Website design By BotEap.comThe first thing to know is that unlike elemental essences found on Azeroth, Ancient Ones are created by collecting motes in Outland. 10 Motes of a specific type will combine into 1 Primal. Converting 10 motes into a primal does not require any special skills. Anyone can combine motes into primaries.

Website design By BotEap.comThere are 7 different types of motes. The 7 basic types of motes are earth, water, air, fire, shadow, life, and mana. This guide will tell you EXACTLY where the best place to grow each individual type is, and will provide alternate locations in case the main location becomes crowded. Let us begin.

Website design By BotEap.comMOTE OF EARTH: BY FAR the best source of Mote of Earth is mining. Fel iron nodules spew specks of dirt at INSANE speed. Several times I’ve pulled a full Ancient One from a Fel Iron node. Unfortunately, not everyone is a miner. If you’re not a miner, Shattered Rumblers in Nagrand is your best bet.

Website design By BotEap.comThe drop rate is decent, the mobs density is light to medium (perfect for mid-60s characters), and they’re spread out over a large area so you don’t run out of mobs. A big bonus for them from being in Nagrand is Oshu’gun’s crystal dust.

Website design By BotEap.comAll mobs in Nagrand have a chance to drop dust. These guys are right next to mobs that also drop a speck of shadow. (More on that in a minute)

Website design By BotEap.comIf this place is too crowded for you, then Elemental Plateau in North Nagrand is a decent alternative. The main issues with Elemental Plateau are that it’s ALWAYS farmed, you MUST have a flying mount to get to it, mobs are 70-72, and if you’re on a PvP server, plan on fighting more than just elementals. The great advantage is that you can farm air, water, fire and earth in one place. For me, Shattered Rumblers are the easiest way to do it.

Website design By BotEap.comMOTE O SOMBRA: Right next to our Shattered Rumblers are Voidspawns. These guys shed a speck of shadow at incredible speed. I think he was pulling 5-6 primals an hour with minimal effort. Since these guys are in Nagrand, we also get the crystal dust. The trick with these guys though is the nether weave. I got stack after stack of netherweave from these guys, as well as the specks and crystal dust.

Website design By BotEap.comThe alternate location for the Shadow Mote is Hellfire Peninsula, across from the Collapsed Voidwalker. The drop rate is similar (although not as high as Thott listed. The drop rate was reduced in patch 2.1), but the secondary drops suck. Stick with Voidspawns if possible.

Website design By BotEap.comAn additional option for engineers is to use http://thottbot.com/i23821 on the felmist clouds in Shadowmoon Valley.

Website design By BotEap.comMOTE OF LIFE: If you are an herbalist, mote of life is as easy as collecting motes. The Dead Mire section of Zangamarsh (northeast corner of the map) and The Spawning Glen section (west section of the map) are mote-gathering heaven. Withered Giant, Withered Swamp Lord, Fungus Giant, and others have a 25% drop rate on health mote. If you’re an herbalist, you can harvest corpses for an additional chance at a Mote of Life. Also in The Dead Mire and Spawning Glen you’ll find plenty of ragveil and dreaming glory that also drop a speck of life.

Website design By BotEap.comIf you are not a herbalist, no problem. The 25% drop rate still makes it pretty easy. Engineers can get a mote of life from the same swamp gas clouds you get from http://thottbot.com/c17378. There isn’t much in the way of secondary options for mote of life. Pretty much ANY of the elementals in Zanger have a chance to drop them.

Website design By BotEap.comMOTE OF WATER: This is one of the few times I’ll suggest a significantly lower drop rate because it’s just less of a hassle to farm there in the higher rate areas.

Website design By BotEap.comI like the Muck Spawns. While it only has a 10% drop rate, the density is medium to high and the area is HUGE. Even at level 70 with others farming the area, I’ve only run out of mobs once. Being 65, they die fast and you can run around the lake that surrounds Halaa forever.

Website design By BotEap.comElemental Plateau and Skettis have a much higher drop rate (triple in the case of Skettis Surgers) but the number of mobs is low and there are always people there. We have a PvP server, it’s pure hell. Shadowmoon Valley’s Raging Water Spirits have a high drop rate, but with only about 10 total spawn points, it’s not worth it. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to a speck of water.

Website design By BotEap.comAnother option for alchemists is to hit revered with Sporeggar and get the recipe for transmutation of ancient earth into ancient water. This is just to supplement your farming though, as you can only do one every 24 hours.

Website design By BotEap.comThe Zapthrottle Mote Extractor can also be used on Swamp Gas in Zangermarsh. You fishermen (or women) are not left out. You can catch a lot of water from the pure water ponds found in most lakes. Water has MANY collection options.

Website design By BotEap.comMANA MOTE: Damn, almost everything in Netherstorm drops a mana mote. There are so many options for growing them that it almost doesn’t matter where you go. The downside is that ALL mana is burned/drained, so for casters it sucks.

Website design By BotEap.comSome solid options are The Mana Wraiths outside of Area 52, Phase Hunters, and Mage Slayers/Mana Seekers.

Website design By BotEap.comA decent alternative is the Netherwing Rays in Shadowmoon Valley. The BIG drawback here is the elite patrols that roam Netherwing Ledge. Unless you’re working on the Netherwing rep for your Netherdrake mount, I wouldn’t bother farming here. Too dangerous.

Website design By BotEap.comHerbalists and engineers kiss a speck of mana here too. Netherdust, Netherbloom, and Arcane Vortex bushes also drop motes.

Website design By BotEap.comFIRE MOTE: One of the most difficult motes to farm due to the high farming rate. The two main sources of Mote of Fire are Raging Fire Spirits in Shadowmoon Valley and Searing Elementals in Sword’s Edge.

Website design By BotEap.comOf the two places, Shadowmoon is the better option. There are plenty of spawns, they are well spread out and the area will comfortably house up to 3 people farming at once. Blades Edge is a much smaller area with fewer spawns. Also, on the edge of Guldan’s Hand in Shadowmoon Valley, you can defeat the Raging Earth Spirits for a Mote of Earth while you wait for the Fire Elementals to respawn.

Website design By BotEap.comFire can also be harvested from mining Fel Iron, Adamantite, and Nethercite nodes. Nethercite nodes have a better drop rate than Fel Iron or Adamantite, but like Mote of Mana from Nether Dust Bushes, they can be quite dangerous to collect. I would only use this as a Mote of Fire source if you are grinding the Netherwing rep.

Website design By BotEap.comAIR MOTE: Probably the narrowest collection option of all the motes. The best place to get a Mote of Air is Shadowmoon Valley in Netherwing Pass/Alter of Shadow (lower section of the map). Density is good, but they are far enough apart that you don’t aggro multiple mobs at once. The other option is the area north of Alter of Sha’tar (upper section of the map). While you’ll find fewer farmers here, there’s a reason. There are other trash mobs scattered around that slow you down and complicate your farming. It is better to share the area around the Netherwing Pass and the Alter of Shadow.

Website design By BotEap.comA much less desirable option is Nagrand. The air elementals are scattered throughout the area, but they are so far apart that farming a speck of air out of them is highly impractical. Shadowmoon Valley is the best bet.

Website design By BotEap.comEngineers can collect a speck of air from a windy cloud. These can be found in Nagrand and Shadowmoon Valley.

Website design By BotEap.comThe four primary elemental motes (Air, Fire, Earth, and Water) can be farmed on the Elemental Plateau in Nagrand but as I mentioned earlier, it is ALWAYS full of farmers and I have seen large scale riots in my PvP home. server. It’s best to stick to my options above for happy and sensible farming. GOOD LUCK!!