Zapthrottle Mote Extractor
- Zapthrottle Mote Extractor
- Unique
- On Pickup: Shows the location of nearby gas clouds on the minimap while the mote extractor remains in your inventory.
- Use: Extracts gas from a nearby gas cloud.
- Requires Outland Engineering (5)
- Sell Price: 1
50
Zapthrottle Mote Extractor is a device used by Engineers to extract motes and crystallized elements from gas clouds. The Extractor can detect these clouds and track their position on the minimap while placed in inventory, irrespective of your other tracking preferences (e.g. while tracking Minerals).
Source
This item is crafted with Engineering (305); taught by 
[Schematic: Zapthrottle Mote Extractor].
|
2x [Fel Iron Casing] | 
|
2x [Handful of Fel Iron Bolts] | |
|
4x [Primal Life] | 
|
1x [Delicate Arcanite Converter] |
Notes
This item is used to extract motes from various clouds, gases, mists and vortices in Outland and Northrend. It can be put to use on the fairly distinctive, wandering clouds as long as your character is in close proximity to them. Simply activate the device when you are near a cloud and it will channel the motes into a spare inventory slot, should you have one.
In general
If you are an Engineer using Mining as your second primary profession, and you find a spot with both a cloud and an ore vein in close proximity in a heavily farmed area, it is in your best interest to mine the ore first. While there are many Engineers in the game who may go after the cloud while you are mining the ore, there are far more Miners who may come for the ore as you are harvesting the cloud.
In The Burning Crusade 
- Arcane Vortices in Netherstorm for
[Mote of Mana] - Felmist in Shadowmoon Valley for
[Mote of Shadow] - Swamp Gas in Zangarmarsh and The Steamvault for
[Mote of Water] - Windy Clouds in Nagrand for
[Mote of Air]
Note that Arcane Vortices are normally invisible, so if your minimap tracker is not enough to go on you will need the ability to 
[Detect Invisibility].
One common misconception is that this item can also be used to extract Motes of Water from the Pure Water that spawns in fishing spots around Outland, particularly in Nagrand. Pure Water in fact gives up its bounty to players who fish from it, not to mote extractors.
Note that Windy Clouds will very frequently spawn on top of the floating islands that are dotted about the Nagrand region, requiring a minimum of Expert Riding to reach them.
Also note that other methods exist for acquiring Motes, such as by tapping veins or looting from elemental creatures.
Be sure you have bag space before you start extraction. The cloud disappears after extraction whether you collected the motes or not. If you have an engineering bag the motes are automatically allocated to that, so having an engineering bag is very helpful here.
In Wrath of the Lich King 
Various clouds and such also exist in Northrend, where the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor can be used to extract Crystallized ingredients. The main difference is that more than one kind of element can be extracted, unlike the ones in Outland.[1]
- Arctic Clouds in Howling Fjord, Dragonblight and The Storm Peaks produce
[Crystallized Air] and 
[Crystallized Water]. - Cinder Clouds in the Savage Thicket in Sholazar Basin, the Obsidian Dragonshrine in Dragonblight, and the Cauldron of Flames in Wintergrasp produce
[Crystallized Fire]. - Steam Clouds around the Geyser Fields and Scalding Pools in Borean Tundra and throughout Sholazar Basin produce [Crystallized Fire] and [Crystallized Water].
In later expansions
The Zapthrottle Mote Extractor had no uses in Cataclysm or Mists of Pandaria.
Patch changes
Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Item level modified due to level squish. 
Patch 8.0.1 (2018-07-17): Due to professions being split into tiers, requirements to use have been changed from Engineering (305) to Outland Engineering (5). - Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
- Patch 2.4.0 (2008-03-25): The on-use animation has been changed.
- Rather than looking like you're a warlock draining the soul of the cloud, it now appears as though you are sucking the cloud through a tube.
- Rather than looking like you're a warlock draining the soul of the cloud, it now appears as though you are sucking the cloud through a tube.
- Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): Windy Clouds in Nagrand now produce [Mote of Air].
- Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): Gas clouds in Zangarmarsh now produce [Mote of Water] instead of
[Mote of Life]. - Patch 2.0.3 (2007-01-09): Added.