Latest Heroes Of The Storm Update Adds New Hero & Battlegrounds

The next update for Blizzard's free-to-play MOBA Heroes of the Storm has hit the public test realm and it's brought everything from holiday fun to an all new fiery hero. The patch will be available on the PTR until December 12th, during which time the devs ask that players drop by the bug forums and fill them in on how it's working for them.

Along with the patch, the Heroes team has dropped a pretty hefty set of patch notes -- which can be read in full on Battle.net. That said, we do have some highlights, particularly the addition of a new hero: Ragnaros. True to his fiery self, Ragnaros boasts abilities and a trait centered around fire. These include things like Molten Core, which can be used to replace a destroyed or Allied Fort or Keep with Ragnaros' ultimate form. Other abilities include things like Living Meteor, Explosive Rune, and Sulfuras Smash.

In addition to the new hero, this update also introduces new battlegrounds and reworks others. A new one-lane battleground named Silver City has been added. This one is Diablo-themed and can be found in Custom Games.

And, of course, with Christmas almost here, it's only natural that the patch would bring with it the holiday event. Winter Veil 2016 has arrived in the Nexus granting players a 25% XP bonus, a new quest, and more.

There are also a lot of tweaks to Heroes, the game's UI, and other features -- all of which can be read about in the patch notes.