Guild Wars 2

I read all the info here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/economy-report-brace-yourself-disequilibrium-is-coming/ , yet still some questions are unanswered or unclear.

An official response would be nice, but if there are facts somewhere I have missed answering these questions and a player can verify for me, please reply with the info.
Apologies if I I have missed something which has already been explained, I’ve been away for a week or so and there has been a lot of news since.

“LEGANDARY TREASURES” ACCOUNT MEDAL/ACHIEVEMENT
1.) Since Ascended gear will have a higher/equal stat rating as current legendaries, will crafting a new ascended item grant you the previous “legendary treasures” account medal or will this be renamed to Ascended Treasures account medal?
Or will players still need to craft the old legendaries in the old way to get this achievement?

WHICH IS EASIER?
2.) Assuming you can still craft the old legendaries in the same old way (I have seen no mention of this changing), which is faster, and which is cheaper to craft, the old or the new ascended weapons?

IF #1 IS TRUE, DROPPED ITEMS GIVE INSTANT MEDAL/ACHIEVEMENT
3.) It is stated that ascended gear can now also come from an ascended weapon chest which can drop from various events.
With this in mind, won’t it be a bit unfair to players who have invested hundreds (if not thousands) of gold, or using the new method (if easier) just to get their account medal and prestige of having a legendary/ascended item, only to see a new player kill something and loot an item for free?
Until now all you can get for a quick boost-for-free was the precursor, so is giving players an instant ascended weapon REALLY a good idea? Won’t it be better to just give them a rare/valuable material for crafting a new ascended weapon instead?

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The more I think about all this new information the more questions arise, so feel free to add your own questions to this post also, I’m sure this isn’t the extent of unanswered questions regarding the new ascended items.

#1. Of course not.

#2. While The ascended weapons have long, complicated and time gated requirements, they are being described as taking about 2 weeks. Nothing listed comes remotely close to the time and effort of gathering 2,000 T6 mats, 500 dungeon tokens and a world completion.

#3. You’re suggesting they do something stupid, and then that stupid thing will create even more problems. Since #1 will NEVER HAPPEN, I don’t think we need to fret over the consequences if it did.

Legendaries will have ascended stats, but they are not ascended weapons, they are still Legendary. Ascended weapons are not Legendary, any more than exotics are Legendary right now.

Also..

NO NEW LEGENDARIES?
It was probably a rumour some months back, but people mentioned the possibility of new legendaries coming, but I see in the patch notes there are only new ascended items instead.

So with this in mind, as the stats of new ascended weapons and old legendaries will be the same, but with legendaries having the new added ability to change stat combo’s on-the-fly, should we all continue crafting our legendaries and forget about these new ascended weapons, if we want the “best” weapons in the game?

Why would you think new legendaries would be stronger? It’s the same tier.

Vashoom.8512:

Also..

NO NEW LEGENDARIES?
It was probably a rumour some months back, but people mentioned the possibility of new legendaries coming, but I see in the patch notes there are only new ascended items instead.

So with this in mind, as the stats of new ascended weapons and old legendaries will be the same, but with legendaries having the new added ability to change stat combo’s on-the-fly, should we all continue crafting our legendaries and forget about these new ascended weapons, if we want the “best” weapons in the game?

They updated the graphics of some of the Legendary weapons and added the ability to change the stat bonuses. That’s the only thing they did with Legendaries, they said from the beginning that they will upgrade automatically to match the highest tier of weapons in the game so the change from exotic to ascended tier is not news.

The crafting update is for ascended gear, not Legendaries. The methods used to craft ascended weapons have no effect on crafting Legendaries. For the last year Legendaries have been exactly the same as exotics, with a prettier skin. Now they will be exactly the same as ascended, with a prettier skin.