Hearthstone is giving away the first Warlock hero skin for free, but there's a catch

Okay, brace yourselves. Against all my previous advice, we're going to need to venture outside. Or at least we are if we want to score the sweet new animated Hearthstone skin which Blizzard is giving away later this month. Nemsy Necrofizzle is the first new look for the Warlock class, and she's going to be earned exclusively by participating at Blizzard-approved Fireside gatherings.

These are fan meet-ups that could take place anywhere from a comic book store to a university campus cafeteria. Attend one, jam a game of Fireside Brawl, and you'll snag the skin.

The more attentive among you will recognise that Nemsy is the same little girl in pigtails and oversized John Lennon specs previously seen riding large swamp beasts in the art for Bog Creeper and Fen Creeper. I can't say she immediately looked said a Warlock to me, and as far as I can tell she isn't a figure from WoW lore, so I guess Nemsy is a creation of the Hearthstone team. Whatever, it'll be nice not to stare at Gul'dan's ugly mug while I'm playing my midrange Demonlock in Wild. On past evidence, her portrait will be a cropped version of the art above.

These skins usually cost $9.99/£8.99 when not part of a promotion (and who can forget that time I played WoW for an entire weekend just to get the Paladin one), so it's a decent deal—which is worth celebrating at a time when the cost of Hearthstone feels like it's spiraling close to out of control. (Particularly if you want to keep up with the influx of sweet new legendaries in the last set.)

As an added bonus, you'll also receive the Fireside Friends cardback just for playing someone on the same network at one of the events. Nemsy will be available at eligible Fireside Gatherings from October 17. There's no end to the promotion, so don't panic if you don't see a local gathering listed yet. Just to reiterate, the gathering does have to be Blizzard sanctioned in order to get the skin, so no creating a bunch of smurf accounts and having a pity party in your basement.

If you still flat refuse to leave the house, you could always focus on unlocking the Arthas skin for the Paladin class by beating the Lich King with all nine classes. Handily, we have a guide to help with just that.

With over two decades covering videogames, Tim has been there from the beginning. In his case, that meant playing Elite in 'co-op' on a BBC Micro (one player uses the movement keys, the other shoots) until his parents finally caved and bought an Amstrad CPC 6128. These days, when not steering the good ship PC Gamer, Tim spends his time complaining that all Priest mains in Hearthstone are degenerates and raiding in Destiny 2. He's almost certainly doing one of these right now.