What SimulationCraft is and how Noxxic runs it for you

What Is SimulationCraft?

SimulationCraft (SimC) is an open-source program that recreates World of Warcraft's combat engine in a virtual sandbox. You define a scenario — a raid boss encounter, a Mythic+ dungeon profile, solo content — and SimC runs your character through thousands of iterations of that scenario to produce detailed DPS results. The output includes personalized stat weights, build comparisons, and gear evaluations that account for procs, trinket effects, set bonuses, and talent interactions.

It's the same tool used by top guilds and theorycrafters to make optimization decisions, and it's the engine behind every simulation on Noxxic.

Generic guides and stat priorities are a reasonable starting point, but they're built around a template character — not yours. Your gear, your talent build, and your content goals all affect which stats and items are actually best for you.

For example, whether you have a 2-piece or 4-piece set bonus can completely reshape your stat priority. A set bonus might make a specific talent or ability significantly stronger, which in turn shifts how much value a stat like haste or mastery provides. A generic guide has no way to account for that — it picks one answer for everyone. A simulation models your exact setup and measures the actual impact.

This is also why tools like the Pawn addon fall short for certain gear decisions. Items with procs, on-use effects, and set bonuses interact in ways that only a full simulation can capture — stat weights alone can't tell you which trinket is better.

SimulationCraft can be downloaded and run locally, and it's a great option if you're comfortable with the technical side. The setup involves configuring your character profile, choosing fight parameters, and interpreting the raw output. You'll also want to keep your SimC build current — the project receives frequent commits, sometimes multiple times a day, as theorycrafters and developers refine support for new and existing content.

Noxxic handles all of that. Here's what actually happens when you run a sim:

1. We pull your character data from the WoW Armory API (or from a SimC Addon paste for bag/vault sims).
2. We build a SimC profile — the same format you'd create manually if running SimC locally, but generated automatically from your character data.
3. We run it on a current build of SimulationCraft in the cloud, using pre-configured fight profiles for the scenario you choose.
4. We deliver the raw SimC results — stat weights, DPS numbers, build rankings — directly to your character dashboard.

Nothing is interpreted or editorialized. The numbers you see are SimC output for your character.

Noxxic provides pre-configured simulation modes for the most common scenarios, so you don't need to set up fight parameters yourself:

• Stat Weights — Generate personalized stat priorities and a Pawn string for your character, mode, and build.
• Best Build & Best Spec — Sim your character across popular talent builds to find which performs highest with your current gear.
• Best in Bags & Vault — Compare the actual items in your bags and weekly vault, with full proc and effect modeling, to find your top upgrades.

Each of these can be run for Single Target, Raid, Mythic+, Delves/Solo, and Pure AoE scenarios.

If you want full control, you can download SimulationCraft and run it locally. You'll get access to every configuration option SimC offers — custom fight lengths, specific boss mechanics, APL editing, and more. It's the right choice if you want to go deep into theoretical optimization.

Noxxic is built for players who want SimC-quality results without the setup. We maintain the infrastructure, keep SimC builds current, and configure the simulations — you just pick your character and hit start.

Note: Simulations provide a strong benchmark for potential DPS, but real-world performance varies with encounter mechanics, group composition, and playstyle.

Character sims on Noxxic are available to Noxxic+ members and continue to evolve based on game updates and subscriber feedback.