Hello Blizzard Arcane Mage class tuner guy dude man person fella. Glad to have your attention.
Back on February 9, 2026, you posted the following patch notes for Sunfury Arcane Mage:
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Arcane
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Developers’ notes: We’re looking to reduce Sunfury Arcane’s single target damage through the hero talent tree as well as Arcane’s baseline power. Spellslinger will be getting some buffs to compensate for the baseline ability reductions. Arcane’s AOE damage is further behind than we’d like and we will be making some targeted adjustments to increase their output in dungeon content.
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Touch of the Archmage has been updated – Damage taken during Touch of the Magi reduced to 15% (was 20%). Rune primary target damage bonus reduced to 75% (was 100%).
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Arcing Cleave now strikes additional targets for 60% of initial damage (was 40%)
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Arcane Orb damage increased by 92%.
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Arcane Pulse damage increased by 10%.
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Arcane Surge damage increased by 25%.
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Arcane Barrage damage reduced by 28%.
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Arcane Missiles damage reduced by 28%.
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Arcane Blast damage reduced by 28%.
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Arcane Explosion damage reduced by 20%.
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Expanded Mind now additionally causes Arcane Orb to grant 2 stacks of Arcane Salvo.
Resonance now increases Arcane Barrage’s damage by 8% for each target beyond the first (was 5%).
And then there were some additional notes, which I have also added here:
- Sunfury
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Arcane Phoenix area spell damage increased by 50%.
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Arcane
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Burden of Power has been updated – Arcane Blast and Arcane Pulse damage bonus reduced to 5% (was 15%).
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Codex of the Sunstriders now grants 1% increased spell damage during Arcane Surge (was 2%).
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Arcane Soul duration reduced to 4 seconds (was 6 seconds).
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Ashes of Inspiration Haste reduced to 15% (was 20%) and duration reduced to 6 seconds (was 10 seconds).
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Sunfury Execution now grants Arcane Barrage 5% increased damage during Touch of the Magi (was 15%).
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Glorious Incandescence now summons a Meteor for every 6 stacks of Arcane Salvo consumed (was 5).
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If you glance at those patch notes, you’ll see what a bloodbath they are for Sunfury Arcane. You panic nerfed us, and it’s obvious. Given how Season 1 of Midnight has shaken out so far, one might EASILY look at these patch notes, compare them to how far behind other specs we are still even after today’s buffs, and conclude “Hmm. Maybe they never should have nerfed us in the first place?” Because if you put back all that you STOLE from us, we’d still not be in the top of specs, not even NEAR the meta. That is how FAR BEHIND we are.
So those were the patch notes where you DESTROYED Sunfury Arcane on February 9th. Every Mage here will admit that this resulted in the death of the basic viability of Sunfury Arcane, rendering us worthless and useless.
Since those massive nerfs, you’ve given us back a few things. You re-buffed our hero talent Burden of Power from the pathetic 5% you had it at all the way up to where it sits after toda’y’s buffs, which is +30% for Arcane Blast and +20% for Arcane Pulse. This is actually a lot more damage for these 2 spells compared to the +15% to each that Burden of Power granted BEFORE February 9th’s uncalled-for massive nerfs to Sunfury.
IMO, this is pretty good. We needed some more damage, and I don’t mind that you put some of it into our mana-spending spells like Blast/Pulse. I would say you ‘made it up to us’ with these two spells by the continued buffs to Burden of Power. Thank you for those buffs. We gladly accept them.
However, this leaves Arcane Missiles and Arcane Barrage and our Meteors (from the Sunfury hero tree) in a bad place. See the nerf just above to Glorious Incandescence from every 5 stacks of Salvo to every 6 stacks? This really brought down our “mass aoe” aka uncapped aoe potential. You should make this right by re-buffing it so every 5 Salvo stacks produces a meteor. This would make a Barrage with 25 salvo stacks once again grant us 5 meteors, instead of just 4. Please fix this for our spec. It’s clunky knowing “I need 24 salvo stacks to get max meteors, but I also need just ONE more stack to get max barrage damage.” Just fix this. It will buff us by literally like .01%, just do it, we deserve it for being treated so horribly by you all these past months.
Then there’s Arcane Barrage. TBH this spell is a bit weak but it’s probably tuned mostly fine. I think Barrage needs a 5% buff to it specifically, because of how weak you made Arcing Cleave. Just needs a tiny little 5% touch up or so to give back some of what you stole from us on February 9th.
And lastly is the magnum opus, Arcane Missiles. You destroyed this spell by -28% damage, but today we got a 5% aura buff and 10% to Missiles (increase). So you have put back about 15% of the -28% you stole. So let’s make a deal. You give us another +10% on our Missiles damage, give us +5% on Barrage’s damage, give us back our 5 meteors from a 25-salvo Barrage (by re-buffing Glorious Incandescence), and we’ll call it a day. If you do all of that, you’ll have fixed a lot of the tuning issues with our spec, and, hilariously enough, reverted it to mostly or nearly the state it was in BEFORE the Feb 9th giga nerfs.
Sunfury STILL won’t be ANYWHERE NEAR the meta, but it would actually be enjoyable to play again. As it sits right now, we need at least 6 or 7% more total damage, and +10% to Missiles would be a good way to approach achieving that (even though +10% to Missiles would not equate to a full 6 or 7% overall damage buff obviously – but it would be a start).
I just wanted to write this with documented proof of how you gutted our spec and how these nerfs were TOTALLY UNNECESSARY IN THE FIRST PLACE. Yeah we were strong for like 3 weeks in the Midnight pre-patch era at the very end of TWW, but you panic nerfed us. Just admit it. You panic nerfed us and it’s so shameful of you to have done that. You made us play a hero talent we don’t want (Spellslinger) or made us deal pathetically weak damage if we stayed with Sunfury. This is 100% unacceptable, and we want an apology not with “We are sorry” but by you simply making things right.
Buff us again. Do it. WE DESERVE IT. And you devs should feel deeply bad about how you treat us who pay you our $15/month. We don’t have to give you our money. So be careful what you do because you could make us un-sub. I already unsubbed, although I have game time remaining. I don’t play much because Sunfury is weak and I do not want to play Slopslinger where you never use Missiles. That sounds atrocious. Buff us so we want to log in more often and keep giving you that $15. Please. I’ve been playing Arcane since the TBC pre-patch where Arcane Blast was added to the game. I am literally an ORIGINAL Arcane Mage enjoyer. Please fix my hero talent and my spec overall. I’ve given you thousands of dollars over my 20+ years of playing WoW. The least you can do is un-nerf us back to how we were before Feb 9th.
And hey, if you’re worried we’ll become too good on single target, then just drop Burden of Power for Arcane Blast back to 25% or 20% if needed. I am NOT asking to become overpowered, meta, or even “near meta.” I just want to be less bad than I am now, and feel less pressure to play Spellslinger. I hate Arcane Orb. I hate it with a burning fury of a thousand suns. I will NOT play with that talent or spell unless forced. I’d literally rather not log in than play Spellslinger. So please just fix Sunfury. Do it next week. Thanks.
Final note: I’m right about everything, and anyone disagreeing with me is wrong. Cheers.