Guides

How to install SimHammer and get the most out of every tool. Stuck? The Discord server is the fastest place to get help.

Getting Started

SimHammer is a desktop app for SimulationCraft (SimC), the simulator that runs your character through a fight thousands of times to work out your DPS. SimHammer gives it a proper interface: paste your character, pick a tool, press run. SimC comes with the app.

Installation

Download the installer for your system from the Download page.

• Windows: run the .exe installer.
• macOS: open the .dmgand drag SimHammer to Applications. The app isn't notarized, so the first launch is blocked: open it once, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/SimHammer.app in Terminal.
• Linux: make the AppImage executable (chmod +x SimHammer*.AppImage) and run it.

On first start SimHammer downloads the SimC engine. When a new version of the app is out, you get an Update available prompt with Install & restart.

Loading your character

Click the character button at the top of the window. There are three ways in:

• Paste SimC: type /simc in game, copy the text and paste it here, then click Apply. This is the most complete option: it includes your bags, bank and Great Vault, which Top Gear needs. See SimC Addon Setup.
• Armory: pick your region and realm, type your character name and click Fetch from Armory. Quick and handy, but it only knows what you have equipped.
• Auto-Import from WoW (desktop, in Settings): after you type /simc in game, SimHammer picks the export up from your clipboard when you switch back to it.

SimHammer remembers the characters you load; switch between them from the same button.

Your first sim

1. 1

   Load your character as above.

2. 2

   Click Quick Sim at the top of the sidebar.

3. 3

   Click Run Simulation. Your DPS appears in a few seconds.

Running sims

Every sim page has the same bar at the bottom: your sim profile, a summary of the fight, an Options button and the run button. Quick Sim also has a Stat Weights switch there.

Sim options

Options opens a drawer with three tabs:

• Simulation: Fight Style (Patchwerk, Casting Patchwerk, Hectic Add Cleave, Cleave Add, Light Movement, Heavy Movement, Dungeon Slice, Dungeon Route, Helter Skelter), Fight Length, Number of Bosses, Rotation Mode, the SimC Branch (weekly or nightly, when you have both), Scenarios and Custom APL / SimC Options.
• Raid Buffs & Consumables: toggle raid buffs, and pick your flask, food, potion, augment rune and weapon rune. SimC Default uses SimC's choice; None leaves the slot empty.
• Expert Mode: Target Error (default 0.05%) and Iterations, plus raw SimC text for the header, player, raid actors and footer. Lower target error means more precise but slower sims; the iteration count is a ceiling.

Scenarios let you queue several fight setups at once: set one up, click + Add current config, change the settings, add the next.

Sim profiles

Save your options as a named profile and switch between them from the bottom bar, for example one for raid and one for Mythic+. The buttons at the top of the Options drawer let you Save, Save as, Rename and Delete profiles. Export copies a profile as a text string you can send to a friend; they paste it with Import. A built-in Default is always there, and a dot marks unsaved changes.

Local or cloud

By default every sim runs on your own PC, using the share of your CPU set in Settings. Local sims run one at a time; the next waits in the queue so two sims never fight over your CPU.

You can also run sims in the cloud with Simmit, which is useful for very large Top Gear runs. Add your Simmit API key in Settings → Compute Providers; the run button then gets a menu with Auto, Local SimC and Simmit Cloud. Auto sends Top Gear, Drop Finder and Crest Upgrades runs with 50 or more combinations to the cloud and keeps the rest local. Cloud runs show their credit cost before you start.

While a sim runs you can Cancel Sim. Long local Top Gear runs can also be paused with Pause Sim and resumed later, even after restarting the app.

Quick Sim

Sims your character as it is: your DPS, a damage breakdown per ability and, if you want them, stat weights. The page shows your character, talents and Equipped Gear, and Last Sim links to your previous result.

1. 1

   Load your character.

2. 2

   Optionally turn on Stat Weights in the bottom bar. It adds roughly 8× to the sim time.

3. 3

   Click Run Simulation.

To sim a Mythic+ route instead of a boss fight, see Mythic+ Routes.

Top Gear

Finds your best combination of gear, gems and enchants. Tick the items you want to try in each slot; Top Gear sims every valid combination and ranks them against what you wear now.

1. 1

   Load your character with a fresh /simc export.

2. 2

   Tick alternatives per slot in Items. The Vault, Loot and Catalyst chips at the top tick whole groups at once.

3. 3

   Optionally pick enchants in Enchants, gems in Gems and runes in Omnium Folio to compare those too.

4. 4

   Check the combination count in the bottom bar, then click Find Top Gear.

