I want to write a brief post about what tools I use when playing and why they’re useful to me.  This won’t list my addons as that’s way too large a post for this.  Rather I’m going to focus on the tools I use outside of  the game to help me gear and play my character effectively.

First tool I use is SimulationCraft.  As far as I’m concerned this tool is indispensable for any DPS player, and I really recommend you become familiar with it.  You can download it here: http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/

Next tool I use is World of Logs.  While this is designed for parsing raid logs, and I use it for that, you can also use it for training dummy analysis.  Having the data on the site there is a lot more useful than the data in your meter.  Recount has some good number crunching in it, but still doesn’t reach the level that World of Logs does.  Check out World of Logs: http://www.worldoflogs.com/

I love the simplicity of CharDev.  It does exactly what I need it to do, and that is model my toon by swapping in/out gear, talents, glyphs, etc.  It’s made all the more awesome because SimulationCraft can import from it as well.  Primarily I use it for holding onto BiS wish-list setups, or for one up quick simulations with a lot of changes to my primary character. http://www.chardev.com

For gear comparisons I prefer Loot Rank (powered by Guild Ox).  You can use wowhead for this, but I like the Loot Rank filters a little more than wowhead’s.  SimulationCraft gives me easy links to both, so it’s equally accesible for me.  Check out Loot Rank: http://www.lootrank.com

As far as database sites go, nothing really beats wowhead for my use.  I use to use the profiler on there as well, but  that seems to be lagging behind on Cataclysm support so I’ve stopped and moved to CharDev (see above).  Still, the site has all the best information on every single item in the game.  http://www.wowhead.com/

Doing any reputation grinding?  WowJuJu can give you great insight on how much longer you have on your rep grind, what you can do to get rep with any given faction, and what your standing is with all factions.  http://www.wowjuju.com/