At Gamescom last week, Blizzard made an exciting announcement; Kel’Thuzad would join the roster in Heroes of the Storm. Today, Blizzard took the first steps to making that a reality by making the next patch available on the public test realm (PTR). The PTR is essentially a way for the public player community to enjoy and test out new content before it is released, an open beta that includes stress testing, and allows the development team to use the community to search for bugs. This patch is a big one, bringing many fixes, new features, new skins and of course the new hero.

Kel’Thuzad, a ranged damager with combo abilities, will bring with him a four part in game event, mostly to kill as many heroes as possible, awarding players with portraits, sprays and banners for their efforts. To go with Kel’Thuzad, Jaina, Sonya, and Zagara will all get ‘Scourge’ skins, coupled with the Lich King hero, you can pretty easily run a ‘Scourge’ themed team now.

All in all this patch will have nearly 50 different skins, a new hero, updated graphics and art, and a new Battlegrounds rotation. Some heroes will have updated abilities, allowing for new quests/rewards and of course, this patch will work to balance Heroes of the Storm further. This patch will also see the end of Ranked Season 2, and the beginning of the 3rd Ranked Season.