Items and baseline

• Your equipped item is the Baseline. You can untick it, but only after ticking another item for that slot: the first item you tick becomes the new baseline. Every slot keeps at least one item; rings and trinkets keep two.
• Add itemopens the full loot catalog, so you can sim gear you don't own yet. Search by name or id and pick an item level per result. Turn off My loot spec only to see everything your class can equip, and Seasonal items only to include older items.
• Each item's menu can Add copy at different upgrade level, Convert to Catalyst, Add Socket and Edit Gems & Enchant, where you set or remove a gem or enchant yourself instead of using the automatic picks.
• Copy Enchants puts your current enchants on the alternatives, Sim Highest Upgrade sims items at their maximum upgrade level, and Revival Catalyst limits catalyst conversions to the charges you have.

Enchants, gems and the Omnium Folio

• Tick several enchants for a slot to compare them, the same way you compare items.
• For gems, tick the gems to try. Normally only empty sockets are filled; turn on Replace current gems to also try other gems in sockets that already have one. Items with several sockets try every combination.
• Omnium Folio reads your folio from your character. Pick more than one rune in a row to sim them all.

Talents

Use Compare in the talent picker to add other builds (paste a talent string or Wowhead URL with Import, or build one with Blank / Edit). Every build is simmed with every gear combination, and your active loadout stays the baseline.

Layout

Switch between Large, Compact and Dense rows. Slots with nothing to choose fold into the Unchanged strip, and Reset all clears every selection and removes items you added.

Drop Finder

Sims the loot from raids, dungeons and other sources against your character, so you know which drops are real upgrades before you go.

1. 1

   Pick a category: Raids, Bonus Rolls, Mythic+, Dungeons, Delves, PvP, professions or Catalyst.

2. 2

   Choose the raid or dungeons, the Difficulty (or key level) and the Upgrade Level.

3. 3

   Narrow it down with the Slot Filter and Source Filter, and tick the items you want in Available Drops.

4. 4

   Click Find Upgrades.

• Bonus Rolls sims a whole raid or Mythic+ pool at once to show where your bonus rolls are best spent.
• For crafted gear, set the Preferred Stats and an Embellishment per item.
• Upgrade Equipped Gear to the Same Level compares drops against your gear at that level, and Include Catalyst adds the catalyst version of tier slots.
• Full Precision sims every drop to your target error. Off, only the top few are refined and the rest stay rough estimates. On is much slower, especially for bonus rolls.

Results include a Source Summary per boss or dungeon (expected value, best drop, priority) and rankings by rank, slot or boss.

Crest Upgrades

Shows where your crests buy the most DPS. SimHammer reads your equipped gear and your crests from the SimC export and lists every item you can upgrade.

1. 1

   Load your character with a fresh /simc export. Your crests show as Budget.

2. 2

   In Select Items to Upgrade, tick the upgrades to compare. Each row shows the item level change and the crest cost.

3. 3

   Click Sim Upgrades. Only combinations you can afford are simmed.

Raid Roster

Sims your whole raid against a boss's loot, to see who each drop upgrades the most. Handy for loot council.

1. 1

   Give the roster a name, pick its region and click Create.

2. 2

   In Manage Roster, paste one Playername-Realm per line and click Fetch gear from armory. Or paste your raiders' SimC exports to import their gear directly.

3. 3

   In Loot Report, pick the raid, Difficulty, bosses and upgrade level, then click Generate.

View the report Item-centric (who benefits most from each item) or as a Matrix (players × items heatmap). Hide downgrades clears the noise. Refresh from armory updates everyone's gear, and past reports stay under History.

Mythic+ Routes

Sims your spec over a real Mythic+ route, with its pulls, enemy forces and the travel time between packs, instead of a single boss.

1. 1

   Open M+ Routes in the sidebar and paste an MDT export string or a keystone.guru SimC export into Import route. The format is detected for you.

2. 2

   The route lands in your library, grouped by dungeon. Set its Key level and HP%.

3. 3

   Click Sim. The route becomes active and Quick Sim opens with the Dungeon Route fight style.

Map shows the route on the dungeon map with color-coded pulls. You can pan and zoom, draw and merge pulls, and save changes back to the library.

Reading results

While a sim runs, the live view shows:

• progress and Time left;
• the Live DPS against your baseline;
• for Top Gear and Drop Finder, the combination being simmed and a ranking of those Finished so far;
• SimC's notes.

