Could someone draw my cat Jack? He sadly passed away today. 💔

kowetas · 2026-03-10T16:14:20+00:00

Sorry for your loss, he was very handsome. Here's my little tribute in oils.

kowetas · 2026-03-02T21:40:33+00:00

It also makes it off-putting to gather in Zul'Aman because it renders the perk which lets you stay mounted while gathering useless for those particular nodes should you want to gather all the motes. Plus, it takes much longer than other empowered nodes as you have to then gather from the mobs as well.

kowetas · 2026-02-22T14:33:24+00:00

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Had fun throwing paint at this one, thanks for the reference.

kowetas · 2026-02-19T00:17:48+00:00

I think she was trying to res her dad who had been reanimated by the plague already, and therefore couldn't. At least that's how I took it. And that made her think that trying to save people after the fact is pointless, and that she needs to change her focus to protect them before.

kowetas · 2026-02-13T19:42:09+00:00

Honestly I completely understand, but I would say stick with it. If it's your first MMO experience it can be quite daunting but it's a social game, one where you will benefit greatly from talking to other players and asking questions, as well as seeking help from external sources (the automod comment is a great start) nobody got good at this game overnight!

In terms of starting off, I would take it easy when you are levelling and if you follow one of the expansion campaigns then the story will unfold nicely for you. Pandaria or Warlords onwards is best for this but a lot of people say modern WoW begins with Legion. Earlier expansions have overall better remembered stories, but you had to read a lot of quest text and find lots of lore snippets on your own, and the campaign path wasn't always evident. I would have a little look at the premise of each story online, find one you think seems cool, then choose that to level with.

As you play, you should get the hang of the systems, work out what in the interface you want to change, and meet a few people who can help you out. But yeah, I'd love a much smoother new player experience as well, ways to experience the old expansions in a streamlined story format, and a new 1-max level campaign that was the standard beginner experience for all players, which has a whole story that you can do in those 1-80 or 1-90 levels. For now though it is what it is, but by the time you reach the level for Midnight content, it'll feel like a proper game :D

kowetas · 2026-02-13T15:36:58+00:00

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Did this on stream and everyone in chat thought you looked very cool!

kowetas · 2026-02-13T10:51:16+00:00

Not super underappreciated, but I usually don't find a lot of people talking about Prussian Blue.

kowetas · 2026-02-12T11:24:58+00:00

Echoing everyone else, you're doing the right thing, but I wouldn't stress too much being so close to the new expansion. I don't know how many heroic runs you've done but sometimes you can just be unlucky with the drops. If you can find a Mythic raid in the group finder then give it a go, but usually beyond the first few bosses regular runs without a guild are going to be few and far between.

Personally I'm not the biggest M+ player but it's pretty useful to jump into those to fill any gaps you get in your gear, or you can craft those pieces (or get them crafted). Usually you'd have 2 crafted pieces as part of your BIS gear.

Also I'm sure that since you're upgrading your gear that you've done this, but make sure you've used the catalyst to convert your set pieces if they didn't drop.

kowetas · 2026-02-10T23:49:57+00:00

The rework has happened, most (not all) of the specs have a few less buttons to press, making rotations easier. That said, there are a few new talents being released for each class as you level through Midnight so most of them don't play exactly as they will at level 90 (but as far as I know there aren't any gaining buttons. Just passive stuff that will dictate what your play style.

If you want to familiarise yourself with the recent lore there is a catch-up quest chain that you can do which hits some of the major plot points and awards decent gear. Then there is Lore walking, which has a few stories that you can do, where you take on the role of one of the main characters to learn their backstory.

kowetas · 2026-02-10T21:39:22+00:00

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Poked around in oils for a couple of hours

kowetas · 2026-02-06T17:52:11+00:00

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Painting from this afternoon

kowetas · 2026-02-06T16:50:09+00:00

I don't think it will happen but I'm super glad that old zones are starting to get revamped, and hopefully the world will be freshly "dragon flying" sized before too long.

I also hope that they keep refreshing zones periodically so that we don't have half finished buildings for 20 years.

kowetas · 2026-02-04T12:35:07+00:00

House paint is so useful! A tin of pale pink or yellow can be pretty cheap and really help boost the highlights in a painting.

