Some weeks ago I developed a BiS optimising app for warlocks. It's time to give it some public testing, since I have had a fair bit of interest in this previously.

Download here

How it works
Unlike other gear optimisation efforts, this app (assuming the algorithm is now bug-free) gives a 100% guaranteed best gear set for a given set of items & stat weights, since it performs an efficiently pruned exhaustive search rather than a typical hill climbing or evolutionary approach. You set the weights & hit total you wish to calculate for, exclude or lock any particular items you want or don't want, and calculate the gear set. The time taken varies a lot depending on the exact weight & options chosen, but typically will be around 10-20 seconds on the default settings on a reasonably modern PC.

Limitations
Accuracy of this app depends entirely on the accuracy of the stat weights and item values it is fed with. It is populated with an item set taken from all relevant ilvl200+ items on wowhead (as of a few weeks ago). Trinkets, meta bonuses, tier bonuses and so forth are estimated, and can be manually configured. These may not be 100% accurate (particularly the meta gems), and part of the reason for this testing is to get some feedback to tune these to more realistic values.

Only rare gems are used at present.

If you choose the 'get gear from wowhead' option, it will update all items except for trinkets and item enhancements.

Using the app
1) Extract the app & xml files anywhere you like, but ensure they're kept in the same folder or you'll crash it.
2) Run the exe to load the app.
3) Select the default affliction/destro weights (the only ones I've entered so far) or enter your own manually
4) Right click on any gear slot to lock/unlock it
5) Use the excluded items tab to exclude any items you don't want to consider (e.g, hard mode items you don't expect to ever see)
6) Click 'Calculate gearset' to return the optimal set.

The returned gearset will include the necessary gems to activate your meta. It will display the 'hit' and 'weight' score of the chosen set at the top of the screen. Items are shown as links to wowhead, with gems included and hit rating shown on the left for a quick reference. Certain item enhancements (feet, gloves, etc) where there is no single obvious 'best' enhancement are also included in the calculation.

Items can be easily edited in their respective xml files.

In theory you should be able to use this to find the best gear set for any warlock spec, with any target hit rating, including or excluding any particular items you choose.

Any feedback is welcomed. Especially if you find any bugs!

Version History
v0.69 - 18/8/09
- added T9 triumph tier set bonuses
- updated gems list
- updated gear list
- adjusted pruning process to speed up app

v0.64 - 3/7/09
- adjusted default profile weights to match simcraft
- fixed meta requirement overgemming bug

v0.63 - 2/7/09
- Fixed bug where gems assigned to locked items would not be displayed
- Compacted layout slightly
- Prevented crash when clicking on an link with no item assigned
- Added labels to the left of items so you can more clearly see what slot it is for
- Prevented app becoming disabled when invalid weight data was input

v0.62 - 2/7/09
- Fixed socket hit bonus for items not being included (note: socket hit bonus may not currently show up, but is included)
- Fixed pruning error in initial gemming process
- Added ability to include/exclude all items

v0.61 - 1/7/09
Initial public release

Force hit rating forces the hit rating to be at least what you specify, e.g 289 or 368. It has the same effect as setting the 'lost hit weight' (the amount of 'weight' value to subtract from a gear set per point it falls short of the hit target) to a very high number.

The entry above 1h weapon is likely 2h weapon. It will be N/A if your set comes up with a 1h weapon, and vice versa if it has a 2h weapon, since you'll only have one or the other. You also won't get an offhand if you have a 2h.

Other feedback noted; I'll be compiling a list of fixes/improvements to incorporate in the next version.

It might, from a convenience standpoint, be nice to be able to exclude an item from the primary tab, rather than switching over to the secondary tab to do so. A right-click context menu comes to mind as a possible implementation.

Cosmetically, making the form fixed-single rather than sizable would be nice, although first prize would be sizable with scaling.

I suggest adding the item slot names, e.g. head, chest, trinket, to make it immediately obvious which piece of gear is assigned to which slot. Best scenario would be to model the WoW character profile's equipment slots.

Additionally it would be convenient to have a way to export gear sets perhaps to xml or xls.

edit: When you lock a piece of gear what gems and enchants does the app decide to use? There is no display for this information.

Wow, this is a pretty cool program.

The only trouble I've had with it is whenever I click on the "GetGearFromWowhead" button I get an error report and it closes.

I'd like to see the gear categorized (Heroics, 10-mans, Uld25 Hard modes) so it would be easier to know your best upgrades as you go along.

When you lock a piece of gear you lock just that - a piece of gear. The app will still assume all gems slots and enchants, including those applying to that piece of gear, are free to be recalculated. You can lock any enchantments you wish, but you cannot lock any gem other than the meta.

I think something that needs to be added would be something for professions. Being a Jewelcrafter would affect the results. I also think there needs to be a way to filter gems because at BiS gear levels gemming for hit is not a good thing.

Another thing I noticed was when I put in 342 hit rating even if I checked off force hit rating, it still calculated the gear with 350 hit.

Overall I like the functionality and the ease to use it. I look forward to tracking the development.

The idea that gemming for hit is a BAD idea gets to be a worse and worse idea the better your gear gets. The penalty for switching a single gem can be far less than switching a piece of gear.

Like a [Item not found!] is often the best gem to use for your shoulders (t8.5). While using a 100% hit gem is often flawed, partial hit gems aren't always bad. Though the idea of using anything outside of these gems is a bad idea.

• [Item not found!]
  
• [Reckless Monarch Topaz]
  
• [Item not found!]
  
• [Design: Purified Twilight Opal]

Couple of bugs:
It doesn't seem to be taking hit from socket bonuses into consideration. Also, I have a gear configuration where it slotted a Veiled Monarch Topaz and I don't know why since the gear profile is over the hit target even without it.

Screenshot of said gear profile:
http://xs141.xs.to/xs141/09273/optigear750.jpg

That screenshot also shows it not recognizing the +4 hit from the shoulders.

Good job VenomByte, thanks.
Is it possible to link items to some wow item database (tooltips) and sort them by slots (head, neck, etc.)?
Then I think, it would be perfect.