A SimulationCraft simulator built for Legacy brackets - 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70 and 80 - including the systems those levels had in their own expansion: Azerite traits and Heart of Azeroth essences, covenants, soulbinds, conduits and runeforge legendaries. There is nothing to install: sims run on BracketSim's server.

Three ways, best first:

• /bracketsimc - the BracketSim addon from CurseForge. Type /bracketsimc and press Ctrl+C; the window closes once it is copied. It includes your bag gear and the legacy systems (Azerite traits, essences, covenant, soulbinds, conduits) that the SimulationCraft addon no longer exports. It needs the SimulationCraft addon too, which the CurseForge app installs with it.
• /simc - the SimulationCraft addon's export works too, but without those legacy systems a level 40-60 character is simmed with less than it really has.
• Armory - type your realm and name. It reads your equipped gear and real item levels, but not your bags.

Paste the export into the SimC Addon box on any tool. The character card underneath shows what was read.

Only to run your sim. Your export goes to BracketSim's server, the sim runs, and the input is deleted when it finishes. Your reports are kept in your own browser, not on the server - unless you press Share report: then a copy (game data only) is kept for 30 days so your share link works for anyone you send it to. Item and spell pictures come from Wowhead, and the Armory import asks Blizzard for your character. See the Privacy Policy.

Any level can be simmed. The brackets BracketSim is built and checked for are 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70 and 80, and those are the levels the Best in Slot lists cover.

• Sim - your DPS as you are, with a damage breakdown and buff uptimes.
• Best Gear - tick bag gear, enchants, gems, talents, consumables and legacy powers; it tries every legal combination and ranks them against what you wear.
• Loot Finder - sims every drop from a raid against your current gear.
• Stat Weights - how much one point of each stat is worth to you right now.
• Advanced - run SimulationCraft input directly.
• Best in Slot - the finished answer for every spec in every bracket, already simulated.

Best Gear runs in two stages. Stage 1 screens every combination at a fifth of your iterations; stage 2 re-runs only the combinations that could still beat the leader, at the full count. Anything ruled out in stage 1 keeps its rougher number and is marked "screened". Small plans skip stage 1.

Every result is an average of many simulated fights, so it carries a margin of error. When two results are closer together than their combined margin, the sim cannot say which is better - treat them as equal and keep whichever needs fewer changes. More iterations shrink the margin.

5,000 is the normal setting. Use 20,000 (High Precision) when two options are close and you need them separated; use 1,000 to get a rough answer quickly.

A stat weight is a straight-line estimate around your current stats. It is useful for a rough shape, but it stops being true once enough gear changes to move your stats, and it cannot see procs, sockets or set bonuses. To compare two items, sim the items with Best Gear.

Everyone's sims share one server. Quick sims (one character, or a couple of items) have their own share of it and rarely wait; big searches take turns. The run screen shows your place in line - keep the page open, or the sim is dropped after a minute. You can have one sim running or waiting at a time. When the line is very long, a new sim is turned away with "BracketSim is very busy" - try again a few minutes later.

Most simulators are built for max level and treat lower levels as unsupported. BracketSim models the bracket: old item effects, legacy powers, the right consumables and world buffs for your level, and rotations fixed for abilities that are not learned yet. Different settings (fight length, targets, buffs) also change the number.

• Azerite traits and the Heart of Azeroth: levels 40-50.
• Heart of Azeroth essences: level 50.
• Covenants, soulbinds, conduits and runeforge legendaries: level 60.
• Hero talents: from level 71.

Each is only offered in the bracket that can use it.

• Fengus' Ferocity and Slip'kik's Savvy (Dire Maul): level 30 only.
• Flame Cap: level 23 and up, offered to specs that deal fire damage.
• Adventurer's Journal: levels 28-49. Pick the creature type you rolled - the buff only pays against that creature, so it also sets the target.

Bloodlust and Heroism are learned at level 48. Below that a group brings Drums of Fury instead (15% haste), so that is what the Bloodlust option applies.

BracketSim measures damage. Tanks are simmed and optimised for damage. Restoration Druids and Restoration Shamans can be simmed for their damage; the other healing specs may not produce a damage result.

For each spec in each bracket, a real character was given its bracket's full legal loot table and every slot was decided by simulation - thousands of fights per list - then gemmed and enchanted by the same pickers the app uses. Set bonuses and Azerite traits are judged together, the way they actually work. The lists on this site use only gear that can still be obtained.

Where no real character existed for a spec at a level, one was built for it. Its list is the best for a typical character of that spec, and its race is an assumption rather than a measurement. Lists built from a real character say so.

Press Copy talent string on the Best in Slot page and import it in game. The game either accepts the loadout or it doesn't, which is the quickest way to verify it.

