By: Richard Speir (Barotgus - U.S. Malfurion, Horde)
Thanks To: Lavender, Imagine, Rhygra, Kaoticdrift, All Other Beta Testers and Localizers.

Intro

• If you are interested in the history of VirtualGear please go here.
• For an updated list of the current class data please see this. Also please feel free to leave a comment on that page, or PM me with any needed changes, or any missing information. Thanks in advance.
• This addon is in it's alpha phase, expect bugs and things to not function properly or completely. In addition many features mentioned in this description are currently not functioning at all, most of these are highlighted in green. This also includes screenshots found on this page, they are most likely a tad off of the real thing. They are just for Visual reasons and will be updated once I move to full public beta.
• Comments on curse have been disabled. If you have any bugs or suggestions please first check here and then post a ticket here if its not already on the KI/ER list.
• If you'd like to help with Localization, check this out.
• If you're looking for help on how to use VirtualGear:
  • I first suggest trying the interactive in-game guide. Chances are you skipped it on the first boot of the addon. But you can get to it by clicking "Options" on the GUI and clicking "VirtualGuide" at the top of the options menu, or by typing /vg guide.
  • Secondly, there is a small (well..its long, but yeah), but not fully detailed description below. The description was designed to tell people what it does before you download it, not how to use it. Yes, my description is very vivid, but I try to paint the picture in your head. I don't see any reason someone wouldn't just use the VirtualGuide, don't think I've ever seen an addon with an interactive guide like this in-game.
  • Lastly, I've written a full text guide, which can be found here.
• I highly suggest everyone, hardcore raider or random farmer, take the VirtualGuide tour when you first load the addon, its pretty cool and helps you get started with VG, so you get the best of what I'm giving you.

Basics

• VirtualGear is a gear comparison addon unlike any other. Unlike most comparison addons such as RatingBuster and even the all mighty Pawn, which only allow item vs item comparisons, VirtualGear allows the comparison of multiple items vs multiple items.
• VirtualGear was designed to be the following, though users may find other uses for the addon:
  • A user-friendly gear comparison tool.
  • A tool for using stat weights or scaling factors to determine an items relative score or psedudopower under those weights or factors.
  • An interface where people currently unfamilar with scaling factors can learn how to weigh their gear in game w/o ever having to do any pencil/calculator/spreadsheet math.
  • Though not an orginal use, I've used VG quite a bit for gearchecking people since I've been working on it. With VG MaxStats, I can see if someone has a clue about how to prioritize stats, which makes the check deeper, meaning less of those "I have a high GS but don't know what I'm doing people.". Sure, it's not fool proof, and not really what this addon is made for, but its an added bonus if you choose to use it.

Importing

• VirtualGear's interface sports something that resembles the standard character pane, in which you use to view your equipped gear. This "virtual" gear set can be populated by adding an item at a time using the box at the top of the GUI. Simply shift click any item link or enter an itemID number into the box and click "Add" to import the item.
• VirtualGear works very well with AtlasLoot or a simular boss loot addon. You can simply shift click any item link from atlas into VirtualGear and "virtually equip" an item you never have to own, and see how your stats would change.
• Of course the beatuy of VirtualGear is that you can then do this again, and see how multiple items change your stats. This is what seperates VG from other comparison addons.
• Other addons allow you to compare an item you dont have vs. an item you are wearing. VG allows you to muniplate an interface with multiple items you dont have vs. multiple items you are wearing, or even better, multiple other items you dont have. This greatly eases some pain when looking for upgrades (even more so when balancing around a hit cap).
• Another way of adding gear to the list are the quick imports for self and target. Simply clicking the "Import Me" button will allow the importing of your currently equipped gear. Clicking "Import Target" will allowing importing you target, which of course needs to be within inspection range. This allows for some gear checking possiblities, see Different Modes.

Item Buttons

• If you've imported some items to VG already and are looking here for help, or if you are picturing the addon in your head, when you import an item, you'll notice a button pops up on the GUI, showing that item is "Equipped". The place its put relates to something simular to where it would be on your character pane, though shirt and tabard aren't included in VG, thus trinkets have been moved to even the right and left sides.
• Once you import an item, that lil picture you see is actually a button that does alot:
  • Mouse-Over - Mousing-over the button will show you the currently active link's tooltip, more about active vs non active links in a sec.
  • Click - Advances the button to the next list position, more about this in the next section.
  • Right-Click - Brings up the item's mod tooltip, allowing you to adjust things like the gems, enchant, reforging on a per item level.
  • Alt-Click - Quick delete, this option is also avaialble in the right click menu.
• Each button has what I call sides, which each has 4, represented by a color. Theres also a 5th side which is the "blank" side, where nothing can be equipped. This means each button can hold 4 items, you'll learn more about the lists in the next section.
• While each button can hold 4 items, only one is visible at a time, this is what I refer to as the "active link", or "active item".

