Sharpie's Gear Judge (Era & TBC Anniversary Edition)
The Final Verdict on your gear.
Sharpie's Gear Judge (SGJ) is a real-time theorycrafting engine and UI enhancement built for World of Warcraft: Classic Era and the TBC Anniversary Edition.
Unlike addons that assign static points to items (e.g., "Hit = 10 pts"), SGJ understands context. It knows if you are hit-capped, if a helm swap will break your Meta Gem, whether a quest reward is better than what you wear, and — in TBC — it can project the best possible gems and enchants for an item before you equip it.
🔥 What's New in Version 2.6.0
Raid & world buff modeling
- Buff Assumptions in Settings → Protocol — model Totem of Wrath, Improved Faerie Fire, Kings, MotW, Draenei-in-raid Heroic Presence, and classic world buffs (Ony, ZG, Songflower, DM tribute).
- Unified hit cap engine across all TBC classes; Boomkin, Rogue, and other specs get raid-aware cap softening.
- Cap Guardian uses your evaluation spec for hit targets — off-spec tracked tooltips no longer use the wrong cap.
Performance & accuracy
- Faster bag arrows with automatic fallback to full evaluation for set pieces and weapons.
- Scoring revision system — caches invalidate cleanly on talent, spec, gear, gem/enchant mode, and buff changes.
- Receipt view scores your character in a single pass instead of double-scanning every slot.
- Era defense floor: Cap Guardian now enforces tank defense floors on Era (
level×5+140, 440 at 60) — same reactive penalties as TBC.
- Hybrid AUTO detection: TBC hybrid profiles (Fury-Prot, HOTW, Ele/Resto NS, etc.), endgame talent point-scan fallbacks, and uncertain-profile hints in Stat Logic.
- BaseSpec on login: Imported Pawn profiles keep
BaseSpec scalers after reload (no stale flat-copy into class weights).
- Receipt bag upgrades: Uses full
EvaluateUpgrade / fast-path — same engine as tooltips and bag arrows.
Data & engine fixes
- TBC set ID corrections (Malorne/Nordrassil, Cyclone, S4 Priest heal, T6 tokens).
- Expanded
SetBonusScores for crafted, dungeon, T5/T6, and arena sets.
- ContentPhase gem gating — P1 gems through Phase 2; BT/Hyjal (P3+) and Sunwell (P5+) gem tiers unlock via the Roadmap phase dropdown.
- ProcDB trinkets, gem Mode 2 partial sockets, set bonus double-count, and custom-weight import fixes.
🚀 Key Features
🧠 Dynamic "Cap Guardian" Engine
The Judge watches your stats in real-time and penalizes gear that would drop you below critical thresholds.
Two mechanisms work together:
- Weight scalers (proactive): Class
ApplyScalers and TBC BuffEngine reduce hit/defense weights as you approach effective caps — affects how all items score.
- Cap Guardian (reactive):
EvaluateUpgrade compares your live rating + gear-simulated delta. If you are at/above a cap and a swap would drop you below the target, a score penalty and tooltip warning are applied.
- Raid-buffed scoring: Enable Assume Raid Buffed to credit common TBC raid buffs/debuffs when calculating how much hit you still need from gear.
- World buff assumptions: Optionally model classic world buffs for leveling and vanilla content.
- Tank defense protocol: Cap Guardian enforces defense skill floors for tank profiles — 490 at level 70 (TBC) or level×5+140 on Era (440 at 60). Only applies when your active profile weights defense.
- Hybrid live preview: Tooltips answer "if I swap this piece, where does my hit land?" using your real sheet rating plus a gear-simulated delta — without requiring you to equip the item.
🔮 Smart Projection (SimC-Lite)
- Gem simulator (TBC): Three gemming strategies — The Skeptic (empty sockets = 0), The Casual (respect socket colors), The Pro (min-max, including off-color gems). Partially socketed items are handled correctly in Casual mode.
- Gem quality tier: Project sockets using Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Epic gem cuts.
- Enchant projector: Compare items as if they had the best available enchant for your level and spec.
- Meta gem enforcement: Detects when a gear swap would deactivate your Meta Gem and adjusts the score.
- Progression-aware gem pool: On TBC progression servers, the available projected gems follow Content Phase (P1–2 = Kara/Gruul cuts; P3+ and P5+ unlock later tiers when set in Roadmap).
📊 Tooltip Verdicts
Hover any item — world drops, vendor goods, quest rewards, dungeon loot, or AH listings.
- Judge's Score: Calculated power for your active spec (or tracked off-specs).
- Upgrade / Downgrade verdict with score delta.
- Context warnings: Cap breaks, set bonus loss, meta deactivation, missing enchants, off-hand requirements, and more.
- Shift-only mode: Optionally show verdicts only while holding Shift.
- Async cache protection: Quest and uncached items wait for server data instead of showing a bogus 0-score.
🎒 Bag, Loot & Quest Overlays
Opt-in by default — enable in Settings → Interface Options.
- Bag upgrade arrows (
ShowBagArrows, off by default): Green/red arrows on items in your bags (Blizzard bags, Bagnon, ElvUI, Baganator, XLoot).
- Fast bag arrows (
FastBagArrows, on when bag arrows are enabled): Quick single-slot scoring; automatically uses full evaluation for set pieces and weapons.
- Loot roll arrows (
ShowLootArrows, off by default): Highlights the best upgrade on group loot popups.
- Quest reward overlays: Marks the best choice among quest reward options.
🧾 The Gear Receipt
An auditing panel for your current loadout (/sgj → Receipt).
- Per-slot scores on your paperdoll.
- Bag scan: Flags slots where a better item in your bags would be a full upgrade (same
EvaluateUpgrade engine as tooltips).
- Enchant police: Warns on missing enchants for valid enchant slots.
