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 servers, or in your own browser if you pick My PC.

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. With My PC the sim runs in your browser and your export is not sent to the server to run it. Your reports are kept in your own browser, and every finished report also gets a share link: a copy (game data only) is kept on the server for 30 days so the link works for anyone you send it to. Reports from Advanced mode are not shared. 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.

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

On BracketSim's servers, Best Gear sims every combination to within 1% error, then the ones still close to the leader to within 0.2%, then the contenders at the full count. Results too close to call are simmed again, up to 80,000 iterations each. Anything ruled out early keeps its rougher number and is marked "screened". Small plans skip the screening. On My PC the screen is a fixed 1,000 iterations instead of the error targets.

Every result is an average of many simulated fights, so it carries a margin of error. When the gap between two results is smaller than the margin of that gap (the square root of the two margins squared and added), the sim cannot say which is better - treat them as equal and keep whichever needs fewer changes. More iterations shrink the margin.

Leave it on Smart: a Sim stops as soon as your DPS is known to within 0.1% (up to 80,000 iterations), and Best Gear screens to 1% and then 0.2% error and re-runs the close ones in full. Pick High Precision when two options are close and you need them separated - twice as precise (0.05%), about four times the work. For a fixed count use Advanced: its buttons go from 10k to 100k; the servers run up to 80,000 per sim, and more needs My PC.

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 (another tab is fine), or the sim is dropped after a few minutes. 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. A sim on My PC never waits in line.

The same engine, built to run in your browser tab on your own computer's cores. Pick My PC under the run options. It downloads about 10-15 MB once, never waits in line, and allows much larger Best Gear searches than the servers - every split of several gems across your sockets, for example. Keep the tab open while it runs; your fans may spin up. Results match the servers within the normal error bar.

Yes. Open Custom APL and SimC Options under the run options and paste a SimulationCraft action list. It is kept for that spec only, so it never changes another character's sim, and the report's Simulation Details say when your own rotation was used. In Advanced, write the rotation in your script instead - Advanced runs it exactly as written.

The box applies whether or not SimC Expert Mode is on. Load default APL fills it with the current default as a starting point: until you change a line, sims run the up-to-date default and reports do not call it your own. Empty the box to go back to the default for good.

Most simulators are built for the level cap 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.
• Icecrown Citadel buff (Hellscream's Warsong / Strength of Wrynn, +30% damage) and Plague Stream (from a Plague Scientist, +100% damage): level 30 only. Together they multiply (x2.6); pets and guardians are not boosted.
• Flame Cap: level 23 and up, offered to specs that deal fire damage.
• Adventurer's Journal: levels 28-49. Set Target Type to the creature type you rolled - the buff only pays against that creature.

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. Every healing spec can be simmed for its damage: Restoration Druid and Restoration Shaman with their own rotation, and Discipline, Holy Priest, Holy Paladin, Mistweaver and Preservation with a damage rotation BracketSim adds.

With a group: four damage dealers and a Protection Warrior tank, each a Best in Slot character for your level, and you can pick the four under Misc Options. Your result is your own damage plus your support - the damage your Ebon Might, Shifting Sands and Prescience add to the group, credited the way the game's combat log does it. Two options under Misc Options change what is counted:

• Augmentation: solo - your own damage only, no group.
• Augmentation: max support - your support only. Best Gear, the Loot Finder and Stat Weights then pick whatever buffs your group most, even at the cost of your own damage.

Your group's DPS already includes your support, so don't add the two. The same goes for "Raid DPS" in the full SimulationCraft report, which counts the support twice.

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 the published research on the Classic versions of the game, and every such rate is recorded with where it came from. No rate is ever made up: an item whose rate can't be found is left unmodelled and listed as such on Special Items. Many effects have also been checked against combat logs from training dummies and raids - how often they proc, from which hits and for how long - and fixed where the sim differed.

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. 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. Each weapon's effect rolls on its own hand's hits, except a few the logs show rolling on either hand (The Untamed Blade, Shadowmourne, Heartpierce, Heartrazor, The Night Blade, Eskhandar's Right Claw and Bryntroll). The same enchant on both weapons, such as Crusader, gives two separate buffs.

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 the items BracketSim changed: effects coded by hand, effects the game switches off above a level, and effects that cannot work in a damage sim, each with why. An item that is not listed is simmed as SimulationCraft itself models it; to see whether its effect fires, sim it and look for the effect in the report's damage and buff tables. 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: against a single boss only a tank is attacked, so a "when hit" effect can work for a tank but never for a damage dealer, and kills and low health never happen;
• 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.

One exception: an Augmentation Evoker's Loot Finder on our servers (or one with "Add an Augmentation Evoker" ticked), where every sim carries the whole group. There, items with an effect are first ranked by a quick sim with your group, and the best of each slot - plus any too close to call - go on to the full search. My PC searches everything.

Yes, where the game can. Helms, necks, bracers, belts and rings from dungeons, and from Shadowlands, Dragonflight and The War Within raids (tier helms too), can drop with an extra socket, so they are simmed with it and marked "with socket" - untick Dungeon & raid drops with a socket to sim the plain drop. Every belt also gets the belt buckle socket. Each socket holds your best gem, and the small gem icons on a result show which ones were used. Hover an item to see the exact copy that was simmed, with its gems and enchant.

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 plus a second that is either Unity or your covenant's own legendary, on a different item - the rule from the last Shadowlands patch. Each legendary is checked against the slots it can actually be crafted on. When "Also find my best legendary" is ticked, the Loot Finder also re-tests the secondary stats on a legendary you already wear and suggests a recraft when another pair is clearly better.

A legendary made for one specialisation also works for another of the same class when that spec has the spell it changes, as in the game, so it is offered there too - Death's Certainty for a Blood Death Knight, for example. The same goes for conduits limited to one spec.

When you take a talent with the same name as a legendary or conduit, the talent overrides it in game, so the two never add up - here neither. The lists warn you when that happens.

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.

An enchant is offered when it can really go on that item: your level and the item's level meet its requirements, it fits the slot and weapon type, and profession enchants need the profession. Death Knight runes follow the level each rune is learned at, and Crusader is not offered above level 49. Each slot first shows a short list - what you wear plus the measured enchants worth at least 70% of the best one - and Show all lists every option. Gems come from The War Within line plus the gems the community's best-in-slot lists use; tick several and turn on Mix the ticked gems across sockets to try splits between them. The Loot Finder, at level 50 and below, uses only the enchants those lists use. An enchant already on your gear is never replaced by a worse one.

SimulationCraft's rotations are written for the level cap. 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.

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. On My PC, a combination that stops responding is skipped after 3 minutes and the rest of the search carries on.

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 few minutes. The limit goes by internet address, so two people sharing one connection (a household, some mobile networks) share it too.

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 the level cap. BracketSim fixes the ones that matter at each bracket; a rotation line for an ability you have not learned yet simply never fires.