Comments

Comment by 9304

The mote extractor is for extracting motes (hence the name), you use special goggles https://www.wowhead.com/cata/spell=30318 to see the dust clouds that suck up motes, motes are used for everything in the expansion so it should be a bit of a money maker!

Comment by Magmy

You can also see the clouds if you have the Warlock Detect Lesser Invisibility buff on you.

Comment by divinebaboon

The goggles only provides the "tracking" of the motes on your minimap... you can see the motes without the goggles just fine.

Comment by 17135

This tool is used to extract motes from gas clouds just like the description says.
There are gas clouds in Zangarmarch that gives mote of life, there are ones in Netherstorm that gives mote of mana and there are clouds in Shadowmoon Valley that gives mote of shadow.
Only the ones in Netherstorm requires the "Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles" to be seen. You can detect them without the goggles when they are near since they give you mana every second. Though you have to be able to see them to use the mote extractor on them.

Comment by 4289

You can not detect or see the arcane vortex mana clouds in netherstorm in any way at all without the goggles, if you take off the goggles you wont get the mana ticks and more and you wont even see thme on mobs near it, it's completely undetedctable without goggles.
I have not seen any kind of tracking on minimap either with the goggles that seems to be some myth, if blizzard doesnt increase the amount of clouds or something this is just worthless.

You can easily cllect mote of life(one of the most worthless motes in game) in Zangarmarsh with this tool, You can also collect the motes of shadow(the absoluttely most worthless in game) in Shadowmoon Valley.

With goggles on and if you fly around Netherstorm looking carefully everywhere you might be happy to find 1 cloud of mortes of mana that gives 4-5 of them every 20-30min or so. This makes the goggles and this mote extractor one of the most pointless creations there is in game since you can just kill mobs and gain a lot more motes a lot faster in the time it tkes to find them.

Comment by Enthyriel

Hunter's Flare and 'of Second Sight'-helm from the Shadowmoon quest line cannot reveal the mana vortexes in Netherstorm although they have a 'Detect Invis'-effect as well.

Comment by 36405

Don't care so much about how to track them, athough that would be wonderful if they showed up like hunter's tracking. I just can't find any of these clouds. I'm almost regreting making this potentially awsome money making device.

Comment by Zeratul

I've been searching for these mana clouds all over netherstorm with the"Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles" ofc and couldn't find any. Any1 know where they spawn and do I need to be close to them to detect I was just flying around and nothing.

Comment by Parmald

If anyone even thinks they can make money on this device, you're WRONG. Infact the only thing it does is taking up bagspace.
Of casual use. you may be lucky enough to get one whole Primal Mana out of this per month if you play every day and fly around at the given locations these cloads are located at ALOT.

I've had engineering for one year and I've neer really used any of the gadgets excep the keyed one, like transportation trinket and etc.
Now I've switched to herbalism, and the gold keeps flowing in - excellent combo with mining :)

Comment by Tsusaka

Just a quick note on Bodahem's post:

Flare & other "Detect Stealth" effects does exactley that; detects stealth.

To detect invisibility, you will need "Detect Invisibility", aka warlock buff or https://www.wowhead.com/cata/item=23762#c0z , the object in question here.
(Note: I can only speak for warlock buff though. I don't know the limits of the engineered item)

Comment by 40145

Are these gas clouds always in the same spots, or do they drift around?

Comment by 41689

This just in: "Stealth" and "Invisibility" are two different abilities. Hence the different names.

Therefor, if an ability says "removes Stealth" then it removes stealth, and not invisibility... Unless otherwise noted.

Comment by 57042

How many motes are received per extraction?

Comment by 60566

If you have a decent video card, set your enviroment, whether, texture and some other details to high. I dont know about others but it made a HUGE difference and i can easily see lots of vortexes now.

Comment by 31926

I've found this to be very useful together with mining in Netherstorm.

A few extra Primal Mana's every hour gives quite a boost farming. I'm gonna post routes and G/h as soon as I've evaluated to the max.

Comment by 29281

I just wanted to comment more on the gas clouds themselves. I've done some extensive research on these clouds, trying to get a better handle on how they function. Since I was levelling an alt through Zangamarsh, I paid special attention to the 'life' clouds/nodes. I would expect clouds in other zones behave in a similar way.

-Overall these gas nodes can be looked at like a herbalism node, they spawn in a SET LOCATION, based on the number of active nodes in a given area (much like herb and ore nodes) Once harvested, they will respawn sometime later, and if harvested too quickly, they will yeild diminished returns.
-I was able to confirm that even though the gas nodes appear to 'float around', they only do so in a limited area. (no more than a 3x3 area for co-ords) Basically they pat around like an NPC mob. I left a node uncollected and checked back on it regularly and it would always be in the same 3x3 area.
-These nodes do NOT despawn, but stay active until harvested. They will continue to float around their spawn points. They occasionally can pass through objects and terrain.
-Much like herbs, there is likely a limit to the number of these nodes that can be active at once. In one study, I was able to find 5 nodes active in Zangamarsh at the same time, which meant I was able to harvest 24 motes in 10 minutes. (bear in mind I knew exactly where these gas nodes were since I was studying their behaviour at the time. Running around to find them will obviously take longer.)
-During my study I found 10 unique location coordinates where the nodes spawned in Zangamarsh, although I am sure there are more since I have gaps on my map. I found the biggest concentration in the west end of the zone by the Orges (Hewn Bog) and Daggerfen Village, north of Zabra'Jin. At one point there were four active nodes in this area, and of the 10 nodes I recorded, 6 were located in the area bordering 28 to 38 (east-west) and 20 to 60 (north-south).
-Finding the nodes is best done with detail effects set to HIGH in your video settings. This will cause most gas clouds to stick out like sore thumbs.
-One interesting effect with mana motes is that when you are near a mana gas cloud you will hear a 'tingling' sound, much like what you would hear when you are near a mana totem. You will also see sparkles on your avatar, and on the NPCs nearby. (There may be a mana gain effect, but my character has no mana bar)

What does this all mean? Well it means that you CAN in fact 'farm' for these motes, but it will take a good deal of effort to make up a map of locations. If a gatherer style mod was made for these gas nodes, it would be a lot easier to run around and ckeck locations.

