Guild Wars 2

Kossage.9072:

Diovid.9506:

This is not entirely true. First of all, the goal is not liberating Sylvari from the Pale Tree, but liberating Sylvari from all oppressors (which means the firstborn, the tablet, but also, as Faolain points out, Mordemoth). Secondly, they do not want to get rid of the pale tree, they need the pale tree. They just want to change the pale tree.

There’s actually a chance that the Nightmare Court could’ve rejected the Pale Tree rather violently if the Knight of Embers had delivered what she had learned about Malyck to Faolain. The sylvari PC states the following in the early Personal Story mission Snuffing Out Embers:

<Character name>: If Faolain finds out, she won’t need the Grove. The court will burn the Pale Tree to the ground and find one they can more easily twist to nightmare.

Granted, this is only the PC’s assumption, which is supported by Trahearne or Caithe (depending on which one you chose to go with in an earlier mission), but it is nevertheless a potential course of action the NC could take if they learned the truth.

I’m well aware that that could’ve happened. The point is that it didn’t happen (yet).

dsslive.8473:

Kalavier.1097:

The thing I like to note, Mordremoth’s death caused a huge outflow/release of magic, spreading along the ley-lines, one went to Tahir and the egg, and two flows went elsewhere (One to rata novus maybe?). However, zhaitan’s “Death” did not do the same. So I think Zhaitan may have simply been forced back into dormancy, while Mordremoth is dead dead.

well one can argue that Zhaitan didn’t do the same because he wasn’t fed this amount of leyline magic. Scarlet overcharged mordremoth with this maggic, and it seems to be that magic that gets released after death.

Another theory is that the same thing did happen with Zhaitan, it just wasn’t shown. One theory for why Tequatl became stronger (for which there was a lore reason as Anet stated) is that he absorbed (part of) the energy of Zhaitan after Zhaitan’s death.

Mushroomz.4280:

And lastly, the Nightmare Court seems to have it’s own agenda, that honestly, really only cares about them liberating Sylvari from the Pale Tree, could this help Mordremoth’s plans? Absolutely. I would even say there’s probably a lot of overlap. Neither Mordrem-Sylvari or Nightmare Court accept the Pale Tree as their master, that’s definitely a common enemy.

This is not entirely true. First of all, the goal is not liberating Sylvari from the Pale Tree, but liberating Sylvari from all oppressors (which means the firstborn, the tablet, but also, as Faolain points out, Mordemoth). Secondly, they do not want to get rid of the pale tree, they need the pale tree. They just want to change the pale tree.

So the main thing I want to discuss here is the what you guys think living story season 3 is going to bring us and more specifically where season 3 will take place.

To start, I want to state my expectation for the timeline:

• 1st and 2nd quarter 2016: Season 3 e.g. HoT’s epilogue.

• 4th quarter 2016 and 1st quarter 2017: Season 4 e.g. expansion 2’s prologue.

• 3rd or 4th quarter 2017: Expansion 2.

Both past seasons of the living story have brought in new zones, season 1 gave us Southsun while season 2 gave us Dry Top and the Silverwastes. Now, obviously the new zone(s) of season 4 (being as I suspect the prologue of the 2nd expansion) would depend strongly on what the next expansion will bring (in other words, on which dragon the expansion will focus) so I will focus here on season 3.

I think the 3 areas that are most likely for new zones in season 3 are marked below in the attachment. My reasoning for them:

1. Although this area is relatively small in surface area, if it is properly vertical like the other expansion areas I don’t think it would be that bad. Besides, if it is too small, it could always function as the area of the 2nd raid. As for what the story is, there is an obvious route to take. Everybody agrees that what is missing from the expansion is more explanation on the sylvari i.e. it should have dealt with questions like: Why exactly is the pale tree free from Mord’s influence? What is the dream and what is the nightmare? What is the state of the nightmare court after Mord’s death and Faolain’s death? What happened to Malyck? How are the sylvari now that Mord’s death? What is the current state of the pale tree? And so on. This would be the best area for dealing with the lore and story surrounding these issues I think.

