Simulator Help

For more help, stop by our discord channel or the forums. When you ask us something, you’ll get a detailed response, and there are no dumb questions!

Simulator basics:

• Start with this tutorial. It’s an 8 minute video, but it’s jammed packed with info (I talk fast). It covers everything from loading characters, to report basics, to rotation basics. It’s a great place to get started to learn how we’ve setup the simulator.
• How to compare items in 60 seconds (video)
• Editing artifacts & gear. A super short video to prove it’s super easy.
• How to get artifact paths (video)
• How to simulate crucible traits
• How to simulate different boss setups (tutorial with pictures)
• Documentation on functions

For tanks:

Yes, you can simulate tanks. It is a challenging problem, but that is what we do best.

• NPS – a tank metric that basically tracks your chance to survive. A higher number is better.
• Tools for tanks
• “The Blender” lets you balance your tankiness with your desired DPS-iness when picking gear.

For healers:

Yes, you can simulate healers, although this is the first time it’s ever been done, so it will take a while to catch on (and we might do more iterations).

• Full description of healing simulations + rotations and a description of advanced features that we added in.

Advanced simulation stuff

• Learned variables – the simulator lets you set a variable that learns over each iteration. One example is learning the length of the burn phase for Arcane Mages.
• Batch simulations – Mr. Robot will automatically setup the combinations you choose, spend some time computing DPS for each one, and then generate a custom result. All with the click of a button.

Working with APLs / Rotations:

• Understanding spell rotations basics. A 5 minute video that covers how we handle priority lists, conditions, and how to find the parameters you need to make those conditions.
• How to go about making a good rotation (where to start, how to analyze logs to look for what could be improved)
• How to share / subscribe to someone’s APL
• How to convert a SimC APL into AMR (elemental shaman example, 25 minutes)
• Comparing APLs to make a better one (elemental shaman example, 25 minutes, both worth watching)
• Roll the Bones experiments,  an APL to test it yourself, and a 2-minute video to show how to do the tests.

Simulator accuracy – we don’t just claim it, we prove it!

Every tier, we run tests against top ranked players’ logs, and the simulations of those fights. We look at the 95th percentile so that we are isolating very skilled players, but eliminating extreme luck or cheese tactics. We do this throughout the tier as patches happen to make sure it’s as accurate as possible!

• Goroth sims match real logs – a detailed breakdown for every DPS spec
• Krosus sims match real logs – a detailed breakdown for every DPS spec

Gearing strategies & “stat weights”:

• Adaptive gearing strategies – forum post. You no longer have to run custom stat weights when using Ask Mr. Robot…. we’ve done it for you. But if you want to run a custom version of a boss script and get weights for those, check out How to run custom stat weights.
• Exporting stat weights to pawn – forum post.
• 6 biggest questions about stat weights, answered article. Stat weights are the old, less sophisticated way to rank gear. The main problem with stat weights is that they don’t rank anything with a proc, which these days, is half your gear.
• Stat weights vs Machine Learning – article
• NPS – a more robust tanking metric – article
• How to pick the best gear – simming vs Best-in-Bags (with an infographic!)
• Join the GloNet to help us create adaptive strategies even faster each tier. (Detailed instructions on how to join)

Boss scripts:

We have the following boss scripts. Most of them have explanations, some of them don’t but can be found in the simulator anyway.

• How to simulate with a custom boss script – The example uses Krosus boss script variations, but it is the same for any of the bosses.
• Krosus – a full explanation of how we modeled it for DPS (good for single target) and Tanks (good mitigating magic damage)
• Spellblade – a full explanation of how we modeled it for DPS (good for AoE) and Tanks (good for mitigating physical damage)
• Goroth – DPS-  a full explanation (single target) and variations
• Goroth, Mythic version for tanks
• Fallen Avatar
• Mistress Sass’zine – a full explanation (aoe)
• Felhounds of Sargeras – based on PTR data – built for tanks
• Hasabel (tanks)
• Target Dummy – this is a version where you just stand and DPS a target
• Mythic+ simulates the mythic 5 man dungeons. In the ‘more options’ section on the sim setup page, be sure to select the different affixes for the week.

Theorycraft Articles

• Marksmanship rotation analysis (Oct, 2017)
• Retribution rotation analysis (Aug, 2017)
• Are mythic raiders really that different from us? (June, 2017)
• A look at how movement affects ranged DPS (May, 2017)
• Melee & the no-miss bug on Krosus (May, 2017)
• Havoc – keeping it simple (April, 2017)
• Feral – A look at pooling & your DPS (Feb, 2017)
• Outlaw Rogues – A look at favored stats (Feb, 2017)
• Shadow Priests – surrender to madness & stats (Nov, 2016)
• Can you level your artifact for a second spec and not fall behind? (Aug, 2016)
• Proof you can play any spec and perform well (May, 2016)

FAQ

• Is ths simulator free?
  • YES! Totally free 🙂 There aren’t even ads on it, crazy right?
• I don’t play like a robot, so how can a simulation take that into account?
  • We have “anticipation” logic that acts a lot more like a human. We put a lot of care into modeling the timing of how the game queues actions, and how humans make decisions. For example, you don’t decide what spell to use the exact instant your GDC is ready, you decide half a second before that (for example). If the simulator made the decision the exact instant the GCD was ready, a trinket might have proc’d 100ms before the GCD was ready, so the simulator chooses a special spell to take advantage of that buff. That would be great if we could do that as humans. Instead, our human logic defaults to assuming you plan 300ms ahead (it’s configurable though). So in this scenario, you’d choose the next regular spell in your rotation and push the button (which the game queues up). Then 200 ms later (at 100ms before your GCD) a trinket proc’s and you get a buff. The simulator executes the regular spell when the GCD is ready, then the next decision chooses a spell based on that buff.
• You mentioned this is public, and it’s a wiki. Are there controls so people don’t troll and mess up spell mechanics for the rest of us?
  • Yes, the public versions are controlled by us. We will have a way for people to submit suggested edits to spell mechanics, rotations, etc (this submit suggestions feature isn’t live yet). After review, we can update the main public views. But you don’t have to wait for us, since all custom rotations and edits are saved to a user’s profile and can be used immediately, or shared with friends to use immediately.