However, the rate of return is what one has to question. You need to figure if it would take you longer to just farm mobs (like Bog lords) for these nodes. With an epic flying mount it could likely be quite efficient to farm nodes, since you can cover the terrain quite rapidly.

Farming for these nodes (in general) is likely best done in cases where the motes are in demand, yet aren't that easy to farm. (perhaps shadow now since the nerf) The other situation when farming nodes can be profitable is when you have mining or herbalism, and you can work it in to your farming routes. I haven't yet had the time to study any other zones, but the concept of these nodes should be the same in both Shadowmoon Valley (for shadow motes) and in Netherstorm (for mana motes).

Comment by Whitefyre

I have been in the area you stated. did all you asked.. still not seeing them.. /cry

would you happen to have co ordinates?

Comment by Cobra

But with all this science....the old find and kill method is better ^^...no clouds no complications...just Spot Kill Loot...so let the engeneering and get "primitive"! ^^

Comment by flitschbirne

Got one in Zangarmarshes at 24,30

Comment by 41236

If anyone has made another map for other places for the vortexes it would be awesome to have them posted. The one above for Zangarmarsh was perfect. I was only able to hit 4 clouds as someone else was farming them too but got close to 2 primals out of it.

Comment by 68185

A mage using invisibility can see the mana clouds in netherstorm, too bad i'm no engineer.

Comment by 18499

As of Patch 2.3 there are now clouds in Nagrand that yield motes of air. Should make farming these just a little bit easier now.

Comment by Latreau

What i wonder is, can you use the Furious goggles aswell for this purpose?

Comment by 64929

In patch 2.3 the goggle that allows you to see the clouds in netherstorm will instead show the location o nearby gas clouds at ur minimap.
http://www.worldofraids.com/news/november/enggasclouds.jpg

Comment by 17486

This is what you will need to make this extractor:

40 x Motes of Life
16 x Fel Iron Ore
1 Thorium Ore
1 Arcane Crystal
1 Ironweb Spider Silk

I was at 310 Engineering when I started to make this extractor, and it got me to 313.

Comment by 52665

air = harvested from "Windy Cloud"
https://www.wowhead.com/cata/npc=24222 Map Here

mana = harvested from "Arcane Vortex"
https://www.wowhead.com/cata/npc=17408 Map Here

shadow = harvested from "Felmist"
https://www.wowhead.com/cata/npc=17407 Map Here

water = harvested from "Swamp Gas"
https://www.wowhead.com/cata/npc=17378 Map Here

While this map was true for Swamp Gas when it yielded "Motes of Life", I am hoping it is still correct now that they yield "Motes of Water" post patch 2.3

enjoy,
~raab.rexxar~

Comment by Xarlequin

Since after 2.3 was released you can see the gas clouds on the minimap making them far easier to spot, and making this item far better. I've just been flying around shadowmoon valley for max an hour doing quests and I've found 6 coulds and gained 3 primal shadows.

I love this!

Comment by Rianne

Any maps for Fire or Life post 2.3?

Comment by pandaman

Perhaps one of the best Engineering items there is now, maybe nobody else is farming these, but the Nagrand Gas Clouds spawn rate is very fast, in just under an hour I got 9 Primal Air, that's amazing to be honest, especially since I'm just finding them while farming Adamantite Ore. Definately worth getting now, pays for itself in materials very quickly.

Comment by 65742

This was excellent, however as of 11-27-07, it seems Blizzard has really nerfed the gas clouds in Nagrand. I rarely see them, whereas before I always saw them.

Comment by Feinyr

Since the release of s3, it seems that the Nagrand cloud respawnrate is heavily nurfed or bugged. Many Players report that they havent seen any until now. If this is intendet, engineering is going to be again a "non profit" Job.

Comment by GokieKS

The spawning of the gas clouds has definitely been nerfed. Since S3, I've yet to see a single gas cloud in Nagrand, Zangarmarsh, Netherstorm, or SMV.

I had a conversation with a GM about gas clouds that were in inaccessible locations (notably in Nagrand, where I've come across several which were near a floating island but out of range), and his response was the good old "we're aware of the issue". Whether this change is them trying to fix it, or just an unannounced nerf, who knows.

Comment by kibeth

Blizzard is aware of, and expected to fix the clouds in 2.3.2.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3168509508&postId=32358271391&sid=1#31

Comment by 41236

In 2.3 they put the gas clouds on your mini map. Its a yellow dot like if you were scanning for herbs or mining nodes. Pretty neat.

But I think they only appear if you have a helm that shows you vortexes. But I can see them with out one..it probably wont show up on the mini map.

Comment by entropicdragon

Note that if you try to use this to extract a cloud but your inventory is full, you will get an error, NO motes, and the cloud will disappear! So be careful and make sure you have an open slot.

Comment by 95219

I'd like to complain that there is not enough primal fire in the world and the mining nodes just don't do the trick. Perhaps my opinion will change when I'm mining nethercite, but until then I say they should make clouds of fire in BEM or perhaps Hellfire Peninsula.

Comment by chimera

The cloud "nerf" was a bug, now they respawn again as intended.

Comment by Krakatau

Tip for farmers: In Nagrand some of te clouds are on floating isles in the air. Usually they are over the edge so you need to go to the very edge of isle to reach them. Be sure you carry https://www.wowhead.com/cata/spell=12616 Parachute Cloak with you so you don't die if you fall over the edge.

Comment by 43530

Formerly, this item use to be a complete waste of time...

Back when TBC came out, and this was craftable... Gas clouds were only found in Zangarmarsh and Netherstorm. However, their spawn rates were very low, and you HAD to have a special pair of engineer goggles to be able to see them to begin with! The end result was that the two items combined were a very expensive investment... which yielded poor returns. (You'd have to run around the zone wearing the goggles, and if you found one or two of these clouds, you'd get maybe 4 motes total)

HOWEVER, recently there's been substantial buffs to this whole setup. The gas clouds are now available in Zangarmarsh, Netherstorm, Nagrand, and Shadowmoon Valley and provide Life, Mana, Air, and Shadow Motes, respectively. Not only that, they are VISIBLE at all times. The detection 'buff' available on special engineer goggles were modified to add markers for clouds on the Minimap, so it is useful to have these goggles on, but NOT required. These clouds provide anywhere from 3-5 motes per extraction, so its decent.

