That’s definitely not the explanation. Regardless of what I changed (VT, mana potions, demonic runes, fight length, whatever) it would always end up giving me those results. And now it’s not doing it, even loading the snapshot ID above.
Something is frankly broken in the simulator, as it is now telling me to use healing gems and other wacky things at random.
Starting from this snapshot caddb562931a41c6bc94a6d39e6f61fb, select the bracers (Cuffs of Devastation) and lock them in place. Re-optimizing while selecting the piece of gear the optimizer has selected should obviously result in no changes.
Instead, it tells me to use the T5 set, which is bad enough, because that’s completely bonkers, and even the simulator seems to know it (results are, allegedly, 7.6% in T6-4 and 7.45% T5-4) but then it gets worse by telling me to use Luminous Noble Topaz gems. Manually changing that gem to a Potent Noble Topaz results in a calculated DPS increase of 7.48% (0.03% higher than using the healer gem). And if the 4 intellect on that gem was what the simulator thought I needed, why doesn’t it swap out another gem to get it when I lock this gem in place?
Or, for another example, change the cloak to the DPS cloak (Cloak of the Illidari Council) instead of the healer cloak it selects. Again, it tries to use T5-4pc. So manually set the T6 shoulders, gloves, or legs and re-optimize. It will choose a T6-4 set that includes the helm. Select the T6 robes, instead and it will correctly choose Cowl of the Illidari High Lord as your off-piece. In any of the other three circumstances, manually selecting the correct head piece results in a DPS increase according to the simulator. This is exactly the kind of decision I expect this tool to make for me, and frankly, it’s failing miserably at it.
None of this makes any sense.