When it's done:

• The top card shows your DPS with its error margin, the fight length, targets and iterations, and how it compares with your previous sim. The icons in its corner show the consumables and raid buffs the sim used; hover them for details.
• Below it: Stat Weights (when enabled), your talents, the Damage Breakdown per ability, and your gear.
• Top Gear rankings show each combination's gain over the baseline. The colored dot is its precision: green is tight, red is a rough estimate (hover it for the exact accuracy). The per-row button re-runs that combination as a high-precision Quick Sim, to settle close calls.
• Download the raw results as Raw JSON, Raw Input, CSV, HTML Report or Text Output.

Sharing

Click Share on any finished sim, then Create link. You get a simhammer.com link that shows the full report in any browser, no app needed. Sharing uploads the result, your settings and the SimC input, which includes your character name.

Anyone with the link can:

• Open it in SimHammer: click Open in SimHammer on the page, or paste the link in the box at the top of the app.
• Re-run locally: run the same sim on their own machine and compare their result with the shared one.
• Editit: Quick Sim, Top Gear, Drop Finder and Crest Upgrades shares open in their page with the sharer's setup loaded. Your own character and settings are saved; Restore my setup brings them back.

Links are removed after 90 days without views, and after 180 days at most. To take a link down earlier, use Stop sharing on the result.

My Sims

Every sim is saved. My Sims in the sidebar has two tabs: Active shows running and queued sims with Pause, Resume and Cancel, and All lists your past runs. Click a run to open its result, or delete it from your history. Your sims are stored on your own machine.

Settings

• Compute Providers: add, test or remove your Simmit API key for cloud sims.
• SimC engine (desktop): install, update or remove the weekly and nightly SimC builds, and let them update automatically. Nightly gets new game changes first.
• General (desktop): CPU Threads sets how much of your CPU sims may use (Balanced, Performance or Maximum), and Auto-Import from WoW reads /simc exports from your clipboard.
• Appearance: the Dark or Light theme.

The bottom of the sidebar also has the theme, a Zoom slider (75–150%) and the language: English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, Русский and 한국어.

Self-Hosting with Docker

SimHammer also runs as a web app on your own server, for yourself or your guild. Everything runs in one container: on start it downloads SimC and the game data, and it checks for SimC updates every hour.

Quick start

docker run -p 8000:8000 \
  -e SIMC_ENABLED_BRANCHES=weekly,nightly \
  -v simhammer-data:/app/resources/data \
  -v simhammer-data-full:/app/resources/data_full \
  -v simhammer-simc:/app/resources/simc \
  -v simhammer-db:/app/db \
  ghcr.io/sortbek/simcraft:latest

Then open http://localhost:8000. The volumes keep the game data, SimC builds and your sim history between restarts; without simhammer-db your history is lost on every restart.

Environment variables

• SIMC_ENABLED_BRANCHES: SimC builds to install, weekly, nightly or both (default weekly).
• SIMC_CHECK_INTERVAL: seconds between SimC update checks (default 3600).
• SIMC_THREADS: most threads one sim may use (default: every core). Sims run at low priority, so the server stays responsive without it.
• ADMIN_PASSWORD: turns on the admin panel at /admin.
• MAX_COMBINATIONS: largest Top Gear run allowed (default 0, no limit).
• MAX_SCENARIOS: scenarios per batch (default 10, 0 turns scenarios off).
• DATABASE_URL: a SQLite path (default) or a postgres:// URL.
• PORT / BIND_HOST: where the server listens (default 0.0.0.0:8000).

Admin panel

With ADMIN_PASSWORD set, /admin lets you install, update and remove SimC versions and change the combination and scenario limits without restarting.

Updating

docker pull ghcr.io/sortbek/simcraft:latest
# then recreate the container with the same docker run command

SimulationCraft Addon Setup

The SimulationCraft addon exports your character (gear, talents, bags, bank and Great Vault) as text that SimHammer reads.

1. 1

   Install the addon from CurseForge or Wago.

2. 2

   Log in to your character and type /simc in chat. A window with your export opens.

3. 3

   Copy all of it (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C) and paste it into SimHammer with Paste SimC. With Auto-Import from WoW on, just switch back to the app.

Troubleshooting

• “Can't be simmed”: your spec has no damage rotation in SimC (see Getting Started).
• New items missing or wrong: update SimC in Settings. After a game patch, nightly usually gets support first.
• /simc does nothing: make sure the addon is enabled on the character select screen.
• A sim takes very long: check the combination count before you run. Fewer ticked items, a higher target error or cloud sims all help.
• macOS says the app can't be opened: see Installation for the one-time Open Anyway step.

Still stuck? Ask in the Discord.