Idea to make Mining a bit more interesting.

[Spellweaver]

NOTE: This post also contains ideas for Herbalism, and soon Skinning. (As I'm unable to change the thread title.)

After I saw the datamined mini pet that can be obtained through mining (Elementium Geode), I started thinking about how to make mining a bit more interesting than just gathering ore, smelting it into bars and a small chance at receiving a mini pet when gathering ores.

That's when I thought about rare mobs. Seeing as the Cataclysm throws all the elements into chaos, perhaps it would cause various elementals to be disturbed when the player mines from an ore deposit.

The two more common ore deposits in Cataclysm, Obsidium and Elementium, would both have 2 rare mobs each, although only 1 rare mob can spawn at a time. Pyrite deposits would have 1 rare mob (seeing as Pyrite is slightly more rare than Obsidium and Elementium.)

As it would be silly to only give this idea to Mining, I managed to create a few rare mobs for Herbalism as well. I'll also try to think of something for Skinning.

DISCLAIMER: The numbers of the following part aren't perfect and might be either too high or too low. All the blue items in this post are BoE, unless stated otherwise.

And now onto the rare mobs:

Mining

Obsidium

Disturbed Obsidium Shatterer
Lvl: 80-82
HP: 35000-45000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 500-1500 Physical damage.

• Casted Ability (1 sec. cast time): Obsidium Spike - An Obsidium spike deals 1500 to 2500 Physical damage and knocks the target in the air.

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when mining an Obsidium Vein. Rich Obsidium Deposits have a higher chance of spawning this creature.

• At the start of a zone, it's more likely to be lvl 80, but further into the zone, it can be lvl 82. Will always be lvl 82 in Deepholme.

• Drops about 10 gold, 20 Obsidium Ore and a blue necklace with a random enchantment.

Unearthed Obsidium Crusher
Lvl: 80-82
HP: 35000-45000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 500-1000 Physical damage.

• Casted Ability (1 sec. cast time): Crush - Deals 1500 to 2000 Physical damage and knocks down the target, also leaves a stack of Sunder Armor. (reducing armor by 5%, stacking up to 5 times)

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when mining an Obsidium Deposit. Rich Obsidium Deposits have a higher chance of spawning this creature.

• At the start of a zone, it's more likely to be lvl 80, but further into the zone, it can be lvl 82. Will always be lvl 82 in Deepholme.

• Drops about 10 gold, 20 Obsidium Ore and a blue ring with a random enchantment.

(I'm not 100% sure if there's Obsidium Deposits in Deepholme, but I added ''Will always be lvl 82 in Deepholme.'' just in case there are.)

Elementium

Disturbed Elementium Revenant
Lvl: 82-84
HP: 45000-55000 (65000 at lvl 84)
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 2400-2500 Fire damage. (2700-2900 Fire damage at lvl 84)

• Casted Ability (2 sec. cast time): Elementium Burst - Sends a burst of molten Elementium towards the target, dealing 5000 to 5250 Fire damage and 400 to 500 damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. (5750-6000 Fire damage and 600-750 damage every 3 seconds at lvl 84)

• Passive Ability: Elementium Shield - Buffs the caster with an Elementium Shield that reduces fire damage taken by 20%.

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when mining an Elementium Deposit. Rich Elementium Deposits have a higher chance of spawning this creature.

• In Deepholme, this mob spawns as a lvl 82-83 mob. Will spawn as a lvl 84 mob in Uldum/Twilight Highlands.

• Drops 20 gold, 20 Elementium Ore and a blue cloak with a random enchantment.

Unearthed Elementium Construct
Lvl: 82-84
HP: 45000-55000 (65000 at lvl 84)
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 2000-2200 Fire damage. (2400-2500 Fire damage at lvl 84)

• Casted Ability (2 sec. cast time): Elementium Fist - Deals 3000 to 3200 Fire damage to the target and leaves a debuff that increases Fire damage taken by 5%. (stacking up to 5 times)

• Passive Ability: Elementium Shield - Buffs the caster with an Elementium Shield that reduces fire damage taken by 20%

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when mining an Elementium Deposit. Rich Elementium Deposits have a higher chance of spawning this creature.

• In Deepholme, this mob spawns as a lvl 82-83 mob. It'll spawn as a lvl 84 mob in Uldum/Twilight Highlands.

• Drops 20 gold, 20 Elementium Ore and a blue cloak with a random enchantment.

Pyrite

Disturbed Pyrite Monstrosity
Lvl: 85
HP: 85000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 2000-3000 Spellfire damage.

• Channeled Ability (5 sec. cast time/1 missile per second): Pyrite Barrage - Sends a barrage of Pyrite missiles towards the target, dealing 2000 to 2500 Spellfire damage to the target for every missile. (5 missiles per cast)

• Instant Ability: Pyrite Flames - Applies a dot to the target, dealing 1000 Spellfire damage every 3 seconds, for 15 seconds.

• Passive Ability: Pyrite Armor - Deals 500 Spellfire damage whenever hit by a melee or ranged attack. This effect has a 3 second cooldown.

