Explanation of the Burden of Power Bug for Sunfury Arcane Mages

Following the class tuning adjustments during the weekly reset, Sunfury Mages have encountered a frustrating bug related to their Hero Talent, Burden of Power.

Arcane Mage Guide

As of now, it seems that Blizzard has addressed the bug mentioned below; however, players still cannot execute Blast into Barrage at 5 Spellfire Spheres without losing Arcane Charges and failing to utilize Burden of Power on Barrage.

Table of Contents

1. Burden of Power Bug

2. Community Reactions

3. Insights from Porom

Burden of Power Bug

The community has been buzzing about the recent bug fixes Blizzard implemented for Burden of Power and Glorious Incandescence, particularly regarding their generation and consumption. Burden should activate after generating your 6th Spellfire Spheres stack, enhancing your next ability (either Arcane Blast or Arcane Barrage). Upon consumption, you should receive the Incandescence buff, which allows your next Arcane Barrage to generate 4 Arcane Charges and summon 4 Meteorites that deal damage at the target's location.

What’s Been Happening?

Historically, players could double dip with Burden of Power by queuing an Arcane Barrage after an Arcane Blast while under the buff. To address this, Blizzard removed the ability to double dip but maintained the option to queue spells and generate/consume Glorious Incandescence. Ideally, using Blast into Barrage with Burden would enhance your Blast, and then Barrage would trigger Glorious Incandescence, refunding your Arcane Charges and generating Meteorites seamlessly.

Why Are Things Broken Now?

A minor bug allowed players to stack Spellfire Spheres more rapidly by queuing Arcane Blast after Arcane Barrage when at stack 5. Although this bug had minimal DPS impact and wasn't urgent to fix, it facilitated testing on Target Dummies. However, Blizzard chose to deploy a fix for this minor bug on live servers, inadvertently disrupting how Burden of Power functions.

What New Bug Was Created?

Due to the fix, Arcane Barrage can no longer trigger Burden of Power at all. If players reach Spellfire Spheres stack 5 and then use Barrage, they would cycle back to stack 6 and endlessly refresh it if Arcane Blast isn't cast. Burden can only be activated with Blast, and players cannot use Blast into Barrage at any stack count without ending up with 0 Arcane Charges. Although players could theoretically avoid the problem by refraining from using Barrage to generate Burden, other issues persist. If players exit and re-enter combat while at 5 Spheres, Burden fails to activate. It's easy to see why players find this frustrating.

Community Reactions

This situation represents yet another alteration to the core mechanics of Arcane spells, a recurring issue since the beta began. It’s evident that Blizzard is still trying to refine their vision, but it’s disheartening given that they had successfully crafted an enjoyable gameplay loop just two months ago.