Got back into the game, where do I begin?

[Sting]

I recently decided to start playing again, after not having played since around September. I see there's been a whole load of new stuff added like fractals, laurels and ascended gear for example.

I have a level 80 guardian, but his gear is pretty bad. What would be the best way to gear up for me? Which stats am I after?
I haven't even tried to find a group yet for fractals or even a story dungeon seeing as I really have no clue where to start. Currently using either a Hammer or Greatsword for exploring and completing zones, but I ran into trouble when I tried to do the 75+ zones. There just aren't enough people around anymore to do events or skill challenges with. Even normal mobs give me a hard time when I accidentally aggro 2 or 3.

Where do I start? I've been looking around on the gw2 wiki and on guildhead and the amount of stuff to do is simply overwhelming.

[Karizee]

I would not recommend running dungeons or fractals if you're struggling with 2-3 mobs, you will get destroyed. What I would suggest is:

1) Go to the official forums for a good guardian build - you can go really tanky until you learn how to survive then you can tweak your stats for more dmg.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...sions/guardian

2) Once you know what build you want just pick up some cheap greens off the TP til you decide on your ultimate gear set.

3) Join a guild.

4) Do world events for rare gear. There's always tons of people at these events and that's where you can meet peeps to join a guild.
http://guildwarstemple.com/dragontimer/