When to start using Rawr/SimCraft?

[:1]So I just hit 85 today and trying to get organized to work on getting my pitiful item level up and was wondering when people start utilizing Rawr/SimCraft. I didn't even know about them the last I played before I took a break (right before 4.0.6 came out) so not sure if they're relatively new or not.

I figured probably not worth it until I'm at least geared enough to start heroics. To be honest I'm probably not even going to bother reforging anything below at least a 333 blue.
You should really start itemizing when you think it's important for your own WoW performance. For most people, that's when they're going to start raiding.

It never hurts to start early so you know what to aim for.
i started at 85 out of curiosity and the get the most out of my gear
Tbh, you can start using it now to decide what upgrades you want to get and what would be the most efficient path to increase DPS.

No reason to roll on upgrades that seem better but aren't, statistically speaking. Also no reason to enchant / gem things you will quickly replace.

You should really start itemizing when you think it's important for your own WoW performance. For most people, that's when they're going to start raiding.

It never hurts to start early so you know what to aim for.

One caveat to consider is that if you're a fresh 85, Rawr is going to be telling you to get 17% hit rating, and you're going to want to focus on the heroic hit cap (6%?) until you're ready to raid. If you're at iLevel 330 and are reforging everything to hit rating, you're going to be doing pretty terrible dps in heroics.

That said, it's still good to know which items to shoot for, maybe just ignore its reforging suggestions until you're ready to raid.

One caveat to consider is that if you're a fresh 85, Rawr is going to be telling you to get 17% hit rating, and you're going to want to focus on the heroic hit cap (6%?) until you're ready to raid. If you're at iLevel 330 and are reforging everything to hit rating, you're going to be doing pretty terrible dps in heroics.

Actually you can change RAWR to set the hit requirement.
Guess I'll have a look tomorrow then. Can't hurt right? I haven't ever used it before so hopefully it's not too complicated or anything.

I've used a DPS spreadsheet before, on my rogue waaaaaaaaaaay back in TBC. Is it similar to something like that?

Also is there a preference between Rawr and SimCraft or is it a better idea to use both?

Edit: Went ahead and looked at Rawr. Couldn't resist. Was a bit stumped at first but watched a tutorial and read the FAQ thingy and it's not as complicated as it first looked. I especially like the upgrade charts and the filters and how it lists multiple versions of the same item with different gemming/reforging. I'll probably go ahead and start using it now. Might as well since the main reason I wasn't sure was because I had never used it before.
I use both RAWR and SimC, actually. I'll build out an equipment set I like in RAWR (with whatever gems, reforging, etc. that I'm interested in), save that character, upload it to SimC and run simulations on it. I use my current setup as baseline, and then try different reforging builds out to see what sims the highest. Rawr and SimC can be good friends.
Now you've made it sound really complicated, although I probably won't get too technical with it till I start raiding. I'll probably just stick to using Rawr to find upgrades and proper stat weights till I start raiding.