How To Use Simulationcraft and Pawn

By Wowhead Updated: 2020/06/15

general gear recommendationsDisclaimer: Please take note that Simulationcraft is a community maintained tool which undergoes frequent updates to maintain accuracy, please report any issues on their github page.For this guide I will be using Simulationcraft and Stat Weight Score addons. You can change everything you learn from this guide use either Stat Weight Score or Pawn. They both do the same things.AddonsWhat is Simulationcraft?Please make sure you are always using the most recent updated version of Simcraft available.What is Pawn & Pawnstrings?What is Stat Weight Score?What you will needSimulationcraftStat Weight ScorePawnSimulationcraft ProgramYou will need to update Simulationcraft with every new release of the version to get the best results. Please check Simulationcraft's site regularly and your respective class discord to ensure you are using the latest version.What to do?Enable Scaling

/simc

COPYPaste your profileHow to use PawnDO NOT USE THIS STRING FOR YOUR OWN SIMS. IT WILL BE INACCURATE. THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE.

( Pawn: v1: "Ketsuki": Strength=12.55, CritRating=10.35, HasteRating=10.96, MasteryRating=10.26, Versatility=10.92 )

How to use StatWeightScoreDO NOT USE THIS STRING FOR YOUR OWN SIMS. IT WILL BE INACCURATE. THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE.

( Pawn: v1: "Ketsuki": Strength=12.55, CritRating=10.35, HasteRating=10.96, MasteryRating=10.26, Versatility=10.92 )

Authors Closing Thoughts

Comments

Comment by Terve

Very good summary, thanks!

Any thoughts on using it for tanks and what people feel are the best options to choose? I never feel the results for tanks come out very well... ideas/thoughts?

Specifically, I'm a prot paladin not sure its been updated yet, can't check from the plane...

Comment by 1257865

Really nice guide, I had almost given up on trying to understand what is an upgrade.
My only doubt now is why are the suggestions so different between Pawn and StatWeightScore, in my case the weights for crit and int are switched, same for haste and mastery, resulting in StatWeightScore showing me items as upgrades (around +1500) and Pawn showing them as downgrades (around 18%).

Comment by tomrndom

Hmm every time I got an upgrade, I have to run the simulation again and get a new pawn string, right?

Comment by nmb3000

Thanks for the guide.

This is a good starting point, but it's also teaching people just enough to be dangerous without a more advanced followup guid that digs into the details. I'd love to see a guide that uses an example character to go into depth about how to use plots and reforge plots to find breakpoints, since those are often key targets to aim for and can have a much bigger impact than the bare stat weights suggest. Every time I think I have a pretty good handle of that, I try it on my class and spec and get wildly different results than what I read on sites like Icy Veins.

Personally I like using normalized stat weights since the gear score (lol) numbers are less inflated. Also for "Under the 3rd hashtag" -- it's a configuration comment, not a hashtag >.<

And thanks for pointing out StatWeightScore. Pawn is okay but I like how SWS shows the gem it's assuming you will use.

Comment by 1658398

Sorry for the amatuer question, but does the simulation take into account set bonuses? Also, would we need to set up multiple strings for pure single target, hybrid of single/multiple targets, and pure multiple target depending on our talent choices? Thanks for a great guide, looking forward to test this out.

Comment by Oryyn

I just downloaded today and dont see a section for the pawnstring. Any clue on where exactly it is as of the most recent build?

Comment by Blacfang

does this work for healing?

Comment by 844430

Any chance some of these broken images can be re-uploaded?

Comment by ptown320

Does StatWeightScore or Pawn take Equip/Use effects into consideration?

Comment by Endslikecrazy

Read the guide and the comments and its still not showing the pawn string line in my results.
Anyone known about this or know how to help?

Comment by Aerynsun8449

Ok, I'm REALLY confused here. I followed the steps to the letter. It's working, and mostly it's straight forward. Green up arrow, better gear. I'm using Stat Weight Score instead of Pawn.
I have, in my bags, Lastwind Cincture (iLvL 286 Waist 52 Armor, +98 Intellect, +147 Stamina, +51 Haste, +46 Versatility) and it shows a +4% upgrade for Frost. (I play Frost.) Stat Score 205.64 (-40.94 -0.76%)

What I have on is Lastwind Sash (iLvL 286 Waist 52 Armor, +98 Intellect, +147 Stamina, +46 Critical Strike, +51 Haste). Stat Score 246.58

Now the confusing part. When I switch them and Lastwind Sash is in my bags it shows for Frost an upgrade +20% with a Stat Score 246.58 (+40.94 +0.77%)

How can they both be an upgrade for Frost when nothing else changed? And, why is Lastwind Cincture showing as an upgrade when it shows in red (-40.94 -0.76%)?

I'm going with the Lastwind Sash as it's showing a +20% upgrade and it increases my Critical Strike from 16% to 17% and my Haste remains at 11% with either Sash or Cincture on.

I'm really a novice at this, (first time using anything like this) so this may be normal. It just doesn't make sense to me why both are upgrades from each other, one 4% "better while the second one is 20% better than the first. I would think one of them has to be not better than the other. With all other things being equal, not changed, both of them can't be an upgrade from each other. Right?

Edit: Ok, I just figured it out. I'm getting conflicting results because I downloaded both Stat Weight Score and Pawn addons. Pawn is showing the 4% and 20% upgrades. Stat Weight Score is showing the (+40.94 +0.77%). For the simple fact that Pawn is showing both items as an upgrade to each other, I'm removing that addon and sticking with Stat Weight Score addon.

Comment by Aerynsun8449

Sorry guys, I'm confused again. I put this on a second character, Priest this time, first one was a Mage. Anyway, what I have on (two rings, nothing else will be changing);
Golden Empire Signet (Titanforged) iLvL 360 +238 Stamina, +176 Versatility, +210 Mastery. Stat Score 0.00.
Ring of Tides, iLvL 297, +123 Stamina, +157 Critical Strike, +118 Haste. Stat Score 111.56

In my bag I have Arid Caravan Band of the Peerless, iLvL 266, +92 Stamina, +78 Critical Strike, +117 Mastery. Stat Score 34.32 (+34.32 +1.31%).

Now, is this addon telling me that an iLvL 266 is a better piece of gear than an iLvL 360 piece of gear? I'm gathering this because of the stat Scores, iLvL 360 is 0.00 and iLvL 266 is 34.32 (And I'm assuming the numbers in parenthesis is how the change will affect my Stat Score. In this case matches the iLvL 266 score exactly. How can gear with an iLvL that is 94 iLvLs below be better gear?

IDK, maybe I'm doing something wrong, looking at something incorrectly, but it seems to me, this isn't working very well. Is that what it's really telling me, iLvL 266 is better than iLvL 360 because it has +78 more Critical Strike? Even though it's losing -146 Stamina, -176 Versitility, and -93 Mastery?

When I saw this I went back and redid the Stat Weight Score, followed this guide to the letter with the same results. The only thing I changed the second time around was in set up, instead of raid boss encounter I changed it to Max Player Level in the options Globals, Target and Tanking options.

Comment by awacs80

For anyone reading this in November 2020 and beyond, it seems that Stat Weight Score has been abandoned. It's hasn't been updated in two years (since September 2018). Now it does still seem to work, but it throws LUA errors. I disabled that and installed Pawn (which is still being updated) and they gave me mostly the same advice so it's probably safe to use, at least at the moment. No idea how things might change going forward that might break it for good.

Comment by Grus

In the stats scaling. Why pick agility and not strength for a DPS DK?

How To Use Simulationcraft and Pawn

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