Note that there's A LOT of spawns for clouds as of 2.3 too... you can see the other posts for maps with some of the nodes. HOWEVER, there's a respawn issue atm... see this forum link.

Here's the direct quote from the Blizz Poster Nethaera (since that thread may eventually disappear):
"Hello everyone. i just thought I'd drop in to let you know that it has been confirmed by QA that respawns of gas clouds are not working properly at current.

This is slated to be fixed in the next patch (2.3.2)."

Comment by Dorkfish

Quick note. If you are going to "farm" a cloud make sure your inventory is not full when you do it. If it is, the cloud will dissapear and you will receive no loot.

Comment by 115709

this is all the spots i have collected that other people have helped with for Motes of Air thanx everyone.

Click for map

jimmyboot

Comment by 116760

Confirmed that on 2.3.2 gas clouds seem to be respawning again!

Comment by Toldry

Motes of life are now collectable again!

Comment by 87278

Something i've found out with this is when i had full bags (and didn't realise it), extracting from a cloud will yield no motes AND cause the cloud to disappear...

Make sure you have bag room before you attempt to gather!

Comment by 108724

Is it useable only 1 time and then it disappears??

Please answer i wanna know :D

Comment by Ward5x5

Can a druid use this while in flight form?

Comment by 94573

After extensive testing on the current 2.4 PTR, It seems as though the range on this has been increased. I noticed it especially in Nagrand, where previously unreachable Windy Clouds are now able to be extracted.

Comment by 136588

is this fastest way to farm gold?

Comment by 138538

I've farmed up 6 primal airs in less than 24 hours just questing in Nagrand. It really is silly for any eng. to not have this thing.

Comment by 141773

Let it be known that this baby can be used while in combat. So if you don't mind taking a few hits to the ol' keister, you can run into a group of mobs, extract your motes, and run out. Do a victory dance if you want afterwards. =D

Let it also be known that I was doing this on a 64 Paladin, decked out in plate. I don't think it would be a wise idea for a clothie the same level to run in between 4-5 mobs and test it out.

Comment by 54149

The clouds sometimes appears in the middle of the sky, out of reach and not even close to an island.
Sad thing they don't respawn, I expect its a bug. (?)

Comment by 139416

Can they be seen with out the googles in nagrand and zangramarsh?

I mean.. i dont rly get it, should i have track stealthed (hunter) on and look at the map or just keep my eyes open?

Comment by tobarstep

Something to keep in mind, this item is not soulbound at all. I made one on my first character I leveled through Outland. Now, a year later, I'm leveling another engineer and I was able to just reuse the one I'd made the first time. It was nice being able to extract motes from the second I set foot into Zangarmarsh.

Comment by 27876

air = harvested from "Windy Cloud" (in Nagrand, after 2.3 hits). These can actually spawn on the floaty islands in the sky as well.

Didn't get much coverage above and was annoying me for ages, thought I'd just point it out again.

Comment by 152444

definetly worth the 100 to 120g spent on the mats (4 primal lifes, 2 fel iron casings, 2 fel iron bolts, and 1 delicate arcanite converter)

if your good and have the epic gogs by the time you get this, you can make the money back in 2 to 3 weeks tops

Comment by 167335

I've been averageing 3 to 6 motes a gas cloud. But have noticed a very slow respawn rate on the gas clouds. Alot quicker than farming motes the way everyone else has too.

Comment by 177631

It is easy to make 1,000g with this device in a single day, or even in a couple of hours. I farm Nagrand at night when the population is much less. I mine and engineer the clouds, and make anywhere from 60-80 ore (mainly because im not after the ore) and 12-15 primal airs. On my server primal airs sell anywhere from 30-45g and are in fairly high demand. The majority of all my money comes from this primal air business. I don't even do dailys anymore, as just farming nagrand for motes and ore is way more profitable, not to mention non-dps classes who struggle or is slow at doing dailys will benefit by the lack of combat in making money this way.

Comment by 178571

They should rename this "Money Maker".

Comment by 170315

Something to keep in mind: If you learn to create this then give up engineering, or just lose the pattern, you can NOT get the recipe back.

it's not like the LW tortoise scale patterns, the NPCs won't teach you to create them if you lose the pattern

Luckily, it doesn't bind to you, so you can use it and still throw it on an alt. or, in my case, buy one from AH because the recipe wasn't available.

Comment by Stak

Great Profit as long as you stay in Outlands a bit, I'm helping my Hunter friends level in Nagrand / BEM / Terokkar and I've raked in about 10 priamls total, this thing is great!

As far as I know its...
Hellfire - Fire
Zang - Water
Terokkar - ?
Nagrand - Air
Blade Edge - Earth
Shadowmoon - Shadow?
Netherstorm - ?

Comment by Jududdar

Just want to say thanks for the map providing locations in Nagrand. I have only the normal flying mount, not epic, and I was able to harvest 9 primal airs in a little under 3 hours. My friend - a well equipped dps warrior was farming airs on elemental plateau, and only got 5 in this time.

Comment by sirius

If you have your inventory full and extract a cloud, it will despawn and u'll get only error message 'Your inventory is full', no motes.

Comment by Alixie

I'm able to track both clouds and ore on my minimap, incase anyone was wondering if they should switch out their engineering goggles. I'm assuming you can track other objects as well, beasts, treasure, ect.

Get this quest asap. The bog monsters drop motes of life that are one of the matts to make it. The thing pays for itself and way more!

Comment by esememon

Alright, posting a comprehensive list of gas cloud spawn points as of September 13th, 2008. I looked at all the routes and maps people previously put up, tried to keep it as accurate as possible.

Nagrand (Windy Cloud Air): Map
Netherstorm (Arcane Vortex Mana): Map
Shadowmoon Valley (Felmist Shadow): Map
Zangarmarsh (Swamp Gas Water): Map

Comment by Rilgon

According to this topic on the Beta Professions forums, the Zapthrottle is finally working on gas clouds in Northrend, and providing the Crystallized Elements that they should instead of Motes.

Comment by 196076

are there clodus that give fire?

Comment by 195360

It has been reported that this item has been used in Beta of Wrath of the Lich King to farm the "Upgraded" versions of Motes of Air, the Crystallized Air, and even the Crystallized Water.

