Final edit may 20 2009– got the new version screenshotted and updated here. I won’t be keeping this one up to date any more- follow the above link for the most recent version.
I’ve talked about this before and mentioned that it can be a little daunting to use, so here’s how to use the elitist jerks dps spreadsheet.
First off, what it will do. This spreadsheet allows you to import your character from the armory, and calculate your theoretical maximum dps. Since this is modeled data, don’t be surprised if you don’t actually see that dps in game. This is a benchmark you can use to compare various choices you have to make.
All the screenshots here are taken on a 5 year old laptop with an attitude problem, so some of the things that probably show up on a single page for you will be off the side of my screen, and thus pictured on their own. If anything’s unclear, ask in the comments.
To get started, go to the first post in this thread and download the latest version. When you open it, enable macros. You will be on the first tab. You need to click on the second tab called “overview”. You’ll see this:
Now you need to enter your character name, realm, server set, and glyphs. Also, if you have a gathering profession with some sort of pve bonus, enter it in the marked space. Lastly, rename the first profile (the one we’ll be using) to something that describes your spec and pet.
Last part of this page is to the bottom right- you need to enter a name for the spec you use.
Next, go to the gear tab. You’ll first want to change the profile name to the one we created in the overview tab.
And then click on “load gear from armory”.
Next up, if your import contained gear that does not show up properly (like greens), you need to set those pieces to custom. Skip this step if all your gear imported properly.
Next, again only if you have some pieces of custom gear, you need to enter the stats and stuff for the gear you selected “custom” for on the custom gear tab.
Now, once your gear is ready, we click on the talents tab and then set the talent profile to the one we chose in the first step. Mine is called “sv 5/15/51 spec”
After that, you click on “read from armory”
Now we click on the buffs tab. I usually leave this to the default “level 80 raid” that Shandara has been kind enough to create, but if you have your own buff composition, you can create a profile on the overview tab and edit it and save it here.
Now you go to the shot rotation tab, enter in your latency (the default is fine for most), and start to choose your rotation priority. This is unfortunately not going to be perfect for survival hunters, but it’s close enough.
Here’s mine:
Next we go to the pet tab. You can build your pet’s talents on wowhead to make sure you’re not forgetting anything. On this tab, you have to select your pet type, clear the talents, and enter them back in the way you have yours set up. You also need to enter in the abilities it will use.
Now that all the data’s entered, go back to the gear tab and click on save profile.
Edit: Then you go back to the overview tab and click “calc attributes”
Once you’ve done that, the overview tab will give you your dps and statistics.
You can use the gear planner tab to see how much dps an upgrade would be, and you can play around with your spec to see what it would do to your dps.
So, there you have it. A step by step guide to using the elitist jerks hunter DPS spreadsheet. Now you can really compare multiple items to see which will give you the best dps. Just make the change you’re checking on, and see if your DPS goes higher or lower. For example- if you get something with a lot of hit, and you want to test whether that with regemming and reenchanting all your hit to agility would be more DPS, input your live character, then make the changes, and see if your DPS went up :)
Thanks for posting this. I was actually working on a similar post as I know how confusing this spreadsheet can be to the newly initiated. Now I won’t have to do this and can refer people to your nice post.
Thanks Ziv! Yeah, it’s an awesome tool, and it seems like every 5th hunter infraction moderation over at elitistjerks.com is something to the effect of “Go figure it out on your own using the spreadsheet”. I’d say over half the people I’ve met hate spreadsheets as much as they do math, so this can only help.
i put all the info in but nothing work no buttons and no info transfered from armory. did i do something wrong?
lot of protected bottons..
Please help…
First off, are you using excel or something else? The spreadsheet won’t work in openoffice, staroffice, google docs, or any other non-excel product. Second, did you enable macros when it asked you to?
Thanks for this – great help :)
Now to convince the RL that stacking buffs in a Raid is a good thing……
You can use this sheet to show proof. Test a standard hunter with well and badly stacked buffs, and figure that the % difference will be about the same for all dps.
This is a nice little tool, but I’m having a bit of a problem with it. I get ‘This workbook has lost its VBA project, ActiveX controls and any other programmability-related features.’ as an error whenever I try and open it. I do have Excel 2007, so is this just different versions being annoying, or are my Excel settings fudged up somehow?
