Do you take dps sims as 100% fact?

[Happychild]

Using raidbots. As a BM hunter, I've got a 460 ring that gives +322 crit and +242 mastery. It's telling me that a different ring that gives +177 crit and +387 haste is a 0.3% dps increase. Is this accurate? I thought we were supposed to prioritize stacking crit?

[Penegal]

Using raidbots. As a BM hunter, I've got a 460 ring that gives +322 crit and +242 mastery. It's telling me that a different ring that gives +177 crit and +387 haste is a 0.3% dps increase. Is this accurate? I thought we were supposed to prioritize stacking crit?

It's accurate. You're most likely at some sort of break-point where haste becomes slightly more valuable. Also, it depends on how you simmed. Generally, it's Patchwerk, 5 minutes.

[Colmadero]

I'm not a hunter but remember that sims are pretty much under ideal circumstances and playing like a robot with 0% error. Do not take it as 100% fact but more like a guideline as to where to take your toon.

[CrawlFromThePit]

Using raidbots. As a BM hunter, I've got a 460 ring that gives +322 crit and +242 mastery. It's telling me that a different ring that gives +177 crit and +387 haste is a 0.3% dps increase. Is this accurate? I thought we were supposed to prioritize stacking crit?

The sim is telling you that with your current crit rate if you add haste you are gonna get more "crits per minute", your haste in this case is boosting your already high crit.

Stats weight are not something set in stone, it changes with every single new item you put on and it's possible to reach a point where your "best stat" is high enough to make other stats more useful. A simple and silly example yet accurate: crit is good but beyond 100% it obviously does nothing at all compared to vers which has no cap at all. The crit stat only gives your noncrit hits the chance to be duoble dmg, crit as a stat hurts itself since a crit cannot crit more. You will reach a point where more crit is just not the best option anymore.

Sims are useful to compare different items in the same unrealistic situation the sim gives, it doesn't represent in-game at all but rather an ideal situation in which the potential dps of whatyou give it is calculated and compared. It's a good start to get a general idea but I highly suggest you also try things on your own because each situation(encounters in the game) will have different stats weight that are not shown in details anywhere.

[lollerlaban]

That's because your crit is so high that haste is good for you since haste = more attacks = more barbed procs = more trait procs on barbed = more Beastial wrath

[Nythiz]

Is this accurate?

Yes. Simulations are quite accurate.

In your case, as mentioned before you're likely already at a high crit level, making haste relatively come close to crit in value.
On top of that: Mastery, at least for patchwerk fights, is generally not as good as crit and haste. So while crit might still be the best stat for you, haste being far better than mastery might make the difference here.

As for your title statement: "Do you take dps sims as 100% fact?"

That's a bit of a yes and no. They are definitely correct, but you have to keep in mind that they do nearly everything perfect.
So you need to keep your own flaws into mind.

Good example for this is ​Galecaller's Boon
In a lot of sims it comes out as one of the best trinkets, but you have to keep in mind that:
a) the sim uses the trinket with optimal timing; which is either on cooldown or stacked with some other buff.
b) the general patchwork fights don't contain movement, meaning you get full benefit of the rune.

So use that data and translate it to your in-game experience. If a 3rd trinket is only 0.1% dps behind and you're on a movement heavy fight or you know you suck at on-use trinkets then keep that in mind.

[Happychild]

Since I keep hearing that I must have high crit, what is considered to be a high crit value? I currently have 37% unbuffed.

[Galaar]

Kind of building on what the OP asked. I sim every piece of gear I get to make sure that in the "ideal" situation if it's an upgrade. Right now I'm sitting at 40% crit unbuffed with about 21% haste and around 30% mastery. I think my versatility is around 4-6%.

I'm guessing that high-30s to 40s is the "break point" as all the literature I see states that 'if you get above 40% crit'. My question is this:

I have the heroic gun of N'Zoth that is better stats for BM and ilvl 470 (no corruption on it)
When I sim I get noted that the heroic bow off Prophet at ilvl 460 is a 3% upgrade over my gun. I know the corruption is probably the main thing but in reality does it just sim well or does that reduction in CD for random hunter abilities really make that much of a difference? I know that weapon damage is not as big for BM as MM but still seems odd.

