How to use Raidbots to sim yourself

[Valks 2,375]

With an expansion of incredibly volatile stat weights, Legion has seen a massive rise in the "sim yourself" culture. This has been caused by the numerous possibilities of warforging/titanforging, as well as the constant interaction between the stats available to us. Prior to the release of Raidbots, simulation was a pretty daunting task for many and most people hated trying to do it, but no more!

Raidbots is a browser-based version of SimulationCraft that imports builds from SimCraft to allow you to run the basic sims that covers almost everything a normal player needs to know. The tool is updated frequently, both behind the scenes and visually. We're going to run you through the different types of simulation, as well as how to do them and what you should be doing to maximise the potential results' usefulness.

What can Raidbots do?

When you go to the landing page of Raidbots, this is the view you are presented with:

It gives you seven potential simulation options that each achieve a different result. We're going to work through them one by one, but you can click whichever section you want to see below:

• How to Import Your Character Data to Raidbots (READ BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE)
• How to Sim Your Own Stat Weights
• How to Sim Your Best Gear Choices
• How to Sim Your DPS
• How to Compare Your Gear by Simming
• How to Compare Relics by Simming
• How to Compare Talents by Simming
• Advanced Simulations

 How to Import Your Character Data to Raidbots

This will be relevant for all sections of simulation, so please read this before simming anything. 

The armory doesn't store any information about your Netherlight Crucible choices. This means that Raidbots won't be able to find it. You will need to put the information in yourself. The easiest way to do this is, as it suggests, by downloading the SimulationCraft addon, which you can find here.

Once downloaded, log into the character you want to simulate and type /simc. A large window of text will appear that looks like like this:

Copy this text and paste it into the "Load from SimC Addon" window. This will give RaidBots all the information it needs on your character and it will "save" anything the armory doesn't provide, so that you only need to use the SimC Addon again if you change something on your character. Once you have done a simulation with the Addon input, it automatically saves your Crucible data, for example.

 How to Sim Your Own Stat Weights

Once you click on Stat Weights, you'll be moved to the weights sim page. All you'll need to do is fill in a few boxes and you'll be ready to sim! Start off by filling in your Region, Realm and Character Name. It should find your character on the armory (make sure you update yours by logging out) and fill in your gear and talent choices. It should look something like this:

If you see the error that no Crucible data is available, you need to read the section above about importing your character.

Now that we have our character information, we can set the parameters for our simulation, which are decided by these options:

The options presented are set to a "default" that normally functions the best for your desired type of sim. There are certain changes that you can make depending on your character and raid, such as:

• If you know that you want a fight style that is different from a Patchwerk fight, you can change it on the drop-down menu. A particularly useful one is the "Casting Patchwerk" fight, which can be great for testing the value of the Sephuz legendary, for example. 
• If you are trying to maximise your cleave performance, you can change the number of bosses or change the Fight Style to an add fight.
• If your group is heavily overgeared and consistently gets very short fight lengths, you can reduce the fight length. Likewise if your group gets very long fights, you can increase the length.
• You can increase or decrease the number of Pantheon trinkets in your raid to better mimic your own raid group's number of them.

Once you've selected your options, you can hit "Generate Stat Weights" and you should get a page that looks like this:

This page shows you the amount of DPS you are "simulating", as well as the stat weights for your character. If you want to run another sim with different parameters, you can always just click "Back to Stat Weights" and change what you need to.

 How to Sim Your Best Gear Choices

While Stat Weights can be great for a quick check to see if an item might be an upgrade, your ideal way of finding upgrades is either the "top gear" sim or gear comparison. For now, we'll go over the top gear sim, which evaluates the gear that you have in your bags and lets you select different combinations to be tested.

To start off your sim, you'll need to import your profile. If you want to know how to do that, just read this section. Make sure that, when using the addon, that you have all gear that you want compared in your bags or equipped, otherwise it won't be detected.

Once imported, you will see something similar to this, but with your items:

These are all the pieces of gear that you can include in your simulation for the "top" gear set. Simply select the ones that you would like to simulate and Raidbots will generate sets that include all pieces of gear selected. It's important to note that, without being a Patron, there is a maximum number of iterations that you can have (300,000) in one simulation. While this might seem like a lot, the number of simulations increases exponentially as you add more pieces of gear. 

Once you have chosen the pieces you would like included, you can once again choose your settings for the simulation. The options available should look like this:

This section allows you to ensure that any newly simmed pieces are enchanted, so that they get a fair comparison. You can also select legendary combinations and decide whether you would like to have your sims limited to only include set bonuses. Other than that, we have the normal simulation options that we had in the Stat Weights sims.

Once you are happy with your options, hit the "Find Top Gear" button and you will be moved to a screen like this:

This will give you a list of the performance of all the combinations you asked for, as well as allowing you to see which is the best performing set. You can use this to find out exactly how much of a difference there is, just in case you don't like using a certain trinket, for example, and would like to replace it if it's a minor difference.

 How to Sim Your DPS

This is by far the easiest sim to do and, other than the first section we listed concerning your character import, there is very little to do.

You can change the options as you wish to, such as if you want to simulate for a cleave fight, you can change the Fight Style, but there is little to do other than that. Once you are happy with your choices, hit the "Run Quick Sim" button and you will find yourself at this page:

Here you can see your simulated DPS, but very little else. This sim will not show you any other information that you might gather from the other options. 