2. The 2nd area is already hinted at in-game. There is a zone border already in-game leading there, except the zone border can’t be reached due to a broken bridge surrounded by bandits. We already know the first raid is dealing with bandits (and presumably white mantle and possibly/hopefully the sinister triad and possibly/hopefully the mursaat). I’m wondering whether an open world aspect of that same general story would be in the pipeline. Possibly also dealing with the relationship between the bandits and kryta and specifically with the power struggle between the ministry and the queen.

3. I don’t really have much reason for us going to the 3rd area. The main thing for me is that it is a gap on map. Not just any gap but a gap that was filled in GW1 i.e. the Alcazia Tangle and the Tarnished Haven. Like the HoT areas, the Alcazia Tangle was populated by saurians and Quetzal Tengu (and simians). There was also quite an Asura presence (as it is close to Rata Sum of course) and krytan presense in the area.

What are you thoughts on this? Do you have similar expectations or entirely different ones?

CureForLiving.5360:

Diovid.9506:

Amineo.8951:

I think Sylvaris not tied to the Pale Trees (there’s another one apparently) will vanish after Mordremoth death, because nothing will protect them then…

But there are no sylvaris not tied to pale trees. The nightmare court is still tied to a pale tree. Even the soundless are not completely cut off.

Malyck isn’t tied to the Pale Tree, since he is a Sylvari and Sylvari as far as we tell come from a tree it stands to reason that Malyck must have come from a tree as well, and then it’s not that big of a leap to argue that he might have brothers and sisters.

I’m not sure if you’re disagreeing with me or agreeing with me. But basically you said what I was trying to say. All sylvari are tied to ‘a’ tree. I shouldn’t have used the word ‘pale trees’ there perhaps but what I meant with ‘pale trees’ was ‘trees similar to the pale tree’.

Kalavier.1097:

Diovid.9506:

Kalavier.1097:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

In the final instance, the PC tells Trahearne that the Pact is “all but gone.” The Pact. Not the fleet. The Pact.

At same time, Canach mentions that Mordremoth is busy with the battle outside of the tree/structure.

But that battle is being waged by a combination of remaining pact, itzel, nuhoch, exalted, nightmare court (well, at least 1 courtier), skritt and so on. It is not just the pact.

Technically, the Pact includes more then just the orders. They had allies in the Ogres, grawl, quaggan, skritt, and others :P.

Sure but many of the allies in Dragon’s Stand are new allies, not old pre-existing allies of the pact.

Kalavier.1097:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

In the final instance, the PC tells Trahearne that the Pact is “all but gone.” The Pact. Not the fleet. The Pact.

At same time, Canach mentions that Mordremoth is busy with the battle outside of the tree/structure.

But that battle is being waged by a combination of remaining pact, itzel, nuhoch, exalted, nightmare court (well, at least 1 courtier), skritt and so on. It is not just the pact.

Wuselknusel.4082:

smekras.8203:

Assuming there are other Trees not claimed by Mordry (do we have any proof of that? other than the possible one, Malyck’s) what do other sylvari have to be protected against? The Dream/Nightmare only protected the Pale Tree sylvari from Mordry’s influence (and as far as we know nothing happened to it) but it’s not like sylvari in general need protection against stuff more than any other race does.

The Dream is no protection. What protected the Sylvari against elder dragons is the fact that they already are dragon minions. What protected them against Mordremoth was the Pale Tree.

No. It was pretty clearly stated/shown in the story that what protected against Mord was the combination of the connection sylvaris (at least, non-soundless sylvari) have to the dream/nightmare on the one hand and stong willpower on the other hand. It is speculated that two additional things protected sylvari against Mord, namely a strong pale tree (which ceased to be the case after the attack of the shadow of the dragon) and distance from Mord (which ceased to be the case for many sylvari when they traveled to the jungle to fight him).

Amineo.8951:

I think Sylvaris not tied to the Pale Trees (there’s another one apparently) will vanish after Mordremoth death, because nothing will protect them then…

But there are no sylvaris not tied to pale trees. The nightmare court is still tied to a pale tree. Even the soundless are not completely cut off.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The Toxic Courtiers are one such faction who worked with Scarlet – no doubt not knowing Scarlet’s plant.

That is a funny typo Konig.

DarcShriek.5829:

Zdenny.2704:

I would like to play as a Forgotten or the hekets could be funny.

Forgotten are all dead. Playing a corpse would be no fun.

The forgotten are not dead, they just left Tyria (the world Tyria that is).

