If the skill fails to find a valid skill to copy, it copies a weapon skill instead.
It will be funny to shoot arrows from your greatsword, or bullets from your staff, or to swing your scepter-focus in a Hundred Blades manner ^^ And what about mobs in PvE? How should this skill behave in PvE? It’s an interesting idea anyway, with a GW1 mesmer twist.
I would like to suggest something, but English is not my first language, so forgive me for any mistakes.
I too think that Mimic should be reworked. As all manipulation skills, new version of Mimic should be able to work with Far-Reaching Manipulations. Which means that it should be a ranged spell, like current Arcane Thievery, Illusion of Life and Blink. Currently, only Echo-part benefits from Far-Reaching Manipulation’s effect, that’s why whole concept of Mimic is somehow very different from all other manipolation skills. Moreover, current Mimic serves no clear purpose. It has got three components Projectile Storage, Projectile Reflection and Attack Block.
1) While Projectile Storage is an interesting mechanic, it’s proven itself to be very unreliable and unimpactful. There are many reasons for that. Firstly, it’s VERY hard to time and “catch” something useful with all those projectiles flying around in all formats of the game. Secondly, the only difference from Reflection is that a player can store a projectile and use it later in battle. After comparing how easy it is to reflect things and how hard it is to catch a projectile, the benifit of storing a projectile becomes not so “beneficial”. Not to mention that a projectile that you are going to catch still hits you (this is not that important, because it could be fixed and be a part of a skill’s concept no more).
After a player catches a projectile, Mimic will reflect and block for remaining channel duration:
2) Reflection could be achieved with more reliable ways (Masterful Reflection, Warden’s Feedback, Feedback, Mirror). Again, Mimic will never be in line with those skills/traits as it provides much less utility.
3) Attack Block doesn’t make this skills viable because there are better ways to avoid damage: Stealth, Distortion, Teleportation and others.
Even combined, all these aspects don’t make Mimic a good choice in a build. That’s because each of Mesmer’s utility slots is precious and should serve a clear purpose. When I pick skills, I know exatcly what I will do with them and when should I use them. In Mimic’s case – I don’t know this.
My suggestion is quite simple – to make it a Mesmer’s variant of Corrupt Boon. Like:
- Mimic – renamed – Overload (40s CD|Instant cast|1200 range): Remove up to five boons from your foe. Stun(2s) and damage your foe if three or more boons are removed. Unblockable.
- This change, aimed primarily at PvP, will allow mesmers to expand their build diversity by freeing themselves from mandatory Shattered Concentration trait, while still possessing a powerful tool to remove boons. Stun and instant cast will pair nicely with interrupt-traits
- Maybe it will be necessary to reduce CD of Arcane Thievery so it stays valiable. While this two skills will partly share their functionality, I see AT as a skill with a more utility purpose, while Overload will be a strictly offensive skill.
