I think for people who can't get into their old account, while starting over does suck I think in all honestly its better for an mmo to start fresh after yearrrrs anyway so you aren't confused, I would recommend just making a new f2p account and going through the base game.
Guild Wars 2 has been getting a great surge in popularity lately, I see players in every single zone I go to and the game has also seen quite the uptick on youtube, twitch, etc. It may not be seeing the insane explosion FFXIV got but it certainly is doing really really well.