Link: https://www.wowhead.com/cata/item=37700#comments (comment by threecubed)

Comment by 212003

wut about the clouds in nagrand

Comment by Congelado

Attempted to extract gases from the Arcane Vortices in Netherstorm and did not receive any motes from them on 16/10/08. Inventory was not full.

Comment by Harbinger

Are there gas clouds in Northrend? And if yes, does Mote Extractor work on them or we'll need a new one? I'm asking because the new Wotlk Engi BoP helms have the "equip: detect clouds on minimap" so there has to be a reason for that.

Comment by 21452

Has anyone heard anything about the zapthrottle or an upgraded version for Northrend?

This was one of the good things engineers had going for them, hope blizzard will keep it.

Comment by 250095

I successfully extracted crystalized air and crystalized fire from steam clouds found in Borean Tundra. So the mote extractor works on clounds in the new expansion!

Comment by LordVarbaro

Zapthrottle Mote Extractor is still useful, there are gas clouds in Northrend as well. The old TBC Goggles are still working.
Maybe there are more kinds of these clouds.

Two of them are:
Steam Clouds(Air/Fire) Map
Artic Clouds(Water/Air) Map.

On a different note: the robotic mobs in The Geyser Fields can be mined by Engineers. Usually they drop vendor junk, but occasionally they drop useful engineering parts like Volatile Blasting Trigger

Comment by 48886

Also useful in WotLK, for ex. there is a great spot north east of Camp Winterhoof in Howling Fjord that have lots of clouds.

Comment by shibbidydoo

note, the mote extractor is back in a big way, letting us extract clouds in northrend. Current Discoveries:

steam clouds:
Found in: borean tundra and sholazar basin
Contians: 1 crystalized water, 3-4 crystalized fire

cinder clouds
Found in: dragonblight, sholazar basin
contains: 3-4 crystalized fire

arctic clouds
Found in: howling fjord, dragonblight, zul'drak (confirm?)
Contains: crystalized Air and crystalized Water

some others i forgot, will update as i find more

Comment by 37999

This works on new clouds in Northrend, too. You don't need a new version of it, and the same tracking from engineering helmets applies. You get crystalized elements rather than motes this time.

Comment by 255926

And the mote extractor is again for use in Wotlk game Client.I can say that the Spawning points are simple and the spawning time is like 5-10 mins for each cloud.I also want to say that its different from TBC clouds.There is only 3 types of cloud in Wotlk i saw from all Northrend.But i also want to say that it not drops as they made clouds.For example you can see Steam Clouds in Fizzlecranks airstrip place.There is 3 spawns there.If you use the extractor u ll get 1-4 Crystallized Fire and 1-4 Crystallized Water into your backpack.All the 3 clouds on mixed areas at northrend only can give fire-air-water.Thats sucks but better then nothing!. ....
Ofc dont forgot to check your inventory if you hav 3 empty specs for all reasons.If you dont got any space in your inv. The cloud will remove and u cant get any of the loots.

Comment by 89295

This extractor can be used to extract clouds in Northerend. Steam Clouds (Fire, Water), Cinder Clouds (Fire, Air) and Arctic Clouds (Water, Air).

Comment by MoonLite

Zapthrottle Mote Extractor can also be used in Northrend to extract 1-6 crystallized elements from gasclouds.
You can spot them on the map by using the lvl70 or lvl80 engineering headpiece, and with Belt-Clipped Spynoculars.
With a zoomed out minimap you can see the pins almost as soon as they come in range of your minimap (although depending on machine and connection they might pop up as late as flying over them).

Arctic Cloud: Crystallized Air + Crystallized Water
seen in: Howling Fjords, Dragonblight, Storm Peaks (pinned map)
Cinder Cloud: Crystallized Fire
seen in: Dragonblight, Sholazar Basin (pinned map)
Steam Cloud: Crystallized Water + Crystallized Fire
seen in: Borean Tundra (pinned map), Sholazar Basin (pinned map)

(##RESPBREAK##)396##DELIM##Buuloki##DELIM##

Comment by 222504

Anyone have any maps or such for the new clouds in northrend? Have found a few, just havent thought to commit it to memory or anything else...

Comment by Gunslinger

In Wrath of the Lich King, gas clouds that can be harvested for the Crystallized elements may be found in the same locations where the elemental Revenants can be found in Wintergrasp. While you need the Essence of Wintergrasp buff to see and kill the Revenants, you can see and farm the gas clouds at all times, even when your faction does not control the fortress.

Comment by cechjakpoleno

I have found Steam Clouds in Borean Tundra, which every give about 1x crystallized water and 3-5x Crystallized Fire.
For now I found this places:
https://www.wowhead.com/cata/maps=3537:599213637308604388572266674368694231
I'll try to update it as I find more mwhile lvling.
BTW anybody found some addon which automaticaly put note on your map in place where you have extracted motes?
-------------------------------
Edit: ask for addon and map update

Comment by Warnipplez

This works on WotLK gas clouds as well except instead of receiving motes you, get Crystallized Eternals.

Comment by Rianne

Don't forget the WotLK Belt-Clipped Spynoculars!

Comment by Zaphiroth

Hiya! I dropped engineering so i thought i'd share my note collection for the ultimate farming of Eternals with everyone. =]
Link: http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/9826/cloudnotesfm5.jpg

Comment by 105284

I have made a map of where I have found Steam clouds and Cinder clouds. This was made after about 7-8 spiral passes over the whole zone. I doubt if it is complete, but there are a lot of places to find motes.

I'll try to remember to update it if I find some more.

https://www.wowhead.com/cata/maps=3711:506770590697577658633504566368582409630333467225446300463324418320330403239508300504277518269539244621230662417545283726

Comment by Afoxi

The Delicate Arcanite Converter may be an issue if you want to build this and you happen to be hated by Goblins..

Comment by valfader

I just tested this with an Arctic Cloud in Dragonblight, Northrend, and it worked just fine.

I got 6 x Crystallized Water from it. Note that even though this device is called "Mote Extractor" it works on Crystallized stuff as well.

Have fun!

Comment by 170360

whats the repaws tiem for coulds?

Comment by 161328

I drink your mote-shake. I drink it up!

Comment by 338261

Can this thing find the gas cloud that gives mote of fire or blizz didnt make that one yet?

Comment by 355456

is it necessary the googles to use the Mote-Finder?

Comment by 93126

Does this work in Northrend too? In other words: are there any gas clouds in Northrend?

