for around an hour and I haven't snagged one volatile water. Is anyone else having this issue or did they remove volatile water from the loot table of open water fishing?

2. Explicitname, April 2011:

   On a side note, I have fished up 11 x Azshara's Veil during this fishing session.

3. el, April 2011:

   Azshara's Veil from coastal open water? I've seen plenty in pools, but not checked open water yet.

   I had a hunch the volume of Volatile Water in some of the inland pools had increased, but after fishing more I concluded I'd just been lucky. Unfortunately this is the problem with random lowish catch rates: They take of a lot of data to prove a change.

1. Trokair, April 2011:

   I just came here looking to figure out why I just caught Azshara's Veil x2 in Uldum in a Fathom Eel pool...first cast today...is this new then?

2. el, April 2011:

   Coastal pools in Cataclysm zones now have ~5% chance of containing Azshara's Veil. It's mentioned on the front page news.

3. Explicitname, April 2011:

   I would like to clarify that I was fishing in Open Coastal Water in Uldum. I fished for 2 hours and I caught 1 x Volatile Water and 17 x Azshara's Veil(Besides the normal fish). I saw the news related to pools, but this isn't a pool issue.

4. Explicitname, April 2011:

   I've been fishing a fair amount today as well without any Volatiles dropping. I'm not sure if it's a bug or just an undisclosed hotfix. I am an unhappy fisherman, all the same :( .

5. el, April 2011:

   Well, the coastal open water catch rate for Volatile Water has decreased due to the addition of Azshara's Veil: I'm getting about 2% for each from open water (based on about 800 catches). Down at 2%, it all becomes highly variable - you could fish for an hour and never catch Volatile Water. Best advice if you are solely trying to catch Volatile Water is now to stay inland, where catch rates are approximately twice as high.

   Added: Clarified the news.

6. Explicitname, April 2011:

   Thanks, el.

7. Reply to this topic »

Volatile Water/Fire Open Water Drops Rates

1. Number6, April 2011:

   I have been fishing a lot recently to farm mats for tailoring and have found the open water rates for both Volatile Water in water, and Volatile Fire in lava pools, to be closer to 10% then the 5% listed in the guide. I mainly fish in the Twilight Highlands, in case this makes a difference, but I usually do about 200 casts and end up with 20 or more Volatiles per session. This has been pretty consistent for about two weeks and I was wondering if anyone else has noticed an increase.

   Also, at what point do you think it becomes more efficient simply to stay in one spot and farm open water versus hunting down pools? Myself, I think the 10% open water rate is getting close to that point.

2. el, April 2011:

   It's a 5% chance of a Volatile Water catch from open water. Each Volatile Water catch may contain 1, 2 or 3 water. So if you just count the total volume of Volatile Water gained, it probably is about 10% from open water (and approaching 20% from pools).

   The original evidence is based on almost 2,800 open water catches during beta - see Cataclysm Catches. As with everything, this might have changed since.

   If you are just farming Volatile Water, staying in one place is likely quicker, even assuming 10% vs 5% (pools vs open water), since pool fishing typically involves spending half your time moving, especially if others are fishing, and pools are harder to find.

   The open-lava Volatile Fire sample is much smaller, so could be inaccurate. I didn't spend too much time checking, because Pool of Fire give so much Volatile Fire, they were the obvious choice.

3. Number6, April 2011:

   Ahh, that makes sense as I do normally pull up 2-3 volatiles at once.

   Yeah, I do not dispute that the pools have better drops, I was looking for if it would be quicker when farming volatiles, as you point out, to stay in one spot rather than travel, competition, etc.

   So I guess with all that factored in, a 10% volatile rate per cast isn't too bad for staying stationary..

4. Reply to this topic »