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  Musel'ek solo guide - part 2
 
  • zone: Underbog
  • soloed with: lvl 62 protection warrior
  • solo date: 7th of February 2015

 
  I got to level 62 and Warlords of Draenor came and with it a lot of changes to the game, including the stat squish. The squish allowed twinks like me to kill Pandaria creatures all the way to lvl 90 like they were nothing. :) Draenor mobs I haven't fought yet because I still haven't installed the Warlords expansion and because lvl 62 characters cannot enter the world of Draenor (by not buying the latest expansion you can get several free 10-day trials for it = free game time, once every 6 months or something like that).

  For us 60s warriors the patch brought a couple of other major changes as well. First of all they took away our Second Wind (or altered it to much less useful) and secondly they gave us Bonus Armor (/grin).

  Bonus Armor. As of now, only few twink tanks seem to take full advantage of it. To explain Bonus Armor simply: stacking Bonus Armor gear will make your character TOO powerful. The word "overpowered" does not do enough justice to this. In fact, I'm convinced Blizzard will nerf this and I'm surprized they haven't already (as of this writing, they have. Bonus Armor itself wasn't nerfed, but most of the gear that give Bonus Armor, give much less of it now. The nerf happened in late 2015, as I recall it). The name "Bonus Armor" suggests that it only gives you armor but it also gives you attack power. I can't explain how it works exactly but after having little experience with it I agree with the WoW forums that it's currently by far the best stat for warriors to have. With maxed out Bonus Armor you will top the damage charts in any battleground (at least normal bgs. Twink bgs haven't happened in my battlegroup in 60s bracket for years) and often you will do more than double the damage of the 2nd best. Before I could never get the Damage Control achievement and now as you can see in one of my screenshots my damage is close to a million. You can solo kill both enemies in twink Arenas whether they are rogues, dks or warriors without bonus armor gear. Here's my favorite thing to say about the matter: Bonus Armor makes World of Warcraft for me to be the first game in the world where an average player (=me) can feel he's the best. :)

  So the question is where to get Bonus Armor gear. It's simple: your blacksmith can make it. You do have your own bs? You should because it's very useful and like every profession it's fun to level. :) Make any two pieces of the Imperial set and the set bonus will give you +100 bonus armor. Make Dark Iron boots and possibly bracers and if you're a bs yourself the Dark Iron plate might be good. The Dark Iron recipes including the smelting recipe can be found in Blackrock Depths. More info in Wowhead.

  So, having in my hands a more powerful character than ever before I needed to find a proper challenge to test how far I could go. I was already picturing in my mind the raid bosses of Ahn'Qiraj and Molten Core, but I wanted to start easy so I blazed through Hellfire Ramparts, Blood Furnace and Slave Pens in record speed (personal record anyway). Moving on to Underbog, the first two bosses gave me no trouble so I didn't think Musel'ek would prove to be a challenge either. I did stop before him, checked from Dungeon Journal that he and the bear should only do physical damage and dug up my notes from the previous encounter with him. My notes suggested that going against the bear first might be a good tactic. So I attacked the bear. Big mistake. :)

  I only got the bear to half health and had barely scratched Musel'ek before I died. I was puzzled to say the least. How could this physical damage dealing boss win a bonus armor stacked tank when the other bosses had been so easy? I did notice during the fight that my character was under the bear's "Roar" debuff and even though the Journal says the debuff causes -50% armor, the debuff icon said -75% if I remember.

  On the 2nd try I attacked Musel'ek first. We were both near half health, then he cast Ice Trap and Aimshotted me. Bang! Dead. Again. Ok, so it's a good idea to use the Shield Wall when he starts casting the Aimed Shot. Next 5-6 tries I sometimes attacked the bear, sometimes the man. But I wasn't even close of getting either of them down. For a few tries I switched to my old gear that gives less bonus armor and more other stats, like health, but the results were the same. I even tried to dispel the Roar off of me with a Purification potion but that doesn't work. My best buffs were gone (wards) and I was losing hope. I decided to try one more time. And after that, one more time still. I concentrated everything on Musel'ek, used the Shield Wall at the right time... and then it happened! I got him... close of dying. :)

  Of course that meant that I would do several more tries. Now I knew that attacking the hunter was the way to go. I would just need a bit of luck or something to increase my damage or to keep me alive for a few seconds longer. I had noticed that my Enraged Regeneration talent was almost ready to be used again. Then I remembered people saying that if you use Last Stand before Enraged Regeneration you get more healing. Quick calculation confirmed it. I've never used it that way because it would've felt silly to use Last Stand when you still have lots of health left. But after trying it now I can say that it works! Having 30% more health makes the Regeneration 30% more effective, maybe even more if you get critical heals (can you get those with Enraged R.?) Hmm, maybe I should even combine Life Giving Gem to it. At least I got to check that those two are cast before Enraged Regeneration in my "Hólie Defense" macro that I sometimes use (named after a player named Hólie who instructed me to put all my defense abilities in one macro, which is a good idea, if you're a low level player who likes to attack max level characters :P)

  Anyways, so when I had about 60% health left I popped Last Stand and Enraged Regeneration and soon I was back in full health and before the fight was over the E.R. was ready again. And that was enough! Musel'ek started doing some serious damage when his health was low but I was able to get him! And then I died. And thus I found out that even if Musel'ek is dead the bear will remain alive and hostile. I travelled back once more and attacked the bear and during that final combat it became clear that it takes a long time to down the bear and that the bear's damage, at least without Musel'ek, is very low.

  To sum up what I learned here, first of all you should attack Musel'ek and leave the bear be (of course this is just with a warrior). I can't believe I was able to subdue the bear at lvl 61 and after that kill Musel'ek. Remember, if you subdue the bear and die, it'll be back in full health when you return. Secondly, use the Shield Wall or other damage reducing abilities when Musel'ek starts to cast Aimed Shot. And thirdly, use Last Stand before Enraged Regeneration (and THAT is the real insight of that day for me, and I've been using Last Stand and health increasing trinkets almost always before Enraged Regeneration ever since) and also use other abilities with 1 min cooldown early on so they are ready to be used again before the fight is over. Oh, and there's one more thing. My character wasn't able to make Petrification potions at that time but those are very good potions indeed when soloing bosses. The recipe is hard to get but maybe you can find someone to make those for you. The absorbtion in that potion lasts so long that you often get some cooldowns back up waiting for it to end.


    Swamplord Musel'ek   Musel'ek dead    
    Close, but no sigar.   Musel'ek dead, Eesu dead, bear alive.