Lists

• Now if you've gotten this far, you've noticed that thin red border around all the items, that represents one of the 4 sides, which I mentioned in the last section.
• Clicking an item button will advance that buttons postion to the next color. Now if you see red now, one click should give you blue, and you'll most likely see a blank blue square, showing there is no item equipped on the blue side of the button.
• Now this may not seem like what you'd think of as a "list", but in fact it is, its 4 lists. Theres the red, blue, yellow, and green list. Yes, it can be more or less, or different colors. In fact it can be a static amount (i.e. the user can tell the addon how many lists and what colors they want) rather than a fixed amount (i.e. the way it is right now). This is a matter of desire.
• Because each button's list is independent, you can see what the red list, with the blue list's bracers would be like, stat wise, with a few clicks. This of course works for all the buttons, so very complex combos are possible, check out our screenshots.
• If you haven't figured it out yet, the dropdown box on the top right of the GUI is used for telling the addon which list to import to or which to show in the GUI. This selection is used on the per item level of the entry box on the top, and with the player imports. Modding also works on this selected list, read more about that here.
• The 5th item in the dropdown box is the Active list. At first glance this probabally makes no sense, and selecting it will seem todo nothing, but heres some clues on how it works. Supoose you've imported your gear on the red list, and your friend's gear on the blue list. You then make a set thats best of the two lists, by changing the lists on a per item level, now you want to do something with this "new list" you've made. Well it's actually pieces from both the blue and red lists, this is what the active selection is for. You can perform any of the normal functions on the active color of the buttons, rather than just a specific color. Make sense? Try my interactive help in-game, check the guide, screenshots, and play with it in-game, you'll get it.

Different Modes

• VirtualGear currently supports 2 comparison modes. The comparison mode can be changed by selecting a different mode from the dropdown box on the top left of the GUI. The currently suported modes are:
  • Item Level - All item labels will display the item's itemLevel of which it is currently responsible for. The total label in the center of the GUI will display the Average itemLevel of the currently displayed gear.
  • PsuedoPower - PsuedoPower (or PP) mode depends heavily on the VG Class Module and thus VG_ClassInfo needs to be enabled for this mode to work properly. All item labels will display the item's relative PP based on the current scaling factors. And naturally, the total label in the center will display the PP for the displayed gear based on the same factors. These scaling factors are provided by the Class Module mentioned above, and you'll learn more about it in the next section.
• These 2 modes allow VirtualGear to not only be a comparison addon, but also a new form of gear checker. With the "VG MaxStats" package, the level of gear checking possible with VG can be taken to new heights, more about that in the next section.
• GearScore was orginally a mode in VG up until v1.79a. GearScore has taken a different approach to their addon in Cata, having a full website, different name, and more likely, stricter license. I have looked into their code on how todo what I used to with VG, and I think it's still possible. I removed it all just for safety's sake. I'll look into their license/talk to some people, about getting it back, this is of lower priority at the moment, however.

Classes/Specs

• The class module's main job is to handle the switching between different classes and specs, but it's also helps to store the 30 19 20 different sets of default scaling factors VG comes with, in addition to any factors you may supply as well.
• Refered to as "the class module", VG_ClassInfo is a seprate addon from VG and can be disabled at will. This will however, remove a ton of VG functionality. Some more of the Class Module's tricks are listed below.
• In most cases the switching between classes and specs is pretty automatic. You can always tell what class module is currently active by simply looking at the color of the text within VG, it's the class color of the active class. The active spec will show right below the main command buttons of the VG GUI.
• When VG starts up, it defaults to your class and spec (the spec sometimes requires you to import self first before it updates). This should be clear right away as all the text will match your class color. I personally tested every class color and don't have a problem reading them against the black background of the GUI. However, because everyone isn't just like me, you may have a problem reading the text and thus all the class modules can have their color changed independantly.
• In addition, if you wish to overwrite all the class modules with one easy-to-read text color, you can do that too. This however will make it very difficult to know which class module is selected, unless you have every spec name memorized, and even then it's not fool proof, some classes have the same spec names (prot pally/warrior, resto druid/shaman, holy pally/priest).
• As mentioned the class module is pretty automatic, when using the Import Target button or slash command, VG will change the current class and spec to that of the player you are importing, and this will be immediatly noticeable by the changing of all the text color.
• Changing back to your current class and spec is as easy as Importing Self, or Clearing All, either by using the given command buttons or via slash commands.
• Although all this automation is very helpful, we do find ourself in situations where we need to manually change the class and/or spec sometimes, and this can easily be done through the options interface or via slash command.
• There is one downside to all this. VG doesn't currently support some of those "hybrid" specs. Now, Blizzard pretty much killed the hybrid specs with the way the new talent system works. However there are some types of hybrid specs out there still. Not completely limited to just talent points, these situations also include things like a fury warrior dual weilding 1 hand weapons, vs a fury warrior with titans grip and 2 hand weapons. I do have access to scaling factors for most of the situations that occur: Frostfire Mages, Affliction Drain Warlocks, The warrior situation already mentioned, and simular to warriors, Unholy Deathknights. In addition to these 4, there is one other one that I'm extemely sad to say, and that is Feral Druids. VG doesn't currently know how to tell apart a Cat vs a Bear. For now, because VG is more geared towards the DPS role of the game, VG assumes you are looking for the cat factors when dealing with feral druids. A fix for feral druids is of most importance in this category. Once a fix is found for them, I think the other "hybrids" i've mentioned will tie in very simular to feral druids, and should just be some copy/paste will a few spell id changes.

