Level 19 (Wish For Heirlooms)

Click For Larger Version

If you've ever played World of Warcraft you know that your first character is a little undergeared...


In the old, old days of WoW, the beginning pieces of armor you'd get as rewards for doing quests were pretty horrible looking. You'd wind up wearing what was called a "clown suit" because every piece was a different and garish color. In this latest expansion they've made an effort to correct this, but it's a strong memory for us players from the days of yore.

Also contributing to his garish look and simple weapons (yes, you can use a fish as a weapon in WoW...lol,) is that he has no heirlooms.  A wide array of heirloom armor and weapons can be obtained through various means once you level your first character to at least level 80. This gear can be sent to any new character you create after you obtain it. It is of better quality, has better stats that scale with the toon as you level, and some pieces actually grant you experience point bonuses so you level up faster.  It's just getting the first toon there that can take some time.

Another fun fact is that in the old days, you had to run everywhere on foot until level 40 when you could buy a mount. Nowadays you get your mount at level 20, hence his grumpy look...he's almost there, but he's still hoofin' it everywhere.

In his backpack are items that you would typically be carrying as a newbie...his Hearthstone (which allows teleportation back to an inn,) a couple of feathers, a battered but useless helm, and a scorpion tail.  He's probably also carrying about 2 gold (if he's lucky)...it takes a while to get your money saved up.

This piece is my fourth finished color painting and took me several hours over a three-day period to complete. It has the most complex background that I've done so far, and many times during the process I wanted to give up because I was tired of looking at it and got a little discouraged that it wasn't coming along as I had hoped. I pushed forward and finished it though...all the learning takes place during the process, so I'm pretty happy that I got through it.

Face Detail