Jaken.6801:

I don`t get the guards.
They are grown to serve mordremoth, which means their only influence is that of his will.
Even if we take the clones later into account and maybe the idea that they have remnants of the originals ideals and ideas, why would an ED create such a flawed concept.
If he can stretch his influence so far, wouldnt it make more sense to have them run with a more simplified programm instead of an own will and self ?

This question reminds me of the Mass Effect games. There, Reapers (comparable to the Elder Dragons of GW2) do something resembling corruption. The further the corruption, the more loyal a creature becomes and the more direct the influence of the Reaper is however it also becomes more stupid and thus less useful as an individual. I think Elder Dragons might have a similar dilemma. They have masses of mindless drones which are used not for their individual capabilities but for their numbers. And then they have a smaller number which are not just more intelligent but which have more of a mind of their own for more complicated and specialized tasks.

Daralii.8940:

Zero mention of him, his tree, or any of the other trees.

That’s not entirely true. There is mention of other trees, the link between them and the pale tree is not explored at all though.

Urosh Uchiha.9732:

CureForLiving.5360:

Boysenberry.1869:

I’m confused a bit about the Pact. In Verdant they are isolated, scared, and barely hanging onto survival in small makeshift camps. In Auric, they are mostly priory running around going ooooh and aaaaah at all the golden shinies. I’ve been trying to avoid Tangled Depths since I don’t like the map layout but it seems like suddenly they are trying to organize some kind of offensive. Not sure where they mustered the means but okay.

Then in Dragon’s Stand they are marching an army of soldiers and copters to go kill Mordremoth. A tattered and broken down Pact just picks up some scraps off the ground and says…let’s kill Mordremoth anyways! A bajillion Mordrem stand between our half-dead soldiers and our goal. We got this!

I haven’t fully played through the later maps yet, but in Verdant Brink the fact is very much in disarray, scattered and unsure who to trust with enemies all around. You help the Pack to establish outposts and fight back and lessen the danger in Verdant Brink. From their the Pact is able to push into Auric Basin, meet the Exalted, help to fight off the Modrem, and reestablished another foothold. Seems that the Golden City offers safety and respite for the Pact forces to rest up and push on.
So basically the first two maps are least clearly show the Pact regaining some of their strength and establishing a foothold to push on deeper towards Mordy.

That would actually be an interesting theory, that by progressing from the map, you basically progress through the story as well. But that could only work if you see the NPCs, relevant NPCs from Verdant Brink in Auric Basin and then later in Tangled Depths and in the end Dragon’s Stand. But as far as I know, you don’t.

In fact, you do. There is this servent for example, you see getting an a chopper at the end of the noble meta event in Verdent Brink about whom you later learn in Tangled Depths that that chopper crashed (in the Scar meta event).

Even more telling is the presence of Ibli in Dragon’s Stand.

Arctarius.2649:

I think Zaitan will be the last. He fell in a pit, we didn’t see him eradicated. He is undead and fell in his homeland where we never checked up on his corps. I think he will return full throttle one day, hence why there is still another half of Orr that is unexplored.

Devs have already confirmed that Zhaitan is dead though. The reason why we didn’t actually see him eradicated is because the fight was rushed by the developers. There is evidence to suggest that there were plans for there to be a part of the fight after us shooting Zhaitan with the cannon where we fight him on the ground, but that this was scrapped at some point.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Scleritethin/Selbbub/Senor Bubbles/Steve is next Elder Dragon.

But here’s the problem, underwater combat.
I’m not sure if we’ll be facing the Deep-Sea Dragon without ANet getting underwater combat in a better state.

There are a lot of possibilities for underwater masteries (which could in turn enhance the underwater combat experience).

People tend to confuse ‘viable’ with ‘optimal’. Necros aren’t optimal in most (or all) gametypes but they sure are viable in all gametypes. But because they aren’t optimal, people think they also aren’t viable thus they start hating on necros, even when doing things that don’t require optimality. This problem is not just a necro-problem though. Rangers have long suffered from the same thing.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

MethaneGas.8357:

Reaper is amazing as a minion master in PvE…
Not shown in the pic but so far I counter about 13 minions xD

O___O , should not be there 13 stacks of Flesh of the Master instead of 7 ?!
Can someone confirm if there is a cap on it ? What about Necromantic Corruption , capped too ?