Thanks!

[Nythiz]

Since I keep hearing that I must have high crit, what is considered to be a high crit value? I currently have 37% unbuffed.

That depends on gear.
What is high crit chance for someone with ilvl 430 isn't the same as someone with 470 ilvl.

Also the value of crit flops around a lot depending on your other secondary stats and on the type of content you do.

We want to have high crit to make Dance of Death / One with the Pack work well, so you want as much crit as possible indeed.
But there is always a trade off. Getting +100 crit rating is very good, but trading away +300 haste rating for it isn't.
And for BM hunters a lot of the other secondary stats are pretty good too in most circumstances.

The example in your OP is a good one. Why is the second ring better? Because even though 322 crit rating > 177 crit rating; apparently the 387 haste rating >> 242 mastery rating. And the latter, in this case, weighs in heavier than the crit gain.

So do you want to stack as much crit as possible? Yes
Do you want to sacrifice other stats to obtain as high crit as possible? Often not.

Kind of building on what the OP asked. I sim every piece of gear I get to make sure that in the "ideal" situation if it's an upgrade. Right now I'm sitting at 40% crit unbuffed with about 21% haste and around 30% mastery. I think my versatility is around 4-6%.

I'm guessing that high-30s to 40s is the "break point" as all the literature I see states that 'if you get above 40% crit'. My question is this:

I have the heroic gun of N'Zoth that is better stats for BM and ilvl 470 (no corruption on it)
When I sim I get noted that the heroic bow off Prophet at ilvl 460 is a 3% upgrade over my gun. I know the corruption is probably the main thing but in reality does it just sim well or does that reduction in CD for random hunter abilities really make that much of a difference? I know that weapon damage is not as big for BM as MM but still seems odd.

Thanks!

Break point is also a term that's thrown around quite loosely.
It's more a relic of the past, when haste breakpoints were still a very real and common thing.

Stat values are very dynamic these days. It could be that I sim myself and find crit to be the best stat, swap a single item and suddenly haste is better than crit for me.
In this day and age when simming is made easier than ever and, especially now for BM, secondary stats are quite decently balanced; the answer is always to just sim it.

As for your question with the N'Zoth bow.
I'm quite sure that the sim now simulates the bow corruption effect at 75% efficiency. That basically means that 3 out of 4 cooldown reductions go into offensive abilties (which is a pretty decent estimation I'd say).
So if the sim suggest that the bow is better, it could very well BE better at this point.

Whether the bow is really better again depends on a lot of variables. And in this case it's also a matter of personal judgement. If you are someone who uses his utility a lot (e.g. Cheetah / Turtle / disenagage) than the effectiveness of the bow is significantly reduced; especially if you have multiple utility abilities on cooldown all at once.
On top of that it's also a preference call; losing out a little bit of DPS but gaining better access to things like Exhilaration / Disengage / etc can be a really nice thing as well, a quality of life bonus that's not well represented in sims

[callipygoustp]

100% fact? No way. But I have used them as a guide for.... well, as far back as I can remember. As a guide they have been 100% effective.

[Throwme]

Do you take dps sims as 100% fact?

Of course not. I am not perfect, I cannot play perfectly. It's a nice help and guideline, but nothing more to me.

[Mirishka]

I'm not a hunter but remember that sims are pretty much under ideal circumstances and playing like a robot with 0% error. Do not take it as 100% fact but more like a guideline as to where to take your toon.

This.

/10char

[Powerogue]

No. http://www.darklegacycomics.com/713

And the first 1:47 of this:

[Azortharion]

You can always count on Taliesin and Evitel for the latest and greatest knowledge of high-end WoW theorycrafting and optimization. Dark Legacy Comics too.

[Schizoide]

I'm not a hunter but remember that sims are pretty much under ideal circumstances and playing like a robot with 0% error. Do not take it as 100% fact but more like a guideline as to where to take your toon.

Exactly right. Sims assume perfect execution. In reality, the differences are often too small to matter; delaying a cast by half a second to run out of the fire will hurt you more than that 0.3%.