Guild Wars 2

Does anyone have a good explanation for the major changes in troll model form GW1 to GW2, in GW1 they seemed to have a much larger head and wider mouth, longer fingers with sharp claws, wider more raised shoulders, larger tusks and sometimes only one eye. Was it their strong regenerative abilities that allowed them to evolve/adapt so quickly into something that doesn’t even look like the same species.

I think the honest to goodness best answer is just a change in graphical abilities. I do not believe that we ever see a troll again after GW Prophecies, and throughout the original Guild Wars games the shapes of many foes change to become more realistic. Take the Pre-Searing charr and compare them to the EotN charr and there are some major differences in their looks just based on what can be made better so many years later. With the jungle troll we’re just looking at going from GW1 directly to GW2 without any intervening development.

Overall their stature is very similar, the shape of their bodies, what looks like the shape of the head in the GW1 jungle troll is very similar to the shape of the hair in the GW2 jungle troll. The mouth is a little less cartoonish, AKA was brought down to a more realistic size. The biggest difference I can see is skin coloration. I don’t think it’s perfect, but as far as looks go it isn’t the biggest change I’ve seen in the GW universe.

You can say the same about a lot of things- skelk, giants, drakes, jotun, krait, wurms, even devourers… and long story short, we have no concrete reasons for any of them. In some cases, such as the giants, it’s speculated that the term came to refer to an entirely different sort of being between GW1 and 2. I’ve also heard a theory similar to yours, that the magic that suffuses Tyria speeds up the natural processes that drive evolution. Bottom line, though, is that we haven’t been given a solid reason on any of them, due in part in many cases to the fact that we know next to nothing about most things on that list, save that and how they try to kill us.

Edit: As to Narcemus’ points, I really don’t think the charr models added in EotN were any more realistic. The biggest change was the introduction of white fur and stripes to the race; beyond that, Pyre’s warband are the only ones that really stand out. And the jungle troll has undergone quite a few changes that can’t be waved away as style updates. The mouth is smaller, as you said, as indeed the entire body is, but they now have long ears, hair/tendrils, much lighter skin, their shoulders are not near as broad/projecting, their arms no longer stretch nearly to the ground, their fingers are much shorter and chubbier, and they no longer have that massive crest on top of their heads. The difference between the snow troll and the mountain troll is even greater. I just cannot call them the same.

Also, bit of trivia, there is a single troll in EotN, although it uses the pre-existing Prophecies jungle troll model.