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when mining an Pyrite Deposit. Rich Pyrite Deposits have a higher chance of spawning this mob.

• Drops 30 gold, 10 Pyrite Ore and blue shoulders with a random enchantment.

Herbalism

Heartblossom

Poisoning Blossom
Lvl: 80-85
HP: 35000-85000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 500-3000 Physical damage.

• Casted ability (1 sec. cast time): Infect - Infects the target applying a poison debuff that deals 300 to 1400 damage. (stacks up to 5 times, each stack increases the damage by 300 to 1400.)

• Passive ability: Poison Leaves - Hitting the Poisoning Blossom has chance to inflict an additional stack of the poison debuff.

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when herbing Heartblossom.

• Drops 10-30 gold, 20 Heartblossom and blue wrists with a random enchantment.

Azshara's Veil

Veiled Roots
Lvl: 80-85
HP: 35000-85000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: The thorns on the roots deal 500 to 3000 Physical damage every few seconds.

• Casted ability (1.5 sec. cast time): Tighten Roots - Tightens the roots around the target, dealing 1000 to 5000 Physical damage and applying a debuff to the target that increases damage taken from Tighten Roots by 5%. (Stacks up to 5 times)

• Passive ability: Thick Roots - Even though it's a plant, the roots are thick enough to absorb some of the melee damage, reducing melee damage taking by 10%.

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when herbing Azshara's Veil.

• This mob roots the target and starts out stealthed, a simple melee hit will allow players to start damaging it the normal way.

• Drops 10-30 gold, 20 Azshara's Veil and a blue belt with a random enchantment.

Stormvine

Storm Constrictor
Lvl: 80-85
HP: 35000-85000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 500-3000 Physical damage.

• Casted ability: (1 sec. cast time: Constrictor's Grasp - Grasps the target and swing it around for 5 to 10 seconds, dealing 1000 to 6000 Physical damage and making the target unable to do anything for it's duration.

• Passive ability: When attacking the Storm Constrictor, there's a chance to be hit by the lighting that courses through the Constrictor, dealing 100 to 500 damage.

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when herbing Stormvine.

• This mob grabs the target and swings it around and dealing a low amount of Lightning damage, when it spawns. It's slightly different than the Constrictor's Grasp as you can just hit it with an attack or spell to force it to release you.

• Drops 10-30 gold, 20 Stormvine and a blue belt with a random enchantment.

Cinderbloom

Cinder Lasher
Lvl: 80-85
HP: 35000-85000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 500-2500 Fire damage.

• Casted ability (1 sec. cast time): Fire Lash - Lashes out at the target, dealing 1000 to 5000 Fire damage and increasing fire damage taking by 5%. (Stacking up to 5 times)

• Buff ability: Cinder Leaves - Empowers the leaves of the Cinder Lasher to deal an extra amount of Fire damage, but increases Frost damage taken by 10%. Lasts 20 seconds.

Additional info:

• Has a chance to spawn when herbing Cinderbloom.

• Drops 10-30 gold, 20 Cinderbloom, and blue wrists with a random enchantment.

Earth Vine

Each herb has a chance to spawn an Earth Vine, instead of the specific rare mob of the herb.

Earth Vine
Lvl: 80-85
HP: 35000-85000
Abilities:

• Normal attack: Melee, 2000-7000 Physical damage.

• Passive ability: Trip Vine - Being within 20 yards of the Earth Vine allows the Earth Vine to trip the target, knocking the target down for 3 to 5 seconds.

Additional info:

• This mob doesn't have a casted ability, as it'll deal more damage in melee than the other 4 rare mobs.

• Drops: 10-30 gold, a random kind of herbs (20 in total, 10 Stormvine and 10 Cinderbloom, for example.) and blue wrists with a random enchantment.

Added notes:
Constructive criticism is more than welcome, preferably about the loot and the damage numbers.

[Aramos]

Interesting idea, only downside is if this was actually implemented herbalist would want it as well. Then every non gathering quest would want a rare spawn for them as well.

[DerpderpHAMMA]

Herbalism:
Pansy of the Infinite Void
Furious Exploding Dandelion

[Deleted]

I like the idea, but if one gathering profession gets it all of them will need it.

[Deleted]

Yea, so if you skin a beast, it would aggro every single rare mob in the zone!

[Deleted]

That or the ghost of the skinned animal comes back to try and bite you in the arse with renewed vigour.

[Spellweaver]

That or the ghost of the skinned animal comes back to try and bite you in the arse with renewed vigour.

This actually sounds like a decent idea, I might use it for the Skinning rare mobs. (Or the freshly skinned leather magically coming to life, but that would be a bit silly.)

[LeBron]

I think you have way to much time!

[Twotonsteak]

Meh...it's a good idea and I can see that you put a lot of thought into it. However Mining and Herbalism are already getting xp, and mining will have a shot at a rare pet that can be sold on the AH.

Actually, come to think of it, just about every profession has access to either a pet, a mount, or both, with the exception of skinning. WTH Blizz?

[Nizno]

It's a nice idea, but I don't hope they will be doing something like this. Because you can't farm herbs/mines anymore on a lower level character.