CharDev: Improved WoW Resource

Thanks to Lassirra at The Hunter’s Mark for providing a head’s up on the recently relaunched CharDev. As the name implies, CharDev is a full-featured character planning tool. Lass believes CharDev is everything Warcrafter should have been, and I agree: The flexibility of this tool is better than anything else I’ve seen. Currently, the site is set up for English, German, and Spanish.

Features include the ability to import character profiles from the Armory, modify them with respect to gear, spells, talents, buffs from potions, gems, enchants, and save them back to chardev.org as linkable profiles. The one area that is lacking at the moment are castable buffs (e.g., Greater Blessing of Kings, Mark of the Wild, et cetera) that aren’t reported by Armory (if you don’t have them when you log out).

Here are some example screens:

 

 

 

 

This is the basic screen after importing a character profile from the Armory. Note the tabs to the right of the profile area.

 

 

 

Next, a shot of the same left panel with the items list up:

 

 

 

Note the highlighted options, used to constrain the item listings. So for a Druid, you might want to limit your selections to Cloth and Leather, and Epic.

 

 

 

As I said at the top, this is a relaunched version of the Character Planner. As such, it has some bugs. On the Spells list for Osprey, for example, Vampiric Touch (Rank 3) is listed. Errr…Osprey has zero points in Shadow talents. (I’ve posted about this on the site’s forum, so when I know more, I’ll update this entry.)

Speaking of the spells tab, though, check this out:

 

 

When you click a spell name, the entry expands to provide all kinds of information regarding the spell, depending on your gear, stats, enchants, buffs, etc.

Now how cool is that? And of course, it’s this feature that really makes CharDev worthwhile.

 

 

 

Finally, to whet your appetite even further, here’s a look at the Defense tab:

 

 

More coolness! I should point out, however, there are a couple posts questioning some of the numbers. I suspect some of those discrepancies arise from the source one uses to do the math: Not everyone agrees on every multiplier, and until Blizzard deigns to enlighten us with specifics, there will be some differences. However, the author is quick to correct any obvious errors.

 

 

 

I can’t wait to see this once the few bugs are worked out. In the meantime, it’s definitely in my arsenal of Cool and Useful Tools, and I think it will earn a place in yours, too. Furthermore, once a couple bugs are worked out, I fully expect to include CharDev in my 5-Star Resources.