Comment by 385814

As of 3.2 the extractor now has the ability to see clouds on ur mini map, while the same ability has been removed from Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles.

Comment by AmiYuy

Wrath node maps on WoWWiki:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Arctic_Cloud
Arctic Cloud: Crystallized Air, Crystallized Water
-Seems to appear in any snowy area, so most of Dragonblight, the snowy mountains bordering Grizzly Hills/Howling Fjord, Storm Peaks, and parts of Icecrown

http://www.wowwiki.com/Cinder_Cloud
Cinder Cloud: Crystallized Fire
-Appears in hot locations, which, in the Frozen North, isn't very many places. Specifically, the Obsidian Dragonshrine (and the area above, technically in Wintergrasp) and the north area of Sholozar, where the Proto-drakes and burning trees are.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Steam_Cloud
Steam Cloud: Crystallized Fire, Crystallized Water
-Appears in the steamy jungles of Sholazar Basin, and in the Borean Tundra in the Geyser Fields.

Comment by 385742

Powerfull tool against shadow priests in PvP!
When they go like "Lol ghost! Dispersion!" You get to play around being the Ghostbuster!

Comment by matornot

The Northrend motes are as follows:
Arctic Air (Water/Air) - Dragonblight, Icecrown, Storm Peaks
Cinder Cloud (Fire) - Dragonblight, Wintergrasp
Steam Cloud (Water/Fire) - Borean Tundra, Sholazar Basin

did i miss anything?

Comment by 422399

I just recently made this thing while leveling engineering and I must say I am disappointed in it. I don't know how it worked in BC but in Wrath it doesn't work very well. By that I mean that if you expect this to be a money maker you will be disappointed. It should be seen like all the other engineering gadgets. Fun, maybe make a coin or two, but it is not a substitute for mining or any other profession.

The clouds don't have many spawn points, they are far apart, and they don't respawn fast. This gadget is perfect to use when you are out mining or questing or doing something else and happen to stumble upon a cloud.

But if you are in need of some eternals fast there are much better ways to get them than this gadget.

Comment by 162898

any information is there new clouds in Cata?

Comment by 91460

Oddly enough, this makes the "red mist" in Deepholm's Crimson Expanse show up as a red dot on the minimap. The mote extractor has no effect on the mist, however.

Comment by voskopoula

Unfortunately this Red Mist in Deepholm doesn;t do a thing with zapthrotle extractor. It could be a cloud that shouldn;t be in the game, just because they removed the other clouds before the release for some reason..

Comment by Qliyo

Where is all the clouds in Cataclysm?

Comment by 739044

Anyone know if Blizzard plans on bringing clouds back for engineers here in Cataclysm? Seems like there is a bigger need considering that the new "Eternals" cost 15 "motes" instead of 10 they did in BC and WotLK.

Comment by Serelitz

Has this item been forgotten in Cataclysm? I was hoping to sneak in some extra volatiles while levelling my engineering alt :(

Comment by Sieghardt

A brand new model might come soon.

Comment by 835110

i so need to get this item for faster finding in motes :D

Comment by 733706

As of this writing there are still clouds that are unreachable. The one in Nagrand next to the Ring of Trials above a floating island at 68, 56 is one I had trouble with. It is above the trees on this island and I tried jumping out of my flying machine in a parachute in an attempt to farm it. You get the message that you can't do that while moving. I even tried climbing the tree to reach it, still wasn't high enough. Of course you can't farm while mounted so that was out of the question. Wrote a ticket.

Comment by odorous

TomTom cords for the swamp gas in zangarmarsh broken into 2 macros.
Feel free to comment and add more.

/way 85 49
/way 78 79
/way 75 83
/way 65 73
/way 63 66
/way 60 54
/way 58 52
/way 59 35
/way 46 58
/way 45 56
/way 38 58
/way 24 56
/way 9 51

/way 30 50
/way 34 42
/way 32 38
/way 31 32
/way 32 30
/way 28 24
/way 16 20
/way 48 31
/way 72 35
/way 50 58
/way 26 61
/way 12 46

Comment by 473517

The Cataclysm Equivalent of this item is the Electrostatic Condenser.

Comment by Bronzeleaf

Does anyone know if this item is still useful? I just made one on my engineer, went to storm peaks, Gas clouds are not showing up on my mini-map and I am not able to target them either. Do I need to have mining as my second profession? I don't, I have Blacksmithing as well as engineering on my character.

Comment by Allakhazam

So what do you get from the gasses? What can you make with them or what are they used for?

Comment by Allakhazam

I did the quest as an engineer, dropped engy and picked it back up. any way to get this schem back?

Comment by Allakhazam

Does anyone know if there are gases outside of zangarmarsh?

Comment by Allakhazam

Also used in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley.

Comment by Allakhazam

I've seen clouds like you guys are talking about in Elemental Plateau in Nagrand in the water elemental area. However, when I try to use the mote extractor it tells me I need a target...

Comment by Allakhazam

I think they forgot to build a tracker for Gas Clouds. Going after them is a waste of time.

Comment by Allakhazam

think they nerfed/buffed this in zangar because ALL of the gas clouds i extract are water now,no life ,and you can get alot of motes of air from nagrand too

Comment by Allakhazam

They just brought back Windy Cloud on my server (Andorhal).

Comment by Allakhazam

Is this item of any use in Northrend? I have heard that it was, but have spent a fair amount of time searching the areas I was told and have found zip.

Comment by Allakhazam

For anyone know wants to know what the clouds look like..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/Mystic_ninja/aaaaaa.jpg

Comment by Allakhazam

I found a couple of gas clouds pathing around in Steamvaults. they were blue, and if i remember right i got some motes of life(not quite sure on that though, it has been a while.

Comment by Allakhazam

ive been mining in zangarmarsh alot lately, and so far this thing has already payed for itself! ive gotten over 50 motes of life with it so far!

Comment by Allakhazam

Felmist Cloud extracted at 49,35 in SMV 4 motes/37,69 3 motes of shadow-post on to confirm and update co'ord spots to make it easier to farm

Edited, Dec 4th 2007 9:04pm by Vanista

Comment by Allakhazam

Can anyone post a screenshot of what the blue gas sphere looks like and the coordiantes of where you found it?

