hi guys, i had a crazy idea for a new hero class yesterday, so i wrote it out as best i could - what do you guys think?
the mimic is a class of mystery, magic, shadow and cunning - a combination of a warlock, mage and rogue. using a combination of mana for magic abilities and energy for melee abilities.
the mimic only has a limited set of unique class specific abilities, but the greatest skill of a mimic, is the ability to copy up to 5 different spells/abilities from it's enemies or allies. the mimic steals abilities depending on the type of foe it is fighting. much like the druid spell symbiosis and the deathknight ability dark simulacrum.
against npc enemies, spells would be stolen based on the enemy type - beast/humanoid/elemental/dragonkin/undead etc and only last for a short duration, but in group content, mimics are able to copy spells from players in their group that persist until the group is disbanded, or the ability is replaced with another.
spells would be copied based on category and cooldown,
crowd control - spammable
AoE - spammable
single target - (spammable w/cast time - short cooldown if instant)
dps cooldown - 2 or 3 mins
survival cooldown - 2 or 3 mins
the spell copied would also be based on class spec, but the mimic can copy spells from whichever classes he chooses for whichever category he chooses, so for example, in a 5 man dungeon, the mimic is teamed up with a brewmaster monk, ret paladin, fire mage and resto shaman.
the mimic, deciding to play as a melee dps copies:
repentance - from the paladin
spinning crane kick - from the monk
blackoutkick - from the monk
avenging wrath - from the paladin
cauterize - from the mage
halfway through the dungeon, on a particularly melee unfriendly boss.
the mimic changes tact and goes for ranged dps, he copies:
sheep - from the mage
blizzard - from the mage
lightning bolt - from the shaman
tigereye brew - from the monk
divine shield - from the paladin
on the last boss of the dungeon, the healer is struggling to keep everyone alive
the mimic, a master in flexibility, changes role again by copying new abilities:
sheep - from the mage, useful during the encounter
healing rain - from the shaman
healing wave - from the shaman
ascendance - from the shaman
fortifying brew - from the monk
any abilities copied from other classes, work as the basic form of the spell, unaffected by class specific talents or bonuses (so frostbolts stolen from a mage would slow the target, but would not apply any extra slow effects or fingers of frost procs - crusader strike stolen from paladins would not apply seals, or do any seal damage) instead the extra damage, for example a paladins seal would do, is generated from mastery on the mimics gear. i would be really tempted to itemise the mimic around spellplate, with intellect as the main stat (powering all abilities), mastery (powering all stolen abilties) and haste increasing energy regen/reducing cast times.
as the mimic has such flexibility through copying abilities, i'd remove specialisations from the class. the balance between roles would be decided on the fly, dependant on the abilities you have copied - requiring it's status as a hero class and not a choice for beginners. (you could also expand on the copied abilities so if you wanted to tank and copied kegsmash from a BrM monk, you would also copy complimentary abilities such as guard, taunt and flamebreath.)
with roots in the warlock, mage and rogue classes, similar abilities could easily find their way into the mimics repertoire, enabling tanking and healing roles, without the need to respec. evasion, soullink, etc
i'd also be inclined to start at level 70 with it and level up to 80 through a class specific starter questline (like the deathknight) on a new piece of debris discovered to be floating near outland in the twisting nether.
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so yea, as i only thought of this yesterday, this is a really rough outline, but with how homogenised the classes are these days, i figured you could get away with something like this. it'd obviously need some real thought put into it as balancing would be a nightmare, but for the sake of discussion, would you play it if you had the chance?
also, i've only gone with 5 copied abilities, but that could easily increase as there is only really 2 offensive abilities copied, AoE and single target - you could add a second or even third single target ability, a DoT, a cleave and probably some others i've not considered.