Guild Wars 2

Jaken.6801:

I understand where you come from.
Basicaly most of my problems can just be brought back to the short nature of the story. We just spend a little time with our PC actually talking and most of it is short to the point and then suddenly everything is okay, lets tackle the enxt plotpoint.

The fact that we can only at (aprox.) two points go to the other characters and ask them a little bit more about how they feel

Dont get me wrong. I didnt dislike him. It is just that there were some occasions where he acted way too rash and then disregarded other things way to easily.

Yes he is supposed to be smart. He acted smart. he said the right words. However that made him very unrealistic, as he had an answer to almost everything.

Again, most of it is due to how quick the problems have been tackled. Thus it created a way different image in my head, as maybe intended.

Yeah I can understand that. I still don’t get why they let us go to Rata Novus and then tell us “every dragon has a weakness!”. And then my character is like “great news!”. Well it’s great but it isn’t really news. We knew that since we killed Zhaitan.
So we go in to the Mordremoth fight, knowing he can be killed but not how and then my PC is like “why not attack him in the dream?” and Canach is like “he doesn’t seem to like idea” and my PC responds “so that must be his weakness!”… really? That’s how we find out? Why even go to Rata Novus in the first place, if we don’t get any info there, but figure it out on the fly 2 missions later? It seems so pointless in retrospect.

I agree though, most of the problem come from how short the story is. Afte playing Act 1 I initially said that HoT might reach Nightfall levels of storytelling, but by Act 3 it just fell apart.

Jaken.6801:

Characters get no real development
PC
I don`t know if that was always the case, but him being the optimistic wisecracker who just says: No Problem, it`s all right to everything (well, aside from burning potential Mordrem) and even going Deus Ex Machina for the end, while being without a care in the world for many things he does ( oh, you were supposed to take care of the egg? My mistake, here take it. ).
It would be okay if that was on occasion, but he is like that all the time, meking me question his leadership qualities.
It`s nice to hear him talk again, but for the future, please gives us some checkboxes back where we can adjust his character a little bit. Please.

So I know opinions are opinions, but still I have to disagree with you here. I think the PC was by far the best written character in this storyline. Most of it came from the fact that he was so wasted in the original PS. In the last third the PC was named second in command of the Pact, yet you never felt it. It was always NPCs telling you what to do where to go, the only decision making was Trahearne asking you what you think would be the better plan of attack.
But in HoT there is no one above you, no one giving you tasks. The PC is the shotcaller and no one else. Caithe running away with the egg? B*tch let me handle that, I’m the boss. Rytlock coming back from the Mists all kitten? He still listens when I raise my voice. That’s the kind of character I want to play. I 1vs1 a dragon champion if I have to, there is no one who can give me orders and they know it.
The plot about chasing the egg was kinda pointless I admit that, but it wasn’t the PC acting dumb, it was Caithe’s fault through and through. After seeing what the PC can do she still trusts him so little that she thinks she has to deliver the egg? Seriously? I have no problem with the PC giving the egg to the Exalted, I think he is smart enough to see that these are the guys the Master of Peace wanted to reach.
And the last point: I don’t think the PC was nonchalant about the whole situation. I mean this might be a voice acting thing, I played the german version and my Norn did sound concerned yet optimistic. Pretty much what I expect him to be in this situation. He is a Norn after all, he simply does not care about the odds. I have to play it on my Charr too, but I guess the voice acting will be comparable.
All things said, I think the PC was handled really well and he struck me as a much better leader then Trahearne has ever been. And since the PC not being written well and not feeling like a commander was one of my biggest peeves with the original PS, I’m pretty happy with how he turned out. It feels like my concern were heard. I mean I actually once wrote an kind off “open letter” to Bobby Stein about this problem, so now I feel like he read it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I could see the argument that the eye which Eyes of Zhaitan hold are part of Zhaitan, plucked from one of Zhaitan’s many undead faces, but I don’t see how one could argue such for the Mouth of Zhaitan.

I ment that in the way that Zhaitan’s magical connection to the eyes and mouths seems stronger than even to his other champions. When we kill one we can hear him roar, which could interpreted as him actually feeling it physically. Also it says he actually sees through the eyes and feeds through the mouths. So I’d say despite not having a physical connection they are part of Zhaitan’s body like all these vines are part of Mordremoth’s body.