Comment by Allakhazam

From what ive noticed, certain maps have certain gasses. This I can ascertain to:
Nagrand - Mote of Air (Windy Cloud)
Zangarmarsh - Mote of Water
Shadowmoon Valley - Mote of Shadow
Netherstorm - Mote of Mana

Im currently farming Nagrand as of the moment right now. There are some bugged Windy Clouds that dont move and are Out of Range for the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor to reach. There are about 4 that I found bugged. They do spawn at certain areas as well. I have yet to explore other areas where gasses might exist (like Hellfire for Mote of Fire?). If you know of any fire gasses out there, let me know or share the info hehe.

Comment by Allakhazam

As an update to some of the posts below, just having the mote extractor in your inv will enable you to see gas clouds on the mini map. No other goggles required.

Comment by Allakhazam

I can also recommend making this. I wish I had made it sooner.

Do not expect to go out specifically looking for them, just carry it with you when you are farming / questing etc and use it when you see some. It seems to give 4 - 5 motes per cloud.

The epic engineering goggles (e.g. Deathblow X11 for Rogue) enable you to see them, as I suspect other classes' do too, so you don't even need to make something special, other than the Extractor itself, since the helmet is so imba (unless you are lucky enough to have T5+ gear).

Edited, Aug 19th 2007 2:10:54pm by JimboMahoney

Comment by Allakhazam

An Engineer can use the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor
on Gas Clouds. And if that Engineer has the Ultra-Spectroscopic Detection Goggles (or one of the other types of high-end goggles) he/she can see them on the mini map. The 'tracking' ability was introduced in Patch 2.3.0, and stacks with other tracking types.

From my limited experience in Extracting motes from various Gas Clouds, it seems that you will get anywhere from 3 to 5 motes per extraction.

You can extract Motes from various clouds in the following locations:
Air -- Nagrand (Windy Clouds, introduced in Patch 2.3.0)
Mana -- Netherstorm (Arcane Vortex, completely visible since 2.3.0)
Shadow -- Shadowmoon Valley (Felmist Cloud)
Water -- Zangermarsh (Swamp Gas, pre patch 2.3.0 it was Life)

You still have to mine mineral nodes or kill mobs for Mote of Fire and Earth. You get Motes of Life from Herb Gathering or killing mobs (or kill mobs, then Herb-skin them).
Fire, Earth and Life motes cannot be Extracted (yet?)

Finally, something useful for Engineers, woohoo!

Edited, Dec 13th 2007 5:06pm by stevenator

Edited, Dec 14th 2007 12:53pm by stevenator

Comment by Allakhazam

the clouds in netherstorm are invisible. you can reveal them by using the "ultra spectropic goggles" made at 350 engineering. you also can use any method of detecting invisibility (not stealth, INVISIBILITY) which will allow you to see them. this is kind of a pain though, having to keep up... so the best way to actually find them is to go about your business with the option turned on to show mana gains. when you start getting +20 mana ticks every second from nowhere, you know your within about 20 yards of one of these clouds and you should pop your abilities to see them. they give motes of mana when you extract

Comment by Allakhazam

JK if your reading this your a smart one for going engineering. i just roll around nagrand with track fish on and suck up gas clouds all day. Have fun with your new toy its gonna pay for itself in the first 2 hours guaranteed with the method im talking about. BTW you need to get track fish, it just gives you all the more reason to look for these clouds cause your prolly already fishing pure waters.

Edited, Aug 9th 2008 2:07pm by doomzdayz

Comment by Allakhazam

This thing may be one of the most useful engineering pieces I've made to date. My alt is an Engineer, so I'm not trying to get the most out of Engineering that I can, but for what I use it for... this thing is great.

Any time I'm leveling up a different alt or just playing around in Zangarmarsh, Nagrand, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon I keep my Engineer parked nearby. Everytime I see one of these neat little gas clouds I log and jump over to my Engineer, and presto: 3-5x motes for about 30secs of work. This thing has already paid for itself about 6x over in terms of mote collection, I couldn't be happier with the investment.

Make this as soon as you can, the longer you have it around the more likely you'll be able to suck profits out of it as you go through the zones.

Comment by Allakhazam

This thing collects Motes of Life from swamp gas. The gas is a blue sphere which spawns in the Zangermarsh and extracts around 3 Motes of Life from it which are used to create Primal Life.

Comment by Allakhazam

I can confirm this device also extracts motes of shadow from gas clouds in Shadowmoon Valley. I think its a safe bet it will extract all kinds of motes from all gas clouds.

Comment by Allakhazam

If you have high end goggles, an epic flyer, and the mote extractor, you can easily farm 6-10 primals an hour. At 25-30g a primal, you can easily make over 1000g a day just running laps around any of the four zones that have clouds.

Comment by Thottbot

The Gas Extractor allows you to take the floating bubbles of "light" and make it into Motes of X (X depending on bubble/zone).

Motes are the building blocks of the Primal X (Life, Mana, Shadow etc) who in turn are used for a lot of crafting.

Sarf

Comment by Thottbot

There are gas clouds than can be extracted the following places:

Zangarmarsh: swamp gas clouds that give mote of water
Shadowmoon Valley: dark clouds that give mote of shadow
Netherstorm: Need goggles to see them, give mote of mana

As of patch 2.3:
Nagrand: White clouds that give mote of air

Comment by Thottbot

These mote clouds are untargetable, but you do not need to target the clouds in order to extract them. Just stand close enough and use the extractor and it will suck it up.

As far as locations the only ones I have found are the clouds that contain motes of life in Zangar.

Comment by Thottbot

I'm very disappointed of this thing, it's not even worth the mats and time to build it.
Maybe 1 or 2 clouds per map and you can only suck out 3 to 5 motes...
I was hoping for more because:
1. It can only be used by engineers
2. The gas clouds are way too rare.
3. Why the hell not give engineers a little something like every other profession got.
Tailors got lots and lots of new recipes, including BoP sets like this or this or this.
Blacksmiths got upgradeable weapons and armor.
Enchanters got ring enchants which are only available to them.
Alchemists can specialize in elixirs which gives them a chance to create multiple elixirs at the cost of 1.
And what do engineers get? Yeah, this thing which sucks 3 motes of something out of a gas cloud which you find once every hour. Or you can just go and kill 2-3 mobs and get the same amount way faster.
This thing sucks, and not just gas clouds :P

Comment by Thottbot

used those goggles, though i found a gascloud in netherstorm by the +20mana tick i couldnt for the world actually see the cloud :/ i could use the extractor to suck the mote of mana off it though... but made no difference if i had the goggles on or not so only way to find it was to move closer to where the manatick was fastest

so some kind of graphic error or what is it? feels useless to have those goggles if they make no difference to having no goggle at all

Comment by Thottbot

Found my first mote cloud, heres the deal with netherstorm / goggles.
When you equip them, it *casts* a spell (minor detect invis or something) so if you equip the goggles while mounted, yes they'll equip but you wont be given the seeing ability. The buff is also hidden, and not shown with your other buffs, so its hard to tell.