 How to Compare Gear by Simming

The Gear Comparison sim differs from the Top Gear sim because it doesn't use gear that you necessarily own. While the Top Gear sim will compare everything in your bags, Gear Comparison sims will make you manually add pieces that you want to have simmed. This is great for checking whether or not certain items are worth aiming to try and get, such as trinkets or tier bonuses.

Make sure that you import your character as we showed you prior to running this sim and then you'll need to start making gear sets. 

The first set that you see is your currently equipped gearset according to the armory. This will be whatever you last logged out in. Below that, you can start a new gearset with the base of your currently equipped one.

All you need to do is use the "Item Name" search section to search for whatever item you want to add. You can then select the item level you want the item to be and whether it should have a gem in it or not, as well as if it should be enchanted. You can add as many items are you wish and it will just replace the item that is currently in your equipped gear.

If you want to test multiple pieces for the same slot, you'll need to add a new gearset, on which you can then add the rest of the items. 

Once you have the gearsets that you want to sim, you can decide on the simulation parameters that you want and then can hit "Compare Items". You will then see this screen:

This will show you the difference in DPS between your gear sets, as well as the numerical value for your maximum possible DPS out of the gear you provided.

 How to Compare Relics by Simming

Despite the popularity of addons that select Crucible and Relic traits for you, the best way to check upgrades is through simming a potential new relic. The Raidbots Relic Comparison sim is very simple to complete, but you need to have imported your character profile as we showed you at the start.

Once you have done so, you will have to choose your relics like this:

You can choose which Relic you have obtained, as well as the item level that you have of it. Once you have done so, you need to go to the Netherlight Crucible and check what traits are available for you. You'll then need to fill in duplicate sets of relics to see not only if a new relic is an upgrade, but which path is going to be best for you. Below is an example of a sim that I ran:

• My base character has the following relics:
  • Frigid Earring - 910
    • Row 1 - Yes
    • Row 2 - Shadowbind
    • Row 3 - N/A
  • Unwavering Soul Essence - 945
    • Row 1 - Yes
    • Row 2 - Dark Sorrows
    • Row 3 - N/A
  • Viscous Reaver-Coolant - 945
    • Row 1 - Yes
    • Row 2 - N/A
    • Row 3 - N/A
• The potential relic upgrade is to the 910 Frigid Earring, which is being replaced by a 945 Frigid Earring. I can choose only a new Row 2 trait, of which I have the choice between Torment the Weak or Shocklight.

To compare this, you would make a relic set where the first relic is a 945 Frigid Earring, while the other 2 match what you have equipped exactly. Once you have done this, you duplicate the set, then add the potential Crucible upgrades for you into the sim. One set would have Torment the Weak on the first relic, while the other would have Shocklight. 

The results will look like this:

From this, we can tell that Torment the Weak is 0.1% better than Shocklight as a choice for me on that new relic at this point. Regardless of which I choose, it's a massive upgrade of at least 2.3% over my last relic. The 0.1% difference can then be decided based on the Tier 3 traits that I have available. I can run another sim where I duplicate more sets and add the potential Tier 3 upgrades to see which performs best overall.

 How to Compare Talents by Simming

The talent sims work very similarly to how the relic sims do - you'll need your character imported into the Raidbots site as we showed you at the top of the post and you're ready to go.

I'm going to be running a simulation comparing two level 15 talents, Runic Attenuation and Shattering Strikes. My character currently has Shattering Strikes on the armory, so we're going down to the "Talent Sheet" section and setting up the talents:

When comparing talents, you should make sure that you have everything the same, except for the ones that you want compared. If I wanted to know which was better out of RA or SS, selecting a different talent at level 100 would completely change the results. Keep it consistent other than those that you want to test.

Once you have your chosen talent sheets (if you need more, just hit "Add Talent Set" under the current one to add another sheet. You can then set your simulation parameters (this is especially useful for changing the number of bosses to test talents on multiple targets) and then press "Compare Talents".

You will end up at this screen:

As you can see, my current choice is better for me. The graph shows you which talent set performs the best based on your current gear and other talents chosen. If you want to go back and try again, you can just hit "Back to Talent Compare" at the top.

 Advanced Simulations

This section is not really relevant to normal players. This should only be used when you have a custom SimulationCraft APL that you wish to use to test specific things. This tool is normally used (in the SimulationCraft client) for mass-testing of specific class changes by theorycrafters and guide writers. 

[Guest Annon113]

So many pictures yet none of them are showing.

[FreightNet 0]

To use Raidbots to simulate your character in World of Warcraft, you'll first need to visit the Raidbots website and input your character's information, including your class, specialization, gear, and talents. Once your character is loaded, you can configure various simulation options such as fight style, enemy type, and duration. Raidbots will then run simulations to determine your character's optimal gear, talents, and rotations for maximizing your performance. You can compare different gear sets, talents, and stat priorities to fine-tune your character for raiding, dungeons, or PvP. It's a powerful tool for optimizing your character's performance in the game.

Edited October 1, 2023 by FreightNet

[Thrasherhoodie21 0]

I've been happy with askmrrobot, you can customize stat distribution and have it find the best gear in your bag for that situation.