Erukk.1408:

Mushroomz.4280:

The titans coming back? It wouldn’t make sense, Abaddon is dead, dead-dead, he’s not coming back. I don’t expect the titans, of which he constructed, would even exist anymore. Guild Wars 1 was big about exterminating the titans because they were very dangerous creatures, at least in the lore, one of the most threatening types of creatures in the game.

Abaddon didn’t actually make the Titans. They were made by twisting tormented souls, and their production in the FoFC was oversaw by The Fury, who while working for Abaddon, and later Mallyx, at that time, was originally a servant of Dhuum.

So, if someone had a very large amount of tormented souls laying around, and the skills needed to manipulate them, anyone could theoretically produce Titans of their own. They were just easy to produce in such large numbers in the FoFC since the Realm of Torment in general has access to such vast amounts of tormented souls floating around.

To add to this, there is actually a titan you can fight after Abaddon’s death, Ignus the Eternal. So they are technically still around.

I can tell you for certain that at the point in time of the creation of these symbols, absolutely no one at Anet was thinking about a future connection to the Exalted. They hadn’t even made up the Elder Dragons yet, at this point even Abaddon was probably at most a vague idea (yes I know there is Abaddon’s Mouth, but honestly that was just a cool hell-ish sounding name).

In the other direction, Anet may have been gone back and look at these, but I doubt it. They would have made it more obvious, for example by making these symbols the images for the Exalted Lore mastery line or something like this.

CureForLiving.5360:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

I hope we get a size chart for Mordremoth soon.

You mean the mouth? It’s stated in game that all those large vines you see are part of Mordremoth, that means he covers most of Magus Falls and stretches all the way into the Iron Marches.

Yeah that’s what I ment. Counting all the vines would be a little excessive I think. Also we would have to count the mouths and eyes of Zhaitan too then, atleas in my opinion, since they seem to be quasi part of Zhaitan, like the vines are to Mordremoth.

I thought it was Faolain since my Norn heard it but it could be a bug, true.

I hope we get a size chart for Mordremoth soon. I would like to know how he stacks up against old Snakeface McRotguzzler.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Slowpokeking.8720:

Also, Mordremoth did show it could speak through its minions.

Please do clarify on this because not one did I ever see Mordremoth – or any Elder Dragon – speaking through his minions.

The only times we hear something speak with Mordremoth’s voice is the Mouth of Mordremoth, which uses the very same line as in the final instance (“Armies cannot stop me.”) as far as I know – and inside Mordremoth’s mind.

To be fair in the fight with Faolain, said Sylvari turned Mordrem rants to Caithe about how she sould join Mordremoth and the last line changes into Mordy’s voice and I think there was a first person pronoun in it. It’s still pretty clear that the Mouth is Mordremoth’s physical body (or part of it).

Slowpokeking.8720:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

This might sound confusing but the meta event and the final mission of the PS take place at the same time. While the Pact attacks the physical Mordremoth, the PC attacks him in his own mind. The physical attack works because Mordy’s mind is assaulted and the attack on his mind works because the Pact is knocking his teeth out. One would not have worked without the other. And before you give me the “but I did both”, yes you can, but storywise you only did the mind attack, the meta event assumes you are just a random pact soldier.

I don’t think so, is there any proof?

There is a line before you enter the dragon’s mind. I don’t recall it’s exact wording, but the group said something along the lines of “this is our chance, mordremoth is disctraced by the Pact attack”.

Slowpokeking.8720:

Kayberz.5346:

Why do people keep trying to deny that the mouth of mordremoth IS mordremoth, its pretty obvious that it is mordremoths physical manifestation, i would say the only reason its specified as the MOUTH of mordremoth is because technically all those vines in the jungle are also mordremoth because he is massive and this is essentially his actual head, and mouth of mordremoth sounds better than head of mordremoth

Because we KILLED it, it didn’t get cut off from the jungle, it simply got beaten to death and didn’t come back and Mordremoth was still alive when we entered its mind.