Heres a couple pics of the cloud i found.
(btw 3 mana motes extracted this time)

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c154/Tempzman777/Motecloud1.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c154/Tempzman777/Motecloud2.jpg

Comment by Thottbot

The thing is that ppl think u get "free epix" with the extractor immediately when they make it.

Well u don't. My priest is lvl 63 and I have collected 3 primal lifes in just a few hours, during questing. You definetely don't find the clouds if you are searching for them, but they are very, very nice addition to your regular income when you are exploring new areas and questing.

Comment by Thottbot

In zangarmarsh, clouds are in various open areas away from water (usually)

In shadowmoon, coulds are in the area of the lava pools, the open spaces with the regualar beast mobs (felboars,etc.) usually

In netherstorm, you have the best chance of finding clouds by manaforges.

These are based on my findings so dont get all pissd off if im wrong : )

This thing is pretty good to keep in your backpack incase you see a cloud, whats the harm?

Comment by Thottbot

/*start rant
It’s my personal opinion, being an engineer in real life, that Blizzards programming engineers want to share there pain with us. If you have ever been an engineer in real life you would know that this profession is a Royal Pain in the (input body location here) and not very monetarily rewarding for time and effort spent. I have a feeling that since they are engineer, they made this profession too close to Real Life. I applaud the reality for it. But that just takes all the fun out of it. I wish they could remember the fun days of tarring apart dads’ radio in the garage to see how it ticked and wanting to modify it while putting it back together in order to make something that no one else has or putting an alkolotic capacitor into a switched wall outlet in order to make a nice pop/smoke/scare the pants off of your friends *Do not try this at home kids. It’s very dangerous.*
end rant/*

Comment by Thottbot

Perhap as a fix, blizzard could put more invisible vortexes in all the applicable zones, so youd have the rarish visible vortexes, but with the use of the proper Detection Device, *BAM* theres motes all over the place!

lets all say together: 'we need more Vespene Gas!'

*as a side note, on the topic of more/better engineering recipies i got four words to toss about as an idea: Engineering Crafted Flying Mount; wouldnt that be worth it?

Comment by Thottbot

There is a simple way to make gold on this thing.

In SV at second mechanical boss is always a gas cloud which gives you 4-5 motes of life. Also around are adamentite and fel ores. If you are rogue/druid you can just stealth to that boss. On the right of first boss jump into water and swim through tunnel. This way is faster and safer than upper with tons of mobs. It's good to have some pots that increase your swiming speed. At second boss wait when gas cloud moves to area without mobs and extract it. Also pick up ores. After that hide all items with durability and kill yourself on mobs. Walking from graveyard is much faster.

One run takes about 5 min and you will have items for about 30g. You can repeat this until "you have entered too many instances recently". Don't know when you will be able to get into instance again.

Comment by Thottbot

Farmed Zangarmarsh for life clouds last night..
It appears that after midnight (CET) you can make quite a lot of money with the extractor.

In the hour I farmed, I got 67x Mote of Life. Pretty good deal since a primal goes for 20-30g on my server depending on what's allready for sale on the AH.

Comment by Thottbot

Don't try to extract a cloud unless you have bag space as you will get an
Inventory Full" message and the cloud will disappear. (ugh!)

Comment by Thottbot

Snap...same here..No Gas Clouds in Nagrand and I cannot find any in Zangermarsh either.

Everyone complain to GM now please

Comment by Thottbot

They are aware and lookig into it apparently that is what GM told me today

Comment by Thottbot

Have you tried farming them since 11/27? Because I as well have seen exactly ZERO clouds ANYWHERE. I find it hard to believe that ALL of them are being farmed out. There's one in Nagrand that spawns EVERY 6 mins tops and it has YET to show up. Somebody screwed up

Comment by Thottbot

Got this yesterday and it's got to be THE best thing I ever crafted -

I'm lvl 64...dinged 65 a few hours ago.

In the ONE day i've had this beast of a machine i've gotten 4pAir and 2 pMana just from questing and running around Nagrand + running through Netherstorm to make some Spellcloth.

The mote of life to make this I got purely when doing the Q's in Zangarmash for Sporregar.

Totally worth every bit of gold.

Comment by Thottbot

Not sure if this was mentioned already, but you can farm Motes of Air from clouds in Nagrand. Maybe this is new since patch. Also, I would just like to say how much I love engineering since I took it up a week ago and dumped boring Blacksmithing with it's impossible mats and endless endless endless grinding. At least engineering gives you achievable goals and fun and interesting stuff to make. I have found many a cloud during my wanderings in Nagrand and Netherstorm, and Tankatronic Goggles are the best thing ever! Now, off to make my Gnomish Poultryizer!

Comment by Thottbot

Ok, stop ranting, you're doing it wrong. In off hours, hop on your epic flying mount...fly around the edges of Netherstorm, Zangramarsh, Nagrand, and/or SMV...and you'll make 100g / hour

The clouds repop very quickly. Usually by the time you make a complete circle, you can go around again.

I usually farm after raiding (12 server) and get 7-8 primals in an hour...depending on server prices depends on where I farm

Easy guys...Blizz sent us engineers an actual money making device...if you're not making money ... you are doing it wrong

Comment by Thottbot

Not using ur proffessions to their maximum capabilities is like never using ur talents, i have always been an engineer/ miner i am changing to tank spec which will be hard but certain things make life easier the 2x gnomish poultryliser i got will start me fine, any way the scopes guns bullets trinkets and fantastic goggles (which i achieved a nether from a nice run in sethekk halls) they give u somewhere to start so fresh tank spec at level 70 i already have the tankatronic goggles and the khorium destroyer equipped with an epic tank gem i saved from heroic BF that i got on a greed roll,
Have fun... enough rambling on!