There is no cap on the number shown on the Flesh of the Master icon I think. Maybe the actual toughness it gives is capped though.

I think the theoretical maximum of minions is the sum of:
1 (blood fiend)
2 (bone minions)
1 (bone fiend or flesh wurm or shadow fiend)
6 (rise)
5 (mark of horror)
2 (death nova)
=
17

Although most MMs run Flesh Golem and not Lich Form so the maximum would be 13.

Edit: I noticed my calculations might actually be slightly wrong for some reason. I was playing with Blood Fiend, Rise, Bone Minions, Signet of the Locust, Flesh Golem and Death Nova so the maximum should’ve been 12 but Flesh of the Master said 13 at some point.

Squee.7829:

Grenth is not the patron god of assassins
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lyssa

Actually, the guild wars factions manual states both Lyssa and Grenth are patron gods of assassins.

Who are ‘they’ and where is the math?

idontnoso.9850:

Yes, this is only one particular situation, but with the nerf to dungeons necros are going to be needed a lot more fo hard CCs to break breakbars and to counter boons in this particular situation.

Even in those cases, it seems highly doubtful to me that necros are more useful than mesmers.

Naustis.8510:

Necro was always viable. Don’t listen to “necro has no utility bla bla, no group support bla bla, no dps bla bla”. Necro is the best class for pug runs as u can heal, buff and just keep yourself alive while other classes are trying to surive and crying because warrior did not stack enough might for them

Viable? Sure. Optimal? Far from it. That hasn’t changed.

Step 1: Like nearlight said, use minions.

Traits: Death Magic (1, 1, 1), Blood Magic (3, 3, 3), Reaper (1, 1 or 2, 3)

Weapon set 1: Greatsword
Weapon set 2: Staff

Stats: Any tanky set will do, I personally like cleric’s (although I would like it even more if power was the main stat).

Healing skill: Blood Fiend
Utility skill 1: Rise!
Utility skill 2: Summon Bone Minions
Utility skill 3: Signet of the Locust
Elite skill: Summon Flesh Golem

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Facetank champions.

Wanderer.3248:

Some things would just look silly. Man-bear-pig kind of silly. That’s the real reason you don’t see undead Sylvari or undead Skrit.

For undead Sylvari there is an actual lore explanation, you know?

Farzo.8410:

I even think revenants can invoke anything from the mists, not only legends.

If a revenant want to invoke Hugo the Hairdresser from the mists, they can.

But legends just sounds so much more promising.

I’m not sure if that’s true. It might be easier to invoke people/creatures who have made a bigger impact on the universe than to invoke those with barely any influence. People with a big impact have a strong echo/presence in the mists.

I don’t think they will change. Risen didn’t change after Zhaitan’s death. Both Arah explorable mode and the update to Tequatl took place after Zhaitan’s death.

Shiren.9532:

Trahearne was using a greatsword long before Marjory.

That doesn’t make him a reaper. Caladbolg gives the wielder specific abilities (the player character can wield Caladbolg himself in the sylvari personal story) instead of giving abilities close to that of a reaper.

Will Rox become a Druid? I don’t think so, Rox might be superstitious but she is not ‘spiritual’. I’d sooner expect Eir to come back as a ghostly druid (coming back with the help of the spirits of the wild or something) than seeing Rox become a druid.

Will Caithe become a Daredevil? Possibly. I don’t see her giving up her daggers though.

Will Taimi become a Scrapper? We’re not even sure if she is an engineer at all, all asura can be golemancing geniuses. And even if she does become a Scrapper, she will never wield a hammer.

Will Kasmeer become a Chronomancer? Who knows? She does use a lot of time warps.

Will Zoja become a Tempest? Who knows?

Will they introduce another warrior to show us Berserker? Who knows?

The reverse is that elite specs are meant as end-game progression (just like masteries). The idea is that you get more capable of using them after reaching level 80. People felt that GW2 was lacking end-game goals and longer term progression so Anet decided to add that without adding vertical progression.

Bhawb.7408:

Bone Minions however are only better for general roaming. Longer fights Flesh Wurm is superior by quite a bit.