Stormbolt.7293:

Slowpokeking.8720:

Stormbolt.7293:

If you think scale is an issue, you clearly haven’t played the Dragon’s Stand event. That’s where all the Pact members you’ve been helping throughout the last 3 maps come together and fight Mordremoth’s physical body, and it’s easily the most epic thing Anet has ever made.

That was a champion, not Mordremoth.

No, that was Mordremoth himself, or at least his head. NPCs and event information refers to it as Mordremoth and the Mouth of Mordremoth interchangeably, it’s far bigger and stronger than any regular champion, and it’s even right in the middle of an area called the “Dragon’s Domain” on a map called “Dragon’s Stand.” The Mouths of Zhaitan are monsters that eat magical artifacts for him. The Mouth of Mordremoth is literally Mordremoth’s mouth.

It was killed by us, it was beaten to death but Mordremoth was still alive until we got into its mind.

This might sound confusing but the meta event and the final mission of the PS take place at the same time. While the Pact attacks the physical Mordremoth, the PC attacks him in his own mind. The physical attack works because Mordy’s mind is assaulted and the attack on his mind works because the Pact is knocking his teeth out. One would not have worked without the other. And before you give me the “but I did both”, yes you can, but storywise you only did the mind attack, the meta event assumes you are just a random pact soldier.

Fenom.9457:

Hail Hyrda.

“All right, all right. Put your arms down, Kaminski. You look like a West Texas cheerleader at a pep rally.”

Oh Trahearne is just the old story of Rurik again. Character is annoying as ever running into mobs, but too incompetent to fight them and eventually get’s captured by the baddies. In both cases we got to end his misery. Though Rurik was still more likeable to me than Trahearne.
To be honest, I didn’t think they would go this route. My problem with the whole Sylvari race always was that they are an entire race of Mary-Sues, Trahearne being no exception. But with the aftermath of the attack in Lion’s Arch, Anet started to deconstruct the Sylvari with every major story reveal. Great stuff! They finally became relatable to me. They had actual problems now and with it gained some character instead of being stuck in a romanticised version of Arthurian legends. Trahearne was the final connection they had to the old “noble white knight”-Sylvari and that’s why he had to be eradicated. Now the Sylvari are free from their old boring cliché filled existence and can look forward to a new age of actual characterization.

I also think the Asura could use a similar overhaul, they are pretty cliché ridden themself, though it wasn’t as bad as with the Sylvari. I guess say goodbye to Zojja.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

He’s just a dropped plot thread.

Like Bahltek. The Teller of Tales. Vael. Druids. The Mysterious Stranger who contracted Zinn to make R.O.X. The Herald. Malyk. Lazarus. Drakkar. Wizard’s Tower/Isgarren. Caudecus. Ministry of Purity. Palawa Joko. Molten Alliance. Toxic Alliance. Mai Trin and the Aetherblades. Magdaer (how is Eir gonna give it to Logan now!?). Adelbern. The Nightmare. Dhuum. Menzies. Shiny. And many, many more I can’t think of atm.

None of these got concluded. Just faded away into nothingness.

I would add Evennia, Livia and the Scepter of Orr (well atleast we have her in Sea of Sorrows) and maybe the leadership of the Consortium. Of course they did the rebuilding of Lion’s Arch so might not be completely dropped.

Ok I took a bit longer to play through the story (Sign Cutting was bugged for me, for about 3 or 4 days) but I here I go:

Act 1: Very solid. It showed the despair of the remaining Pact, introduced the new Hylek and of course it had the death of Eir. I think I’ve said it in another thread. I liked how Eir’s death was done, it was very cinematic. It also showed again how much of a little bi untrustworthy person Faolain is. I also don’t mind that Eir was killed by a “random Vinetooth”. What I did not like that my favorite character of DE had to go, but hey they killed of Tybalt, I can cope with this.

Act 2: I liked “Vinefaolain” and the Exalted are awesome. Loved Tarir and the Forgotten trial (gotta have those trials if the Forgotten are involved). This chapter also gave us the Rata Novus reveal. Overall great stuff.

