Cataclysm Alchemy Gold Making Tip

Posted by The Lost Meeple at 8:00 AM

Alchemy has become a great profession to have during cataclysm, there are multiple ways to make gold with it, but one of them makes me a ton a of gold per day, and it only takes me a couple second per day to do so. What is this method you ask? Transmute: Living Elements.

How does it work?
What this transmute does is it takes 15 volatile life and turn it into 14-16 of any other element. The element you get is random if you don't do it in one of the Cataclysm Zones. For example, if you do the transmute in Stormwind you're going to get random results every time, but if you go to uldum and do the transmute there, you're going to receive Volatile Air because being in uldum forces the transmute to become volatile airs.

So now you might be thinking, hmm where can I get a list of what the transmute will turn into? Look below!

Mount Hyjal: Volatile Fire
Vashj'ir: Volatile Water
Deepholm: Volatile Earth
Uldum: Volatile Air

By simply going to Uldum and doing the transmute there, you're turning those 5g volatile lifes ( free if you're a herbalists) into 40, or even 50g volatile airs, for only a seconds worth of effort! It's a great way to make 6-700g per day by simply logging in.

So what are you waiting for? Go transmute your butt off!

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23 comments: on "Cataclysm Alchemy Gold Making Tip"

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Unknown said... January 12, 2011 at 8:21 AM

OMG! See, I kept hearing people were transmuting them and picking what they transmuted into but I had NO idea how (as I always did it in SW). Thanks SO much for this tip! Great to know!
Anonymous said... January 12, 2011 at 8:30 AM

Wasn't this covered on WOW Insider a while ago?
Beowulf said... January 12, 2011 at 8:45 AM

I sometimes wonder if I'm playing the same game everyone else is !! on my server Volatile Life are about 12g average and Volatile Air are about 25g .. still a double your money profit margin but nothing like quoted.

Mind you, it's a moot point anyways .. I'm not an Alchemist ! (more's the pity!)
Riryoku said... January 12, 2011 at 9:01 AM

Need Take, you don't read wowinsider or the jmtc forums do you? Check out those jmtc forums (link on top of the blog, maybe register an account there too as it's free)
Chris said... January 12, 2011 at 9:38 AM

This is why I have 5 alchemists all transmute spec( I had 6 in WotLK) Its by far the best money maker for the least effort and now its even better. I use each of my transmutes in Uldum every day and I love the random volatiles I get.
Chris said... January 12, 2011 at 9:45 AM

You forgot to mention that if you are transmute spec you have a chance to proc other volatiles at the same time. Yesterday for example I did my Uldum transmute and for 15 volatile life I received 16 volatile Air as well as 20 volatile fire. Its HUGE profit.
The Lost Meeple said... January 12, 2011 at 9:54 AM

The procs are AMAZING when it comes to profit, it almost doubles or triples it sometimes!
Faid said... January 12, 2011 at 10:06 AM

"free if you're an herbalist"

Since when has "farming isn't free" gone out the window on JMTC?
The Lost Meeple said... January 12, 2011 at 10:10 AM

Faid, what I meant is that those who do not wish to spend 60-100g on the volatile life, they can go farm herbs and produce the volatile life as a by-product. It's a simple alternative to those who don't have gold.

I do understand the concept of time, and time being money, like I said, it's an alternative.
April said... January 12, 2011 at 1:12 PM

Beowulf - not to worry, I'm playing the same game as you. Volatile lifes are 10-14g each on my server and airs run about 25-30g. I'm still using my truegold transmute since the profit margin isn't that great on the life transmute. Also, I'm saving all my volatile life to give to an alchemist/enchanter to turn into maelstrom crystals. (make alchy trinket, and DE it)
Anonymous said... January 12, 2011 at 1:43 PM

April, you better jump on that maelstrom trick soon because it's about to get nerfed.

If you look at all of the new alch trinkets coming in 4.0.6 you'll see that they all mention that they cannot be disenchanted and I would count on them slapping the same label on the existing one.

As for the volatiles, yeah the transmute is great but the news is about a month old. Still good to show it to those who've missed it though, I suppose.

Saying that vLife is free for herbalists is fairly accurate though, despite the time investment, because they're the only ones who can get it with any amount of reliability. The only other profession that stands a chance at getting them is Skinning from the bloated stomachs. Everyone who's not an herbalist basically has to buy for them.
WoWMidas said... January 12, 2011 at 1:44 PM

The economics of the transmute are not nearly as good on Malygos. Life typically goes for 12g-20g per, water and fire are 18g-25g, earth is 10-15g and air around 35g-40g.

