A Droptimizer takes every item a raid boss or Mythic+ dungeon can drop for your character, equips each one in turn and ranks them by DPS gain. The result tells you which bosses are worth a bonus roll and which dungeons don't drop anything you need.
What a Droptimizer sims
A Droptimizer is a batch of normal sims. It takes your character exactly as your /simc string exported it and makes one copy per candidate item, with that one piece of gear swapped and everything else left alone. SimulationCraft runs each copy and reports how its average DPS compares to your current gear.
Items your spec can't get under loot specialisation rules are filtered out before anything runs, so a Retribution Paladin won't see shields and a Feral Druid won't see daggers. Everything left in the report can drop for you.
Because every candidate is simmed on your real character, the awkward cases are covered too, like a new piece that breaks your tier set bonus, a stat breakpoint, or a trinket that scales differently with your build.
Running one on MythicSim
- Export your character with the Simulationcraft addon (type
/simcin game and copy the text). If you're new to this, start with the full walkthrough. - Paste the export into MythicSim and pick Droptimizer as the sim type.
- Choose the source (a raid boss or a Mythic+ dungeon) and the difficulty or key level you actually run, since that sets the item level of the simmed drops.
- Run it. The report ranks every possible drop by DPS gain over your current gear, grouped by source, so the top of the list shows where to spend your week.
Reading the report
Look at each source as a whole. A boss with three decent upgrades on its loot table is often a better use of your lockout than one with a single big upgrade you're unlikely to see.
Small gains inside the sim's error margin are ties. The top of the ranking is reliable, so don't agonise over whether something sits 14th or 15th. There's more on this in how to read your sim results.
Frequently asked questions
What does Droptimizer mean?
The name is drop plus optimizer. Raidbots made it popular, and other SimulationCraft sites like MythicSim use it for the same kind of sim, one that ranks the possible drops from a raid or dungeon by how much DPS they'd add to your character.
What is the difference between Droptimizer and Best Gear (Top Gear)?
Best Gear ranks the items already in your bags. It's what you run after a loot session to decide what to equip. Droptimizer ranks what a specific raid boss or Mythic+ dungeon could drop, which helps you pick where to go before you spend the lockout.
Why does an upgrade show close to zero DPS gain?
Usually it's a sidegrade: similar item level with a stat mix your spec values about the same, or it would replace a piece that's holding a set bonus together. Anything inside the sim's error margin is effectively a tie, so put your bonus rolls on bosses with clear gains.
Does a Droptimizer account for tier set bonuses?
Yes. Each item is simmed on your actual character, so a piece that breaks your 2-piece or 4-piece bonus shows up as a smaller gain or a loss.
How often should I run a Droptimizer?
Once a reset is about right, before you pick which Mythic+ dungeon to farm or where to use bonus rolls. Run it again after any big gear change, because every number in the report is relative to the gear you had when you simmed.
Paste your /simc string, pick Droptimizer and choose the raid or dungeon you're running this week.
Run a Droptimizer