Act 3: Now here we are getting a bit weaker. I was really excited about Rata Novus, but the story barely tells us anything about it. Heck we don’t get to hear anything about their dragon research. Most of the stuff is found on the open world map, which is fine, but I still wis we ran into a hologram of Zinn there or something. The chak are a need idea, kinda Karka on steroids but I think they could have been utilized more in the story, instead of just being important in the events on the map.

Act 4: Too short. I think there should have been a mission more, at the start. Let us acutally set up the camps for the meta event (which I haven’t played yet btw) in an instance first or something. From playing the story alone it’s just not clear that the assault takes place at the same time as the mission to find Trahearne, Zojja and Logan. I liked the idea of getting into Mordy’s mind (Snaff would be proud) but it just felt off. Krally’s mind was described as huge sandstorm iirc and this was just an arena with a few bushes around it. Also Mordy didn’ look very impressive, like a gator on this hindlegs with one mouth surplus. I liked that I got to kill Trahearne though. Oh how I’ve longed for that day. Didn’t think they would let me do. That feeling when his own sword cut him down. Very rewarding indeed. Still the party at the end of the main game felt more like a good end (as did the epilogue instances from the first game), this was just over after you did the dirty deed. Where are my Ewoks playing drums with Stormtrooper helmets?

Overall I give it a 7/10. Better than the story of the main game, but it just felt a bit rushed and the ending was just not as epic as it should have been. It still worked better than the main game’s story, as it was more coherent and had better characterization.

Let’s just say you can’t run around telling people Revenants can channel anything like it is a fact when there is absolutely no indication of that in lore. With your flesh golem example we atleast have Trahearne summoning 4 iirc, in the Forging the Pact mission. But for Revenant we have nothing that shows they can channel anyone who wasn’t very powerful in life, unless we would count the Ritualist as a kind off predecessor. But I don’t think that would be a valid connection, when talking about the Revenant.

Well atleast if it’s so many people, that means Anet has to act quickly.

So this is weird and extremely infuriating. My game crashes everytime I do the Tarir meta with a large enough group. In other words if almost no people are around and the event will surely fail then my client works fine, but as soon as the event looks like it’s going to be a success the game crashes. This happened 3 times now.
Before someone asks, no it’s not my internet connection failing, my internet is fine, besides it is a game crash as the game gives me the option to send and error report. Also I never before had client crashes like this in other large meta events or at any other occasions. This is a first.

And believe when I say, I’m seething with anger here because it always happens when I’m about to win, after I’ve done like 80% of the work. Will this continue to happen? Will I never be able to get the achievements associated with winning this event? Is anyone else having this problem or am I the only one who denied the chance at success?

Not sure if the notes in Rata Novus reveal anything more specific, but it must have been after 1079AE, as that is when Zinn was last seen during the Krytan civil war.

Daralii.8940:

I’m convinced they just give things to Rytlock when they don’t want to spend time discussing them. Sohothin? Don’t ask, doesn’t matter. Revenant? Don’t ask, doesn’t matter. Herald? Don’t ask, doesn’t matter.

So Rytlock is every single elite specialization? Because they never gave us lore about those either (unless that comes after Act 3 in the story, if that is the case, for the love of god, don’t spoiler me!)

Venomge.7142:

Cannot continue “SIGNS CUTTING” story. Says “keep searching for Rox’s trail” but map shows nothing, quitting/starting chapter does nothing, same message. Please help.

Similar problem. My map shows a green circle, but there is absolutely nothing interactable in it, aside from some gathering nodes.

narwhalsbend.7059:

they marched on Orr, causing Vizier Khilbron to accidentally sink it trying to stop them

Highly debatable. He already knew of the Flameseeker Prophecy at this point and may have been a worshipper of Abaddon. Is entirely possible that he knew exactly what would happen to Orr if he performed his spell.

If I remember right Herta was very lazy. On first thought it might seem weird that such a lazy person would take up this responsibility, but on the other hand, it means a few hundred years of sleep and even when you are awake you don’t have to do many things anymore that a normal human has to do. Perfect job for a slob! :P

Well atleast the last word in the thread title is appropriate. :P

Natzo.4019:

Eh, the death flags have been there since Season 2.

She finally talk to her son, “We should go hunting together, as family.” And then she get’s captured. I was just expecting when they were gonna kill her, not if.

