This topic explains how to fish Patches of Elemental Water, found in Azshara. On this page:
Introduction
In Azshara pools called "Patch of Elemental Water" may be found. The pools look like bright blue swirling masses of gas, but may be fished just like other pools.
From these pools you can catch:
- Essence of Water
- Elemental Water in batches of 1, 2 or 3
- Globe of Water in batches of 1 or 2.
Pool Contents
I have fished and recorded the catches from 87 different pools, mostly late evening, over several different days ((based on both patch 1.10 and 1.11 - no differences were observed between the two patches)). The average number of successful catches before each pool disappeared was 2.9, with a range from 1 to 5. The average number of items gained from fishing one pool until it disappears is shown in the table below:
| Item | Average quantity gained from fishing one Patch of Elemental Water |
|---|---|
| Essence of Water | 1.0 |
| Elemental Water | 2.2 |
| Globe of Water | 1.3 |
Essence of Water typically sell for over 5 gold each at the Auction House. The other items may sell for a respectable amount of silver. Fishing these pools can be a highly profitable enterprise.
Locations
There are at least six places where patches of Elemental Water may be found. I (and respected sources, such as Thalen) have only ever found six locations, however others have been rumoured to exist. Gold pins mark the six confirmed locations on the map below.
((For those looking for coordinates, they are: 54,39; 55,50; 59,40; 66,68; 74,71; and 79,53.))
Five spawning locations are in the Bay of Storms/Hetaera's Clutch/Scalebeard's Cave area, which has a base fishing skill requirement of 330. The pool in the far north-west is outside this area, and hence has a lower fishing skill requirement. In practice, even accomplished fishermen and women (with 300 skill and various items of fishing gear) will want to use lures. Since the pools are quite a distance apart, you may need to apply a new lure at each pool. Since you will have to swim between pools (rather than run or ride, as is normally the case when fishing pools elsewhere), items that increase swimming speed are very useful. Some rather large giants patrol the area, although these are surprisingly easy to evade if you watch where you are swimming. The only other people you will see here will be fishing or conducting business with the Hydraxian Waterlords, so the area is relatively safe.
There is a large pool in the middle of the Bay of Storms called a Swirling Maelstrom. Since there is no land nearby, it can only be fished using spells that allow water walking. The Swirling Maelstrom does not contain any particular types of fish - only those that are normally caught in the Bay of Storms (from Flomo and karlthepagan). Ancalimanarion writes, "its only use is to get an Arcanite Buoy to summon a Shark needed for a shard to create the Ahn'Qiraj Scepter" - the quest "The Wrath of Neptulos".
Pool Appearance
How these pools appear is poorly understood. We know that more than one pool can exist at one time - this has been confirmed using talents such as Eyes of the Beast and Eye of Kilrogg. Also, the longer one tries to fish these pools for, the fewer of them seem to be found. This is obvious if you fish when nobody else has been fishing the pools for a few hours: The first loop round the six possible pool locations might find three Patches of Elemental Water. The next loop round generally finds less.
One popular theory is that each pool re-appears exactly one hour after it was last fished. It only takes about 15 minutes to swim round all the possible pool locations. So an hourly "re-spawn" would be consistent with finding fewer pools the more times you go round trying to fish them.
I have never seen a pool re-appear less than 60 minutes after it was last fished. However pools will not simply continue to re-appear an hour after they are fished. If you swim round in a loop, fishing every pool you find for several hours, eventually whole hours will pass when no pools appear. I've found the most effective means of fishing these pools is to swim round the loop of possible pool locations twice, then wait two or three hours before returning.
The sporadic appearance of these pools, their popularity amongst veteran fishermen and women, and the finite number of buyers for Essence of Water, all mean that patches of Elemental Water are not well suited to continuous fishing. However, one 15-minute swim round the bay will often catch a couple of Essence of Water, which will earn you at least 10 gold. This compares favourably to most other money-making activities. Don't listen to people that say you can't make money from fishing...
Further Reading
- Pools and Wreckage - This chapter introduces pools and wreckage.
- Pool Appearance - This topic examines how pools of fish appear, and suggests some basic rules and timings.
- Thalen's WoW Guide - Elemental Fishing Pools - Details of Azshara pools, including a map of unconfirmed locations and pictures of the curious Swirling Maelstrom.