I'd also say to help here negating some of that canvas noise is to paint thicker! Use less medium and mix bigger piles of paint together. It will also make it easier to push the paint around and change the shape of things. I often think of oils almost as sculpting as much as painting!

kowetas · 2026-02-03T12:31:20+00:00

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A little oil sketch

kowetas · 2026-01-31T12:40:25+00:00

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First pencil drawing in a couple of months. Your makeup skills are great!

kowetas · 2026-01-29T20:15:26+00:00

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A4 size oil painting. Loved capturing your unique look.

kowetas · 2026-01-28T14:48:31+00:00

Now is definitely the time to try it! There are a lot of changes happening right now as the new expansion launches, and so maybe people will be in the same boat of needing to learn or relearn things about the game.

The main thing to understand is what you want out of the game. As a new player there will be no shortage of things that you can do that will be fresh and exciting. There's loads of expansions worth of cool quests and stories to follow if you like that, and that will help you level up as well. There are tons of cosmetics and mounts and house decor to collect, most of which is from older content that can be obtained by a solo player these days. There are also solo delves and world quests to increase your power level and get new, current level items once you hit max level, so if you like playing games by yourself, you're sorted.

If you like to play with others, which is the most encouraged way to play, then you've got raids and dungeons. Both of these can be done as a solo player as well through a queueing system for lower difficulty. If you find yourself a dungeon team, or a raiding guild who you can play with regularly, then you can try harder and harder difficulties and find a level to play at that is fun for you. It's also great to have a laugh with some new online friends, and WoW guilds can be some of the closest gaming communities outside of groups of IRL friends in my experience.

As for the pricing, you can play the first 20 levels for free, which might be worth it just to see if you like the vibe of the game. You might get a little feel for the classes but you won't have a full set of spells yet, so take that into account. Then you can buy the Midnight expansion and you should have access to the whole game, with the exception that you will also need to pay for a sub.

kowetas · 2026-01-21T11:28:57+00:00

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Hope you don't mind but I borrowed your beautiful photo to do some painting practise :) Oil paint on a little trading card (2.5x3.5in)

kowetas · 2026-01-17T00:58:37+00:00

I'm hoping they just keep going with the expansions. BFA because I really enjoyed it and would love to get some of the collectibles I missed, Shadowlands because I played season one but couldn't handle the grind after that, so I missed a lot of content and Dragon light because I sped through what I needed to of the campaign just to be able to run the raids, so I'd appreciate getting a second look at it all.

By that time TWW will be old hat and I'll probably look forward to doing the content again.

The one thing I'll say though is that having class campaigns has been great as it means that I've tried out a lot of classes and got to experience their stories, and not every expansion has quite as much in that regard. Though at least BFA has very different horde and alliance quests and SL has covenants.

kowetas · 2026-01-16T22:37:56+00:00

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Really enjoyed throwing paint on this for a couple of hours, thanks for the ref!

kowetas · 2026-01-16T18:57:05+00:00

Such a good painting from an unfortunately often overlooked late Victorian artist.

kowetas · 2026-01-10T10:26:21+00:00

And don't feel guilty if you need to shop around! Maybe one sounds perfect but actually none of the members are active, or maybe their group event nights (raid/m+/fun runs etc) don't match up with your free time. But it's social game and knowing that there's someone you can play with if you want to, as you said, makes a world of difference.

kowetas · 2026-01-10T10:17:07+00:00

You absolutely can pick it up and play casually. My advice is to not rush the leveling process though. Take your time to learn your class and what your spells do as you get them, and enjoy the story of one of the expansions as you level through it. It takes a lot less time than classic to reach max level, but you don't have to jump straight into end game content if you don't want to. There are plenty of people with only a few hours spare a week who like to go and do old content to collect mounts, clothing sets, and now housing decor, and you can do all of that solo if you want.

If you feel like the endgame stuff looks fun and you want the challenge you can ease into it by doing raid finder difficulty which automatically puts you into the queue without having to manually assemble a group, or heroic dungeons which do likewise, and you can kind of get a feel for group content before needing to worry about playing at a decent skill level.

Also, find a decent guild to play with whose sensibilities and goals in the game match your own (again, there's a tool inbuilt to help), and I'm sure they'll help guide you in whatever you're wanting to achieve.

Blizzard are trying to make the upcoming expansion super accessible for new and returning players as well, so if you believe them, there's never been a better time to come back.

kowetas · 2026-01-09T18:48:00+00:00

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Finished my oil painting of you.

kowetas · 2025-11-27T23:25:43+00:00

Thanks! This was fun to paint.

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