Let me rephrase, when I said I was surprised it wasn’t in the “I would have never seen this twist coming!”-way, but a “oh so they went with the predictable turn of events”-way. I would have expected them to defy the old tropes and give us a red hering with the LS Season 2 stuff. Unfortunately they did not do that.

I’m still not to keen on the “Forgotten build a city in the jungle and nobody noticed it” part. Especially since this is territory we saw in Prophecies. But the city looks amazing and the Exalted are really cool. I liked the mission that introduced them. It was entertaining both in gameplay and story.
The Forgotten and their trials though, they really love those. I noted that there was no Steve minion in the first trial, I guess the smelly water was supposed to represent him.

I’m excited to get to Rata Novus. I hope it’s still around, though I have the suspicion it will be in ruins or something.

Yeah it kinda surprised me that they killed off Eir and so early too. I thought get taken away again. Braham would have picked up her bow and started “hunting” her trail. And we would later find her, having gotten out of the clutches with the help of the druids.

But for what’s it’s worth it was a cool scene, very cinematic. But now I have only Rytlock as likeable DE member left. Now Trahearne must die to balance it out. :P

Well my thinking was, being an Oracle of the Mists, he probably has powers that go beyond the physical limitations of his continent. In other words the Oracle could potentially be able to judge people in general not just Canthans. Now as I said before the only Envoy whose origin we know for certain is canthan, but “An Empire Divided” never explicitly says that only Canthans become Envoys. All it says is that the task is given by the Oracle, which is admittedly Canthan, but also connected to the Mists.
However I know this theory hinges on the fact that Messenger Vetaura doesn’t look canthan. This doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t, he could be an immigrant or being an Envoy just changed his appearence, after all I doubt Courir Torivos was born with an bull head.

On the Thorn being powerful in his life point: Yes I know, but that doesn’t mean he necessarily got his powers from that. After all Shiro was powerful in life too, after absorbing Dwayna’s blessing. At the same time ghosts of other powerful people don’t show abilities of that degree (Turai Ossa, some of the heroes from the Tahnnakai temple or even his son Edrick).
I get that Thorn was powerful in life, but if his power in afterlife is any indication than it’s surprising that a mere horde of peasants could kill him.

While I would love to discuss things from the HoT storyline I think that should wait until most of us have played it, so we don’t spoiler each other. So why not talk about the other event going on right now?

Being fascinated with the Mad King, I thought a lot about his powers. They seem to be beyond anything any other ghost can do. Except one group, the Envoys. Both can kill and revive mortals with a wave of their hands. Envoys furthermore have the prominent ability to turn invisible to the naked eye, something Thorn hasn’t shown, but seeing he is a rather flashy persona, he might just hasen’t used it yet. On top of that Thorn can teleport, a skill Shiro seemed to have too during the Sunjang District mission.
So what sets Thorn apart from an Envoy? Well their job obviously. Thorn doesn’t seem to be in the business of sheperding souls. He doesn’t have any function aside from returning once a year for Mad King’s Day.
But he has one more thing in common with Envoys. Being an Envoy is a punishment for heinous crimes that a mortal comitted during his life time. And honestly compared to Thorn, Shiro’s exploits seem like a misdemeanor. So why wasn’t Thorn punished? Maybe because he isn’t Canthan? Afterall the Envoys so far have only appeared in a Canthan context and the only confirmed birthplace for one of the Envoys is Cantha. However atleast Messenger Vetaura looks decisively un-canthan. And why would such a global job of sheperding souls only be entrusted to former canthans?

So here comes my theory: After Thorn’s death he actually was enlisted into the ranks of the Envoys. However he proved to be too uncontrollable and was quickly stripped oh his position and banished to a part of the underworld which he would remodel into his Mad Realm. The question is, why would he keep his Envoy powers? Well Shiro kept his powers too, even though the other Envoys (and by that probably Grenth too) knew about his betrayal. That’s why I think that once you’ve been granted Envoy powers it’s either very hard or even impossible to get them taken away again.

This would explain Thorn’s extraordinary powers and why he seemingly wasn’t punished for his crimes in afterlife. I realize that this Halloween didn’t bring anything new to this topic, in fact the same theory could have been made several years ago and probably was. So if I just parroted someone else’s work I apologize.