Comment by Thottbot

Concur with above. I've been a rogue engineer/miner for over 18 months now and engineering rocks. It sucked for a while there, but Blizz finally yielded us some new schematics and life is once again good. What other occupation gives you cool bombs with an AOE stun, a rocket launcher trinket with massive stamina, epic goggles with built-in binoculars, a very hard-hitting epic ranged weapon, and allows you to make your own really cool epic flying mount?

If you're an engineer who is not using a Zapthrottle mote extractor to capture gasses while flying along in your own crafted epic helicopter wearing your crafted epic T5 equivalent engineering helm while packing your crafted epic cannon of a gun just in case, then you're missing out on some real gold and the occassional lively encounter - all the things real engineering should be but isn't:)

Engineering + Zapthrottle FTW!

Comment by Thottbot

I made one of these for myself and use it often in Nagrand to get Motes of Air... But from the info panel about this thing, it says you can use it to extract motes from certain creatures? i.e. Zaxxis Raiders? Im not sure if thats correct, and my trust in that fact was lowered even more by the fact that it also says you can extract motes from a Toad, A level 1 critter!

Comment by Thottbot

Ok, this is used to farm motes from clouds found in different zones. They are as following:
-Swamp Gas (Zangarmarsh): motes of water
-Windy Cloud (Nagrand): motes of air
-Felmist (Shadowmoon Valley): motes of shadow
-Nether Vortex (Netherstorm): motes of mana
Each cloud contains 3-5 motes of that type. The 350 epic engineering goggles can be used to track these gas clouds on the mini-map. You will need the extractor to get the motes.

Note: the extractor has a short range and you cannot be moving while using it. this is really only affected by the windy clouds in nagrand as they can often appear on or near the floating islands. if this happens, they are often out of reach and as of yet I have not found a way to reach them.

I have been farming windy clouds and have gathered 55 primal air in just 2 farming sessions, getting about 12 primals per hour. It's VERY good money and makes engineering worthwhile. Happy farming!

Edit: Just so you know, I've made about 1000g in 2 days from this, will pst screens of my cartographer to show spawn locations.

Comment by Thottbot

I don't care what anyone says, this is good investment. The primal life for the build can be farmed quickly at lvl 70 in zangarmarsh. the most expensive part was the delicate arcanite converter. And as numerous people have mentioned, this pays off while you tool around questing and such. I earned back the money i spent to build this in the first hour and a half of questing in shadowmoon valley.

Comment by Thottbot

if there are still people out there who question the usefulness of this item they're obviously not getting it.

First of all, like so many others said: when you're still leveling then the Mote extractor is a good way to make some primals during your hours questing around in either Zangar, Nagrand, Netherstorm or Shadowmoon. don't expect tons of it then though.

Second: once you get through the big grind for you epic flying mount this item really starts to pay off. i can get 3.5 primal waters (about 25g per piece on my server currently)in about 15min in Zangar farming the clouds. Anyone who can grind the same amount in that short span of time off water elementals and the like...well, congrats then. Same goes for nearly all other clouds - only netherstorm seems to have less of them.
(*note:i've been grinding with this item with my normal mount as well: painfully slow but still faster than killing mobs imo)

further, those clouds give 3 to 6 motes. do i have to say more?

and although it seems like they spawn randomly all over the map: they don't, they have fixed spawning locations just like mines, herbs etc. tricky thing is: they move around. still, if you've been farming them (yes farming! it's possible) like i have you'll see that you can usually find them in the same areas so you can start making a map where to fly.

Too bad there aren't any fireclouds though.

Comment by Thottbot

Be careful when you get this reciepe. You can only do this once so if you decide to dump engineering and pick something else up....you cannot get this quest again later if you choose to go back. Think carefully. This happened to me.

From the looks of it. If you did sell it or quit engineering, you can still have someone make it for you. It doesn't look like its BOP.

Comment by Thottbot

u get it from the guy outside the hord city in zarg he has the red helmet looking thing

Comment by Thottbot

I flew past two clouds right next to one another in Nagrand. I thought, wow- what luck. When I went over to them, I found them to be out of range of the little floating island closest to them. So, I came to thottbot to see if there was some trick to it. But, no, it's just more of blizz dropping the ball and noone cares enough to put in the work required to fix the problem.

Stating clearly up front that I am NO software engineer or computer genius of any kind; Dammit, Blizzard- If ya can't fix the spawn locations on the clouds, then increase the range on the Mote Extractor. That sounds alot simpler to me.

Comment by Thottbot

This item is hardly as bad as some previous posts make it out to be. My finding is that it is pretty difficult to use this to farm primals, UNLESS you have a pair of the goggles that make the gas clouds show up on you minimap. I just use the ultra-spectropic detection goggles (cheapest). With these you can find them on the minimap, and figure out a route through Zangar where they spawn. Doing it that way you can farm about 5 primals per hour without lifing a weapon (saves food, bandages, and repairs). Haven't farmed in Netherstorm or Shadowmoon. But Nagrand and Zangar are pretty good farming.

Comment by Thottbot

Can anyone clarify this: It says you can extract motes from npc's like Count Ungula. Is this true?

Comment by Thottbot

the device extracts motes by channeling. it doesnt get interrupted even if you take damage.
so if your cloud is inside a group of mobs, you can run in, extract, fear the mobs and run away

Comment by Thottbot

K I'd really like to know about this whole farming from npc's
I just got this thing on my rogue because I'm only 62 still in Zang no elementals to farm from but can I actually farm from like Raging Thunder Elementals and stuff.

Comment by Arxroth

Tracking gas clouds is a lot easier if you got item that provides
Gas Cloud Tracking
First item providing it is Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles
And now in phase 2 there is class/spec specific goggles to choose from.

Looking to make list of those gas clouds.

Comment by KnightTime

Item altered in Wrath to show gas clouds just by being in your inventory - no engineering goggles required!

View in 3D Find upgrades...Links

Quick Facts

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Zapthrottle Mote Extractor

Item Level 61
Unique

Requires Engineering (305)
Use: Extracts gas from a nearby gas cloud.
Shows the location of nearby gas clouds on the minimap while the mote extractor remains in your inventory.

Sell Price: 1 50

Zapthrottle Mote Extractor

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