Ok let's just cut to the chase here.
I understand you introduced a new item (Refine Essences) and you are trying to make them seem worth while to players, but why take something out to put something in? Yes new servers will not see any problems, but servers that have been able to do Brother's Farewell will. Players who have been doing these TI's now have a clearer advantage over new players or slower players. Not to mention that when we end up replacing our current tools we then can only port over 1 of our gold stats, or transfer the xp.
If you are trying to make Essences the new "BUY THESE!" item why not make them better than what we have instead of slapping your player base in the face. Make them give red stats, or just max gold stats.
I'm not gonna go into length about this part, but it is extremely fishy that the "bug fix" came in right as the essences were introduced, and the "bug" was discovered 3 months after gold stat tools were introduced...