I like it so far, though I’ve only made it through the first “act” as of now. If it continues to be like this it might be on par with Nightfall, which was imo the high point of GW’s stories.

Enemies not dropping? Why is my bag full all the time then? Seriously the only thing they need to add are maybe 1 or 2 more merchants to Verdant Brink (and maybe the other maps, haven’t gotten to them yet).
Also so far I’ve unlocked 4 masteries, 2 gliding and 2 in Itzel lore. And it didn’t feel like a chore at all, especially since I don’t have to do it again with my other characters. Can’t say too much about the elite specs yet as I’m at ~75% with my first one now (Scrapper) but I haven’t really focused on that yet. Exploring the map is too entertaining to care for something like that.
My advice OP, lean back and enjoy. Don’t think about unlocking stuff, just go with the flow.

Sidenti.6035:

I’ve actually seen Sylvari named “Salad”.

I thought that was the name of the race /s

See my sig. You don’t find friends with salads, therefor taming salad is impossible (nor would it hold any benefits). Bow to your new overlord: the Bacontamer Ranger

CureForLiving.5360:

I don’t know, if someone were to predict that I’d be run over by a car one day I’d be very grateful and also look both ways before crossing the street.

In her dialog with us Glint calls the Mursaat a race of terrible and fearful spellcasters. Not really terms you would apply to your allies. Also Glint fully supported the players in their goal to defeat the Mursaat. While we see no active Mursaat vs Forgotten/Glint violence, I think it’s fair to say that those factions were atleast uneasy with another, if not outright enemies.

Edit: Also I think the Flameseeker prophecy is less like “hey watch out while crossing the street!” but more like you watch a strange video tape and suddenly you get a call that says “seven days.”

Well unlike our world Tyria has actual demons that often came through dark purple portals, so that for example can explain the link between “dark purple” and “evil”

Maybe some of the Exalted were recruited from the ranks of the Druids. However I think it is more likely that the “allies they had made among Maguuma’s residents” that went missing is a reference to the Druids.

I like this, it really ties the loose ends together. I wish Anet would do that more instead of opening a whole new can of beans with every major story update.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Edge of Destiny had Glint saying 300 years ago for when the Chosen tried to kill her. Presumed at first by folks to be a reference to the bonus mission, though there’s the potential that it was to be a future Beyond arc (Elona’s? Ascalon’s?) since she mention that they learned about her past.

I went back and re-read it. Yeah she says 300 years, probably so it sounds more in line with her telling DE that she became Tyria’s guardian 3000 years ago. That blog post doesn’t need to be so “poetic”, but whatever, I guess you are right.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Anet likes to round things, so them rounding to “300 years” instead of saying “256 years” is understandable. Not desired, can be confusing to those who don’t remember their love of rounding, but understandable.

Usually when they refere to GW1’s time they say 250 years. I mean it’s round enough. I can’t remember a single instance when GW1’s time was said to be 300 years ago.
But I do agree with you that it makes more sense that way. And I wouldn’t put it past them to write 300 when they ment 250, both Scott and Angel seem to be prone to little mistakes like that.

I don’t understand how the Mursaat would just let the Forgotten start to build a city in what is essentially their territory (close to the Maguuma Bloodstone). I mean judging by the fact that the Forgotten worked for Glint, who in turn predicted the fall of the Mursaat, I would say they aren’t exactly on friendly terms. Not even counting the fact that the Mursaat actually went to war with another elder race (the seers) before, so it even has a precedent.
I already felt that the sudden Forgotten and Glint connection in LS2 was a little out of place. They were attached to Elona and the Crystal Desert in GW1, not Maguuma. That was more Mursaat territory. But having an entire forgotten-build city there seems a bit much.

