Herbalism.

Bet you didn’t see it coming! Actually, believe it or not, Herbalism is the ONLY way to get Volatile Life in Cataclysm. There was a time when there were mobs that could be killed very quickly in Hyjal that removed volatile life, but Blizzard nerfed the grow spot for XP reasons and took away the rewards for killing plants. What a shame actually!

Since only Herbalists can grow Volatile Life in Cataclysm, you’re probably wondering which class/race combination you should choose to grow herbs with. Believe it or not, a tauren druid is by far the best due to their faster gathering speed from not having to dismount to gather herbs. It doesn’t take long to pay for your flight from Azeroth (“new old world flight”) just by collecting storm vine and ultum whiptail and the Twilight Highlands.

Having an addon to help with gathering is definitely a bonus, as is having a miner and herbalist on the same character. This is because you can now see the mining and herb nodes at the same time on the minimap! The plugin that helps you gather faster is called Gatherer (surprise!). Its sister plugin, Gatherer_mate, contains all the nodes in the game, and by installing both and loading the Gatherer_mate data, you can see all the nodes in any zone of any expansion. Pretty useful, huh?

A golden guide will allow you to quickly configure another plugin, Routes, which will show you the fastest routes to each node in the zone you are currently visiting. In addition, it will show you the best way to sell the materials you collect and make even more gold (and more importantly, prevent you from losing it!).