That is something that could be debated. All MM traits favor having more traits over having stronger traits (i.e. Flesh of the Master, Necromantic Corruption, Death Nova, Vampiric and Vampiric Presence, alright VP can only be considered an MM trait when soloing, but still…). I think both have their place. But I can’t really think of situations where you have to choose between the two. The Shadow Fiend and Bone Fiend are both inferior to both the Wurm and the Minions.

annagon.7938:

So I’m focusing on PvE MM, but I can’t choose between Bone Minions or Flesh Wurm and Flesh Golem or Lich Form. Flesh Wurm deals much more damage and great sustainability and allows me to move more in a single battle, but is immobile. Bone minions don’t dish out as mich damage but move around and there are two of them. I have also found their life siphon and explosion to be quite useful.

In all game types I would always have Bone Minions as one of my minions. Flesh Wurm would replace one of my other minions in PvP but I wouldn’t really use the in general PvE, maybe in instances but even then combat tends to be over too quickly for the wurm to be of use.

For veteran abilities, Flesh Golem stays forever and can allow me to sort of position my target where I want them as well as tank. Lich form allows me to have a really good condi set ad well as five minions that can help me swarm my enemy and take the attention off of me. Their death damage is also useful in taking down multiple opponents. For lich, I usually only go in the form for a couple seconds to summon and get out if it to have a full set of minions to rek the opponent. I only really stay in lich form when the enemy is particularly hard and I need to diah out good condi.

I think in the long run Flesh Golem is clearly the superior choice. For short bursts the Lich is quite nice.

Non-HoT players can go to guild halls but they can’t help claim it and can not use most of the guild hall’s features.

All elite specs will be automatically unlocked in pvp if you own HoT, so yes.

nacario.9417:

I have a feeling HoT release date was set due to Halloween, to possibly spread players out a bit across maps and make it more smooth for servers, instead of all rushing to maguuma.

I don’t think HoT’s release date was set due to Halloween, nor that Halloween’s dat was set due to HoT. Instead I think the date was set due to both Halloween and HoT.

Only downside for many is that HoT will be prioritized which can leave Halloween more in the shadow.

That’s probably not true since there are a lot players who don’t have HoT (such as all the F2P players). Furthermore, if there are bugs/crashes associated with HoT content and features (which tends to happen on launch days) then HoT players will probably also play Halloween.

Nike.2631:

Rutee.1058:

Nike.2631:

Could we maybe get less mitigation and duration reduction and more base health and/or toughness? (I’m also curious, at -95% duration, does that mean they outright ignore all conditions shorter than 5 seconds?)

Course not. You take fractional damage. It’s the same way .5s of condition damage added to a skill is treated. So a 4 second Condi from a boss landing on a pet will deal .8 of a full second of damage.

Um, 4 seconds hit with -95% duration turns into .2 seconds… and .2 seconds of burning does nothing last I checked. Guards haven’t been getting ‘fractional damage’ out of their burns ever. If you have a full second it ticks, any less and it does zilch.

I distinctly remember fractional condition damage being added sometime after the big condition update. Am I wrong here?

Fashion Mage.3712:

Nexrex.8273:

What I want is superior Rune of Radiance in spvp… Ill pay a lot for that!
Any chance of that happening?! Pretty please

Ditto. I want PvP auramancers. :>

Tempest auramancers are probably better of taking Soldier runes though.

They are unlocked automatically in PvP.

Tapioca.9062:

I just don’t understand how they think this is a good idea on any level. The idea of elite specs being gated behind world completion + 20 HoT hero points or 40 HoT hero points for every single character is mind boggling. How does anybody look at that as a concept and think, “Yeah, that’s a good idea. People clearly want the content they paid for to be gated behind 40 hero points on every single character. So you have at least one of each profession? What’s effectively 360 hero points between friends? They all come from the exact same four maps. Surely you’ll get really good at grinding out those 40 points per character by the time you’re doing your seventh run through, right?”.

I’m guessing the idea is that getting elite specs is part of the horizontal progression Anet wants to add with HoT. Making them trivial to get would go against that idea.

Doug.4930:

Title.

This is unbelievable.

This is seriously insane. As an exclusive WvW player (very rarely spvp) I was scared that I’d have to grind 170 points to play my elite specialization.

I payed 100 bucks for the special edition to spend hours and hours in pve land?

Come on, even you guys that enjoy pve content have to admin this is a bit ludicrous.