In GW1 the player died and was resurrected by special shrines you could find in every explorable zone. You could also kneel before them to get buffs by the god associated with the shrine.
In GW2 however this is not the case, as you said yourself, you aren’t “killed” but merely put in a state in which you can no longer fight aka “defeated”. Yes it does not explain the “/deaths” command, but honestly, typing a command into your chatbox can never be explained with in-universe lore. That’s simply a gameplay function and has absolutely nothing to do with the game’s world. You might as well ask for a lore explanation of the log-out button.
Now Waypoints are a different beast. Actually at first when the game launched many people saw them as a pure gameplay function, with not connection to the lore, as previous lore never mentioned them. It was all about Asura Gates. That changed with the Living World Season 2 and Mordremoths attack on the Waypoint-network (maybe they were mentiond in lore before, but I can’t remember an earlier point). We now know they are considered canon, and that they as you also mentioned follow the Ley Lines. But again that is pretty much all we know. There was never an explanation why the player can use them from anywhere in the world. My theory is we have a similar device to the one that Logan uses in EoD, to teleport to Ebonhawke right before DE’s fight with Kralkatorrik.
There also never was an explanation why we return to full health after teleporting. It’s pretty much for gameplay reasons only. I doubt that they will ever come up with a satisfactory lore explanation for that.

Doug Whisper.2465:

What if Ascension and Weh no Su would be part of HoT? Or might be there are missions to unlock the elite spec with lore explanation?

I don’t think they would hide elite specs behind story mission, after all there are people who only play WvW for example and that would force them, against there will, into PvE. Anet usually respects such players, by not gating gameplay content like this.
That said, yes we might ascend during the storyline, after all it looks like we get to meet the Mursaat again and those guys are invisible to the naked mortal eye, unless you are ascended. Though it is more likely that they will just reveal themself to us, if they even are Mursaat. However we already had a mock ascension ritual to get some divine fire during the LS, so maybe we do something like that again, to gain more divine fire.
Keep in mind, that ascension was bound to certain places, the only one we know in Tyria was in the Crystal Desert, so pretty much the other side of the continent. Unless they give us a new place, from which to ascend (the temple of Balthazar maybe?), it seems unlikely that we will.

Daniel Handler.4816:

The entirety of their magic in gw1 had no basis in avatars, that was a dervish thing.

“Among the Dervish’s most precious secrets is that of transformation. The Dervish, when roused, may channel divine powers and change their form temporarily to become the physical embodiment of a god.”

So no one is answering how a ranger can now perform dervish magic.

Because rangers (or druids rather) don’t use dervish magic. Yes they transform into an avatar, but it’s not an avatar of the gods and that is the important part. Dervish magic is not defined by their ability to transform, there are a lot of transformations in GW1 and 2, what defines dervishes is their connection to the gods. They are hermits that shut themself of from society, so they can only listen to the gods (or alteast that’s how they started). Druid are similar in technique, as they also leave civilisation, but the sorce of their power is nature, not the gods. So when they transform they do it with the help of nature magic, not divine magic.

Was Scarlet crazy, you ask? Of course not!

It’s pretty safe to say Druids will have pets, but they might no modify how we use them with this specialization. Let me explain what I mean. There have been 3 categories of specializations so far.

1. the swappers: Necro, Guardian and Ele. These have their profession mechanic replaced by a new yet similar one.
2. the modifiers: Mesmer, Warrior and Revenant. These have their profession mechanic intact, but they have a new option added to it.
3. the twofers: Thief, Engineer and probably Ranger. These have their old profession mechanic and on top of that a new one. A third dodge in the thief’s case and the function gyro for the engi. I suspect Druid will fall in this category.

This may surprise you, but they actually give out better rewards for completing the PS now than they did right at launch.

But I’m not really sure if that a lore question, that might fit better into General Discussion.

Well if that cheers you up, the german name is “Schrotter”. That’s not even a word. I guess it’s supposed to be short for “Verschrotter” which would be a guy working at a junkyard. That sounds even less heroic than Scrapper in my opinion.

I don’t mind it (especially since I will mostly see the translated version ingame) but I think it’s a bit odd that they chose a term that is already used in lore. See Scrapper.

Those drones remind me of the “7 dwarves” Agent Fitz uses in Agents of Shield. I wonder if they took inspiration from, I mean he is an engineer too.

EdwinLi.1284:

Heck he was even run out of DR by a angry mob of Nobles and commoners due to causing Chauncey von Snuffles III losing his rightfull 1st place and ended up 2nd place.

Fixed it for you.