- Stat summary: Top weighted stats for your current build.
⚔️ Weapon Thunderdome (built-in)
Core /sgj tab — compare 2H vs. dual wield weapon layouts (6 weapon slots) without equipping gear. This is not the full Laboratory paperdoll.
🔬 The Laboratory Plugin
(Separate addon: SharpiesGearJudge_Laboratory — required for full virtual paperdoll)
- Virtual paperdoll: Drag items from chat or bags to test loadouts without equipping.
- All armor slots: Full gear comparison beyond the core weapon thunderdome.
🗺️ The Roadmap Plugin
(Separate addon: SharpiesGearJudge_Roadmap — required for Content Phase UI)
- Zone and dungeon loot rankings using SGJ scoring.
- Content Phase dropdown sets
SGJ_Settings.ContentPhase and rebuilds the gem projection pool for that progression tier. Without Roadmap, the phase setting exists but has no in-core UI.
- Buff assumptions flow into Roadmap scoring when using manual profile overrides.
👥 Multi-Spec & Saved Baselines
- Tracked specs: Enable secondary specs in Settings → Secondary Specs & Baselines. Tooltips show upgrade lines for each tracked profile.
- Save Profile: Snapshot your currently equipped gear as a baseline for a spec. Off-spec comparisons use (Saved) gear instead of what you happen to be wearing — essential for healers evaluating DPS drops while in heal gear.
- Clear Profile: Remove a saved baseline per spec.
💻 Slash Commands
| Command |
Action |
/sgj or /judge |
Open the Main Menu (Receipt, Settings, Import, etc.) |
/sgj config |
Open Settings directly |
/sgj import |
Open the weight import window (Pawn strings, Sixty Upgrades) |
/sgj simple |
Toggle shortened stat names in tooltips |
/sgj colors |
Toggle stat colorization in tooltips |
⚙️ Settings Guide
Open Settings from the main menu or /sgj config.
Interface Options
- Hide Minimap Button — Remove the circular minimap icon.
- Hide Tooltip Verdict — Disable SGJ lines on item tooltips.
- Show Only via Shift Key — Verdicts appear only while holding Shift.
- Show Bag Upgrade Arrows — Off by default. Green/red arrows on bag items.
- Fast Bag Arrows — On by default; only applies when bag arrows are enabled. Single-slot scoring for bags (full eval for sets/weapons).
- Show Loot Roll Arrows — Off by default. Arrows on group loot frames.
Comparison Logic
- Enchant Mode — Off (raw stats) / Current Only / Project Best.
- Gemming Logic — The Skeptic / The Casual / The Pro.
- Gem Quality — Common / Uncommon / Rare / Epic tier used when projecting empty sockets.
Buff Assumptions (TBC)
- Assume Raid Buffed — Credit raid buffs and debuffs (ToW, IFF, Kings, MotW, Draenei in raid, etc.).
- Raid Buff Preset — Off / 25-Man Full / 10-Man Minimal.
- Assume World Buffed — Credit classic world buffs (usually off at 70 in Outland).
- World Buff Preset — Off / Full World Buffed / DM Tribute Only.
Your personal racials (e.g. Draenei +1% Hit) are always applied. Enable raid assumptions to model a Draenei in your raid buffing everyone via Heroic Presence.
Character Profile
- Active Scoring Profile — Auto-Detect uses talent capstones + point-scan fallbacks. Does not auto-select imported Pawn profiles. Hybrid builds with points spread across trees may show an uncertain hint in Stat Logic — pick a profile manually if needed.
- Imported profiles: Select explicitly;
BaseSpec from import drives hit-cap scalers for that profile.
Secondary Specs & Baselines
- Check specs to track in tooltips.
- Save Profile — Store current equipped gear as that spec's comparison baseline.
- Clear — Remove saved baseline for a spec.
📥 Importing Custom Weights
Power users can import Pawn-format strings (export from SimC/WowSims) or Sixty Upgrades JSON/URL/CSV.
- Copy your Pawn string or Sixty Upgrades export.
- Type
/sgj import in-game.
- Paste and confirm. The addon creates a custom profile stored in
SharpiesGearJudgeDB.
Imported Pawn profiles with a BaseSpec field apply the correct class scalers on login and after reload.
📥 Installation & Compatibility
Unified codebase — the addon detects your client automatically:
| Client |
Support |
| Classic Era (1.15.x) |
Hit %, Defense Skill, T0–T3 sets, vanilla proc logic |
| TBC Anniversary (2.5.x) |
Combat ratings, gems, meta gems, TBC sets, progression gem phases |
Install
- Download the latest release.
- Extract the
SharpiesGearJudge folder.
- Place in:
_classic_era_/Interface/AddOns — Vanilla / Era_classic_/Interface/AddOns — TBC Anniversary
Optional plugins
- SharpiesGearJudge_Laboratory — Virtual paperdoll / loadout testing.
- SharpiesGearJudge_Roadmap — Zone loot rankings and Content Phase control.
Supported bag addons
Blizzard default bags, Bagnon, ElvUI Bags, Baganator, XLoot (loot rolls).
Localization
English (default) plus deDE, esES, frFR, ptBR, ruRU.
🏗️ How It Works (Brief)
Item tooltip / bag link
→ Parse.lua (scan stats, procs, sockets, set headers)
→ Helpers.lua (raw stats, ProcDB, gem/enchant projection)
→ Evaluator.lua (character score, upgrade delta, cap guardian)
→ Judge.lua / Interface.lua (draw tooltip verdict or bag arrow)
Set bonuses, meta requirements, weapon specialization, and raid-buff-adjusted caps are applied in the scoring engine — not as flat per-stat multipliers on individual items.
Credits
For detailed version history, see CHANGELOG.md.