Because its effect is worth more than the stats. Eskhandar's Right Claw is the usual example: it is on many low-level lists for its proc. Every slot on a list won by simulation, including the effect.

A modified SimulationCraft - the open-source engine behind most World of Warcraft simulators - kept up to date with the current game data. BracketSim's changes put back what the current engine dropped or never had for low levels: old item effects, the legacy systems each bracket had (Azerite, essences, covenants), rotations that work before every ability is learned, and the rules of each bracket. The engine is licensed under the GPL, and its full source is published - see Source Code.

From the game's own spell data first: each effect's chance, procs-per-minute, internal cooldown and amount. Some old items lost part of that data, so for those the rate is taken from wowsims, the simulators built for the Classic versions of the game, and every such rate is recorded with the file and line it came from. No rate is ever made up: an item whose rate can't be found in either place is left unmodelled and listed as such on Special Items.

Because it does in the game. A procs-per-minute effect rolls on every hit that lands, with a chance of weapon speed x PPM / 60 - the same rule wowsims uses. A spec that lands many hits (Whirlwind, dual wield, fast attacks) gets more rolls, so it procs more. That is why the same weapon can be best in slot for one spec and mediocre for another.

Yes, against combat logs from a level 50 Fury Warrior swapping weapons one at a time:

• Thunderfury: 6.71 procs per minute in game, 6.00 modelled.
• Shadowmourne: 6.90 in game, 7.00 modelled.
• Twin Blades of Azzinoth: shortest gap between procs 45.2 seconds in game, 45 modelled.
• The Warglaive buff lasted exactly 10.0 seconds, as modelled.

Every fixed item is also run at its lowest bracket against a copy without the effect, to check that the effect fires and that no proc runs away with the damage.

Because the game switches it off. Many old effects carry a level cap - the tooltip shows it in red as "(Requires level 49 or below)". BracketSim applies the same cap. It was checked against a tooltip scan of all 1,637 effect items made in game: no item the game shows as working is switched off here.

Look it up on Special Items. It lists every item with a special effect, whether its effect is simulated, and if not, why. The usual reasons an effect does nothing here:

• it heals, shields or moves you, which a damage sim doesn't measure;
• it needs you to be hit, dodge or kill something, which never happens against a dummy;
• it needs a second target or another player's item;
• it is an old PvP set bonus, which are not modelled;
• the game no longer carries its data.

An item is skipped only when it can't help: it is for another class, it is the wrong armour or weapon type, its main stat is one your spec can't use, it gives only stamina, or its only effect was measured to do nothing in a damage sim. The page says how many were skipped and why. Nothing is skipped for looking weaker on paper - an item with an effect is always simmed, because a proc has no stat value to compare. Weapons with an effect are simmed even with the wrong main stat, which is how Eskhandar's Right Claw and Thunderfury reach strength specs.

No. Corruption no longer works in the game, so every corruption effect is switched off, and no item offered by BracketSim carries one.

At level 60 you can wear one runeforge legendary of your choice, and a second only if it is Unity - the rule from the last Shadowlands patch. Each legendary is checked against the slots it can actually be crafted on.

Every covenant ability in the game data requires level 48, and covenants are a level 60 system. Below that they do nothing, so they are only offered at 60.

Each one is priced by what it is actually worth to your character: stat enchants and gems by your measured stat values, proc enchants (weapon procs, Death Knight runes) by simulating them. A proc reading smaller than the measurement's own error (0.3%) counts as worth nothing, so noise never decides an enchant. At level 50 and below only the enchants the community's best-in-slot lists use are offered; profession enchants need the profession; Death Knight runes follow the level each rune is learned at. An enchant already on your gear is never replaced by a worse one.

SimulationCraft's rotations are written for max level. BracketSim checks every spec's rotation at each bracket for abilities it hasn't learned yet and for lines it can never leave, and rewrites the ones that would leave the character idle. Hero talents start at level 71; below that, rotation lines that depend on a hero talent are rewritten so they still work.

Before any list is built, a set of automatic checks runs, and each check is first shown to catch the exact mistake it exists for. After a list is built, it is simulated again from scratch and checked for impossible item levels, items that can't be worn together, gear another class can't use and the same item in two slots. A list that fails is not published. The lists are rebuilt whenever the rules or the game data change.

If "Waiting in line" shows, it is not stuck - it starts when its turn comes. If a running sim stops moving, press Cancel sim and run it again.

Each visitor can have one sim running or waiting at a time. Wait for it to finish or cancel it - it may be in another browser tab. A sim whose page was closed is dropped after a minute.

Pictures load the first time an item is shown. If one is missing, reload the page; the sim itself is unaffected.

SimulationCraft's rotations are written for max level. BracketSim fixes the ones that matter at each bracket; a rotation line for an ability you have not learned yet simply never fires.