Warframe Spy Concept: Mimic

[Shadowh4nd]

Concept: A Grineer spy themed Warframe with strong single player viability, some party utility, and funny gameplay.

 

Passive: Difficult terminals are greatly simplified, and easy terminals are reduced to push button operation.

1. Knife, 25 energy. Hurls a knife at medium distance with innate punch through. Deals 1.5x damage to enemies from behind. Knife does not break Disguise. Casting Knife causes all clones to do the same.

Strength: Punch through and damage.

Range: Throw distance

2. Decoy, 40 energy. Throws down a decoy that draws enemy fire for 5 seconds. The decoy walks and fires, but does no damage. Mimic is invisible for 2.5 seconds upon casting this ability unless she is Disguised.

Duration: Decoy lifespan (1x) and invisible time (at .5x rate)

3. Disguise, 75 energy. Mimic throws a medium range hook that knocks down the first enemy hit, then becomes a clone of the enemy for 20 seconds. During this time, Mimic does not alert enemies or break Disguise unless she fires a weapon, and is able to pass through lasers without tripping alarms. Enemies that are not killed by the hook halve the duration of Disguise. Casting Copy breaks Disguise.

Strength: Hook damage.

Duration: Disguise time.

4. Copy, 120 energy. Mimic channels her optics to examine an ally over 1 second, then creates a clone with their abilities and primary weapon. If no ally is chosen, Mimic Copies herself but the clone is unarmed, using only Knife and Copy abilities. Clones last 20 seconds before destabilizing in a small explosion, and each subsequent clone lasts (.6x) less time. 

Strength: Explosion damage, Received strength multiplier (.75x default, and up to 1.25x), clone's ability to recast 4th (up from 1)

Duration: Copy and therefore subsequent copy lifetime.

 

Acquisition: Corpus capture mission to locate a spy disguised as Corpus, turn in data to Cephalon Suda, high level Grineer spy missions to reveal pieces. A little bit of the ol’ spy vs spy.
 

Lore: Tenno, it’s come to our attention that the Grineer have developed a new technology which allows their covert agents to clone themselves to avoid enemy detection. The Grineer have been using this to launch attacks from within on high value Corpus targets. Get to (x destination) in order to uncover one of these operatives and see what you might find.

Mods: Cephalon Suda offers mods that change Mimic's 4 - Clones can no longer throw knives, but have access to Mimic's melee weapon.

Playstyle: In group missions, create a Copy of an ally, cast on a Disguise, and run around backstabbing enemies. In solo, Disguise parts of the map, throwing a decoy as a panic button, cloning oneself to fight off numerous enemies.

 

Base Stats:

90 Shield

50 Health

50 Armor

125 Speed

Basically don’t get hit, lol

Thoughts and Balance:

• Knife with punch through would be fun for single player missions, and even with short range, you can punch through walls to hit cameras, or enemies behind glass.

• Knife's punch through would be strong when wielded by 5-7 clones, but you cannot control their direction.

• Decoy would be that one "useless ability" every frame needs, but can help in defense missions or while rezzing.

• Decoys draw fire away from the player, but not any copies.

• Disguise needed to be broken by Copy to tone down the chaos a little. Fits with lore over her optics.

• Disguise is affected by strength, allowing the player to Disguise as stronger enemies without suffering a penalty or pummeling them into handing over their identity first.

• Copy is a great scaling ability for either solo or party. With a good team it's almost an extra player. Alone, Mimic can just throw her own clone party. However, this requires some “rules”.

• Mimic’s self-clones can Copy themselves (70% chance), or the nearest enemy (30%). They do this once at 2/3rd of their duration, with a second cast likelihood based on strength. However, each successive clone has reduced (.6x) duration, with a minimum of 4 seconds, lest they Copy themselves infinitely. This can result in a brief “wave” of clones, which quickly destabilize thereafter.

• Mimic’s channel time for her 4 ability prevents a miscast on slippery allies.

• Mimic casting Copy on other Mimics would create a Knife-and-Copy clone rather than a full ally clone.

 

** Note ** In doing this, I didn't read the previous entry for mimic from 2015, but feel this added theme and flavor.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Shadowh4nd