Alchemy – Transmute: Living Elements

Depending on your realm, volatile life may be dirt cheap so doing a Transmute: Living Elements to obtain a higher value volatile is an easy way to make some gold in Cataclysm. At the moment, air and fire seem to be the most costly. Keep in mind crated level 85 items uses massive quantities of volatiles as well, however most players aren’t even 85 yet or have the recipes to do so.

Blue Post (Source)

We’ve recently seen a few questions regarding the functionality of Transmute: Living Elements and whether or not its effects are truly random. There’s definitely some behind-the-scenes magic to this particular transmute, so we wanted to provide a bit more explanation on how it works.

Typically, when you use Transmute: Living Elements, you will receive 14-16 random Volatile elements (Volatile Air, Volatile Earth, Volatile Water, or Volatile Fire) in exchange for 15 Volatile Life. If you use this transmute while in one of the new Cataclysm zones associated with the Elemental Planes, however, the element into which your Volatile Life will transform will be predetermined. For example, if you use Transmute: Living Elements while in Uldum, you will always receive Volatile Air for your efforts.

Here’s a list of the affected zones and their corresponding Volatile elements:

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

Additionally, alchemists with Transmutation specialization will always receive bonus Volatile elements when completing this transmute. The bonus will be random, though, regardless of which zone you are in.