Returning after a long time

[Seraphis.1359]

Hi I am wanting to get back into GW2 but I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have missed and not sure where to start. I haven't played since before Heart of Thorns was announced, my quest log shows I haven't done anything in S2 of the living world so that's how long it's been.

I have a level 80 Mesmer with some ascended gear that I got from farming fractals, ascended rings and a backpiece(?). The last thing I remember doing was farming some world boss dargon event that was supposed to drop a weapon. Can't even remember the dargons name.

There's a ton of new stuff now and I can follow a Mesmer build guide for my character but where do I go from here.

Should I just continue doing the story quests and pick up the xpacs when I get to them?

I really really really liked WvW, can I just jump right back into that? It seems I wouldn't be as powerful now that there is the new talent tree stuff from the expansions.

Is there new ascended gear I should be going for? Someone last night in game said people don't even really run fractals anymore, is that true?

Thanks for your help

[Randulf.7614]

Always better in my mind to start from scratch or where you left off. Other opinions will differ, but the story is continuous so if you care about it, do it in order. The caveat is if you want mounts, you need to play PoF. Once you own PoF the raptor comes from the first story instance there or the wvw mount (warclaw) can be obtained from WvW

WvW can be jumped into at any time. You can earn the elite specs there as well.

Ascended gear can be obtained from so many places now - wvw, fractals, crafting, raids, collections etc. Fractals are still done, popularity has waned a little is all since the last fractal update was a long while back. Ascended gear is more of a long term goal though. Exotic will do most players just fine