Modding

• All item enhancements can be changed on a per item level, like the enchants, gems, and reforging. This is done by right-clicking the item to display the item's mod menu and adjusting it how you see fit.
• VG takes this a step further and helps you make decisons on gems, reforging and enchants. With VG MaxStats functionality, VG will help you determine how to get the most out of your gear.
• Using VG MaxStats, a "quick mod" is provided to quickly Gem/Enchant/Reforge an entire list. Clicking the corresponding command buttons will perform the desired action on the list currently selected in the drop down, this also works on the active list mentioned before.
• Right-Clicking these command buttons will strip all Gems/Enchants/Reforging of the items in the selected list.
• VG MaxStats is the mother package to a trio of components that determine the best gems, enchants, and reforging based on the active scaling factors. Within the VG MaxStats package is obviously the following:
  • VG MaxGem - With the help of Lib-StatLogic, we can quickly do some math using the current scaling factors to determine the best gems for your class (or the class you imported when importing targets). Taking that a step further, VG MaxGem then can put these gems into items in two ways, both socket matching and not, it will then determine the best and go with the it. VG MaxGem has support for jewcrafting only gems as well, more about this below.
  • VG MaxChant - Working much like VG MaxGem, VG MaxChant helps you determine what enchants to go with. This typically isn't very hard to figure out without an addon, but the beauty of VG MaxChant is the way it handles profession enchants. Many players apply to hardcore raiding guilds with herbalism as a profession and get laughed at, because they don't know profession enchants are a huge bonus. Say engineering vs herbalism...huge difference when it comes to trying to down heroic content. VG MaxChant will default to your professions, but can be changed in the options menu. Play with them, you might be suprised.
  • VG MaxForge - Again following the pattern of the other VG MaxStat utilites, VG MaxForge helps the user determine how to Reforge to the maximum. Theres not much else to really say here, using the active scaling factors VG MaxForge can calculate the best reforging option under those weights. Because of so many reforging options to test, building an entire list's reforging does hang the client for a few seconds. I'm actively working on the performance of this function. It's the best I can get for beta, I recommened not playing with gear sets in VG while trying to kill things.
• VG MaxStats allows another level of gear checking people. You may not know mages shouldn't gem for spirit, yet you invite a higher GearScore mage to your ICC KS run thinking he knows how to play and hes stacked to the gill with the stuff. This mage performs poorly dps wise and you fail to kill Valks in time on LK and your group inevitably gets tired of wiping and breaks up. Just by using the default scaling factors provided in the mage class module this could have been avoided. Doing a Import Target with "Show Incorrect Gem/Chant/Forge" turned on would have shown you that just because his GS is high, he doesn't have a clue how to take care of his gear.
• The above is clearly over simplified. But gearing to the max is something a lot of people are obsessed about, I know I am. As a Raid Leader I constantly use the methods explained to make sure my raiders are getting the most they can from their gear, because to me, every little bit matters, and I don't need any int stacking rogues wiping my raids. Not that they would have been accepted in the first place...but you get the idea.

Final Words

• This addon by no means tells you what gear you should wear. This is still a form of theorycrafting and is based off of numbers given by a computer simulation, i.e. SimCraft.
• For best results, you yourself should download and learn to use SimCraft on your own character. Scaling Factors are often different on a per character level due to race and gear, so sim'ing yourself in your gear always provides the best numbers, which makes VG work to its fullest.
• The author of VirtualGear, i.e. myself, is by no mean responsible for you being denied a raid spot because of some information VirtualGear displays, even if this information is accidently false. If such a situation occurs where VG is displaying false information please, please, post a ticket here.
• In addition if you find any other bugs with the addon and/or have any suggestions, please post a ticket in the correct place on the ticket tracker found here.
• Thanks for using VirtualGear!

Known Issues/Enhancement Requests

1. GS and Titan's Grip Invalid - GS mode removed in r79
2. Error on GS Mode Selection Fixed - r76
3. PP Values Wrong! Fixed - No change to VG Needed.
4. MaxForge/Gem Memory Hog Fixed - r74
5. Gem Display On GUI
6. MaxForge Broke In 4.0.3 Fixed - r76
7. Max Gem Working Incorrectly Fixed - No change to VG Needed