So on Malygos, you would have to go to Uldum. Call the delta 25g per volatile x 15 units minus AH cut = 350g.

Until just now I had always read this Uldum advice but couldn't figure out how to implement it conveniently. How am I supposed to get from SW to Uldum and back in a cheap, quick way? Getting stuck out in Uldum (ie not having a SW hearth) is not really workable.

I just figured it out, though. Once my guild gets high enough, I can set my hearth in Uldum and use the "guild cape" to get back to SW.

I also second the comment on volatile life not being free to alchemists. (On the contrary, that's a money-foregoing activity there - it's cheaper to buy them, even if relatively expensive, then use the saved time to make more money, than to farm them for the transmute.)
Anonymous said... January 12, 2011 at 1:53 PM

living elements= 150g mats transmuted to 450g mats, and chance to proc an extra 450g on mats
standar earning = 300g
earning MAX with procs=750g

truegold= 500g mats transmuted to 750g mats and a chance to proc up to 4x750g mats.
standar earning 250g
earning max with procs =3250.

how is living elements better than truegold? im missing something here?
tweell said... January 12, 2011 at 3:35 PM

Once you get high enough and start questing in Uldum, there is a portal by the Earth Circle shaman in NE Stormwind, on the island. I take that to Uldum, transmute and then hearth back. Profit!
Drayden said... January 12, 2011 at 4:45 PM

Potion of Deepholm work well at putting you back at Stormwind if you can pick some up/make them on the cheap.
Xeroaze said... January 12, 2011 at 4:47 PM

Wrote about this myself a few days ago at tippedcopper.blogspot.com :)
Blindeye said... January 12, 2011 at 5:47 PM

I've yet to see a proc on Living Elements OR Truegold! But once I learned you could proc them, I quit selling my xmute in trade and did them myself. Nobody really likes a Transmute Spec Alchemist keeping the procs when selling a cooldown, even when it's advertised up front :( so cut out the middle-man and do it yourself!
Anonymous said... January 13, 2011 at 5:34 AM

@Mageshadow

Bothered by the "free" if farmed idea I keep seeing in your posts.

Even if they farm it as a Bi-product they can still sell it. Using it and saying that it's free ignores the idea of opportunity cost.
Anonymous said... January 13, 2011 at 8:19 AM

Lets assume a 1:3 ratio in the price (air:life), seems generally accurate. For simplicity sake 10g lifes, 30g airs.

Let's say it takes 30mins to go out and farm 15 volatile lifes (probably takes more). And 5mins to buy them off the AH.

Then another 5mins for transmuting and listing the Airs on the auction house.

So in the case of buying them total time spent on this is 10mins (5 + 5), and profit is 300g (15x30 - 15x10), which leaves us with 30g/min (300/10).

In the case of farming them total time spent on this is 35mins (30 + 5), and profit is 450g (15x30), which leaves us with ~13g/min (450/35).

Simply put it is ALWAYS cheaper to NOT farm your mats.
Anonymous said... January 13, 2011 at 10:03 AM

You would have to be making 450g+ on the herbs from the 30min farming session to even get to profitability of sitting at the AH buying your mats.
Anonymous said... January 13, 2011 at 12:29 PM

Since Marco stopped making the regular posts a lot of these ideas are items that other have posted on some times more than a month ago. This idea has been out there a long time.

Quality here has taken a dive. I am going to remove you from my list of daily blogs, but will checkingin from time to time. Hopefully you can getback to original content.
The Lost Meeple said... January 13, 2011 at 1:30 PM

Simply because you've known of this gold making "tip" doesn't mean the rest of the world does.

You have no idea how many e-mails I have/got asking how to make gold with alchemy, and most of them didn't know that you could force this transmute into a volatile of your choice.
Admin said... January 13, 2011 at 8:03 PM

This Anonymous reminds me of a Level 1 toon posting on the Forums. Full of hate, the "I am better than thou" attitude.

"I am deleting you from my bloglist?" come on. JMTC is probably the most well known blog out there, like Markco and Mage are gonna lose viewers?

Sorry guys, I just read this douche's posts and it bothers me that he/she can't even post under their real name. Typical Troll....

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