You missed this blog didn’t you: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/earning-hero-points-in-world-vs-world/

Source?
/15charrs

Here is the dev quote:

It’s 400 points total to unlock everything in an elite spec training line – I just can’t remember off hand how many points folks have currently if they have done all the existing ones, but it’s right around 200. The rest you’ll need to earn in jungle to unlock the deeper skills/traits/etc. in the training line.

You only need 60 hero points to begin using your elite spec, the points you spend after that continue to unlock more skills, traits, skins, etc.

Again, hero challenges are worth 10 points each in the jungle. So no you don’t need to go do 200-400 jungle challenges.

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/elite-specializations-how-many-hero-points/page/6#post5628041

Rauderi.8706:

+1 on the recipe reintroduction.

I heard some rumor about special item vendors that might be introduced. Can anyone confirm?

It’s part of the Pact Commander mastery line: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Supply_Line_Management

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Vayne.8563:

~snip~

Chill, mate.

You need to go back and look at the history yourself.

Do a google search on “anet guild wars 2 expansion” with a custom year of 2012. You’ll need to change the date yourself, the link won’t work with it for some reason.

They announced they were working on it over 3 years ago.

Don’t blow up at me because I used ANet’s own timetable.

You’re wrong though. The content of the article does not in fact match the title. The website misunderstood what Colin was saying. What Colin was talking about was introducing ‘large-scale expansion content’. That does not mean that this content is introduced via a paid/boxed expansion. In fact in the context of what he said, it seems like he is talking about introducing this content for free (in other words, he’s talking about the living story/world).

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Diovid.9506:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Kulvar.1239:

The elite specialization should only unlock the new class mechanics and associated traits
New weapon and new spells should go “baseline” for accounts with HoT.

You’re currently saying to waste a whole trait line slot for the sole purpose of taking a spell or a weapon.

This. Makes much more sense.

See my last post in this thread for why Anet decided not to do that.

It is obvious for why they wanted to make it this way, ease of balance, yes, but that is just lazy.

Let’s be honest, it’s not like GW2 is going to be around long enough for there to be over three E-specs for each class, nor will they have the imagination to come up with more than a couple of roles extra.

If that is the case, then why not just balance the ESpec weapons and skills to be usable without the traitline? It’s not hard.

I am not an expert in programming nor in balancing. If Anet claims that it takes too many resources to create and balance more options (if those options will be balancable at all), then I tend to believe them. At least I believe that they believe it.

As an aside, you say that ’it’s not like GW2 is going to be around long enough for there to be over three E-specs for each class, nor will they have the imagination to come up with more than a couple of roles extra’ however even if that is likely, then the system still has to be designed in case that turns out not to come true.

As if the “Rise!” wasn’t enough of a buff to minion masters: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Upcoming-Global-Change-to-Player-Minions/

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Diovid.9506:

Just to clarify: Is this just for raids or for all PvE?

All of PvE, any creature attacks.

I figured that was what was meant. Thanks! This sounds amazing!

Just to clarify: Is this just for raids or for all PvE?

It will be available at 8 AM in the UK.

Rejoice!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/earning-hero-points-in-world-vs-world/

Just now there has been a new blog post on getting hero points in WvW to unlock elite specializations: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/earning-hero-points-in-world-vs-world/

Mostly it will be there on the 23rd. Some things will come a little later though:

Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards

Back when we announced all the updates to Fractals for Heart of Thorns – the announce blog also discussed more information coming before HoT about leaderboards for Fractals. Our team of folks working on Fractal dungeons kept iterating on this concept and ultimately we have decided to make it something more involved (re: exciting) than our original plans which will extend our development a bit more. This also means you’ll be able to earn the new fractal backpack precursor, but a few of the components for the new legendary will come with this expanded future fractals feature.

As always, we’ll discuss features once they’re far enough along to share development details on; our Fractal Dungeon team will be back with more updates about this and other plans for Fractal Dungeons in the future: when it’s ready™.

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Handful-of-HoT-Notes/first#post5624038

At least in SPvP all elite specs will be automatically unlocked if you own HoT.

For WvW we don’t know.

The maguuma masteries only function in the expansion areas.

No, I don’t think they should allow us to because it makes those with HoT more powerful than those without. It also makes those with more time invested (to get mastery points and experience) stronger than those with less time invested.