Guild Wars 2

When you talk to Ogden before the ritual, he mentions that you can get in by using a special seal. Our character says that we don’t have the seal and don’t know where to find it and that’s why we do the ritual instead. Wynne had the seal and at the end of chapter 7, you see Caithe and Faolain enter the cave with her as she opens it (it didn’t close right away).

I don’t think it’s different. It’s 500 crafting to get an ascended piece of armor with a skin you want. This applies to all craftable ascended items. If someone wanted the skin of one of the ascended armor skins, they would need to get the necessary profession to 500 even if they don’t care about the ascended armor (or agony resistance) itself.

Yes, it’s still possible. All of the PoIs, Vistas, etc in Lion’s Arch are still there.