At any rate, the end result is that I can edit things in drop-down boxes, but none of the buttons work. Which makes modifying it for my character rather…time consuming. Know of any way to fix this or am I on my own here?
Sorry, I run excel 03 and haven’t had the misfortune to use 07. Try checking you security settings though- I know that it’s supposed to by default not allow any macros. Failing that, try downloading the most recent version of the spreadsheet- there might just be an error on the version you got.
might try runnning spreadsheet as a 03 doc instead of letting it update to an 07 doc.
It does ask me for a password and won’t let me get any farther. Help?
Thanks for your guide. You need to have java enabled, otherwise the buttons wont work. Also, in blue edition of office, there will come a button that says ‘options’ press than and you get a choice to allow or protect security. If you allow it the buttons will work.
Thank you for the guide! My first experience with the spreadsheet was quite daunting, and it took me a few hours to really get a handle on things. If I could make one suggestion, it would be to mention that the default gem selections are used to calculate dps for pieces with sockets, but that the gems you want may be different depending on spec (like AP for BM and AGI for SV). I found it difficult to figure out how to change this.
[…] close to what happens in game. But before you jump in to playing around with the spread sheet read this guide, to help you get […]
This has been of great help, yet I have some issues I’d like to share, and perhaps someone can help.
1/when I loaded gear from armory,enchants were not loaded properly, I had to correct them manually (on the gear tab, not custom gear tab)-any ideas why this happened?maybe armory error?
2/ I followed step by step this guide. At the end, when I calculated attributes, i got the final numbers on the overview tab/hunter statistics, which is fine. BUT when I look under overview/hunter settings/profile i get: a)different dps numbers, b)different shoot queue, c)different spec, d)different pet – actually I get numbers of Shandara’s profile. (as I overwrote her profile with mine).
I guess I missed some points of configuration, but i double checked it, and still no changes.
Any help would be appreciated.
Since I can’t delete previous post, I add another one :)
I triple checked, and realized what I did wrong – under gear tab I’ve chosen wrong profile.
Sorry for bothering :)
Just to let you know that because this uses Visual Basic Macros it will not work in Office for Mac.
Yeah, this has been a problem for a while. It also won’t work in openoffice… eventually someone will come up with a web based tool that is as accurate, but for now, this is the best we have. If anyone needs me to, I can import characters to ask questions on a one off basis on my own machine- just get in touch with me on the contact page.
How to enable Java in Excel… I can’t get the import from blah blah to work. This is incredibly frustrating.
Try reducing your security settings. This can be done from the options menu.
i am having a problem. i only have microsoft works so i don’t know if it is that or something else but i get a lot of errors and i cant even use it can someone help?
That’s probably the problem. See if you can get access to a computer with a full version of excel.
I am having a problem with the spreadsheet, I am unable to use any of the buttons so I can’t save profiles, load from armory etc. I enabled all macros, and downloaded a new version of Java. Do I need to somehow enable Java in Excel? I am also using Excel 2007, it says I am in compatibility mode and it initially said I was in read only mode. I tried saving the file as a Binary workbook, Macro-Enabled workbook, as well as and Excel 97-03 workbook and still no buttons? I am no longer in read only mode, but I am still in compatibility mode. I do not have much experience with Excel Any suggestions?
Sorry, I don’t know much about office 2007 :(
Yeah I saw that in one of your previous comments. Thanks for the quick reply, I was hoping possibly someone else reading this guide might be able to help me out.
My partner and I stumbled over here coming from a different web address
and thought I might check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to going over your web page again.
[…] and Spreadsheets: – Shandara’s spreadsheet – How to use the spreadsheet- This is pretty large and possibly confusing, but taking some time with the threads and the Search […]
[…] and Spreadsheets: – Shandara’s spreadsheet – How to use the spreadsheet- This is pretty large and possibly confusing, but taking some time with the threads and the Search […]
[…] be accessed from anywhere and whether or not you have Excel. – Shandara’s spreadsheet – How to use the spreadsheet- This is pretty large and possibly confusing, but taking some time with the threads and the Search […]
and Spreadsheets: – Shandara’s spreadsheet – How to use the spreadsheet- This is pretty large and possibly confusing, but taking some time with the threads and the Search
but taking some time with the threads and the Search
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You can use this sheet to show proof. Test a standard hunter with well and badly stacked buffs, and figure that the % difference will be about the same for all dps.