WhyLowDPS is a Windows desktop app for World of Warcraft players who want a more personal, local-first way to simulate, track, and improve their characters.
The app is built around the player and their characters. Its goal is to bring common character-optimization workflows into one place: local simulations, sim history, route-based sims, gear planning, weekly game data, wishlists, and other tools that help you make better upgrade decisions without constantly jumping between different websites or reopening the game.
WhyLowDPS lets you simulate your WoW character locally using SimulationCraft, track live sims and previous sim results, save routes from SimC strings, reuse saved character SimC data, and quickly check useful character information such as the Great Vault.
It also includes several optimization modes, such as consumable comparisons, tier slot planning, trinket combination testing, crest and upgrade planning, drop finding, and character-specific item wishlists.
The app also provides current-season information such as dungeons, raids, weekly affixes, and other game data that is useful when planning upgrades or simulations.
- Local character simulation using SimulationCraft
- Live simulation tracking
- Simulation history
- Saved SimC strings per character
- Route saving from SimC strings for route-specific sims
- Great Vault checking directly from the app
- Current season dungeon, raid, and affix information
- Consumable Matrix for comparing consumables
- Tier Slot Matrix for planning tier conversions
- Trinket Matrix for testing trinket combinations
- Upgrade and crest planning
- Drop finder
- Character-based wishlist groups for tracking desired items
There are also additional modes and features that are not fully listed here yet, as the project is still evolving.
- WhyLowDPS is local-first.
- Your Battle.net API credentials are stored only on your machine.
- The app does not send your credentials to a custom server outside your machine.
- The app does not have a custom backend for user data outside what is already running on your machine.
- Simulations run locally using SimulationCraft.
- Network requests are used for Blizzard APIs, GitHub updates/data, and documented external data sources.
- Optional LAN sharing is disabled by default. The installed desktop app can pair phones on the same trusted private network with a one-time QR/link. Valid device access survives app restarts, expires after 24 hours, and can be renamed, refreshed, or revoked from the desktop. See Desktop LAN sharing. No internet exposure or port forwarding is supported.
- You can build the app yourself from source.
- Data about the current season are downloaded from raidbot once on startup and refreshed occasionally (manually or on schedule set from the settings page)
- Blizzard API is used to fetch data about your account which is used to populate the app, like characters, vault progress, recent M+ runs...
This is an unsigned / newly distributed desktop app, so Windows SmartScreen or antivirus tools may warn until the app gains reputation or is code-signed.
The installed desktop app supports Windows only. The separate private Docker-hosted web deployment runs on amd64 Linux or Docker Desktop's WSL2 Linux engine.
- Getting started covers installation, Light mode, creating Battle.net API credentials, redirect URLs, credential storage, and first-run setup.
- Desktop LAN sharing explains how to pair a phone with the installed app and how LAN access differs during development.
- Docker-hosted private WhyLowDPS covers production setup, updates, rollback, Battle.net configuration, and backups for a private single-instance web deployment.
- CONTRIBUTING.md contains the Windows development, testing, and release workflow.
Desktop LAN sharing and Docker hosting are separate modes. Docker runs its own Linux SimulationCraft runtime and data volume; it does not connect to the desktop app.
