Old timer coming back
You can use the ‘Releases’ link above to read broadly about major changes, or read the ‘Game Release Notes’ on the front page of the forum, or in the Wiki (link above) for a more detailed perusal.
Welcome return, and good luck.
Here’s a Reddit site for retuning players you can browse through.
ANet may give it to you.
It would be impossible to summarise the balance changes from feb onwards and you will get a lot of subjective and also hyperbolic responses. As balances go, it was nowhere near the big overhaul many other games do with their balances. It was tweaks here and there. Naturally some builds fell by the wayside and new ones cropped up.
The best advice is to head to the profession subforums and ask about the profession(s) you use most.
Most significantly, they are separating pve and pvp skills more and more, which is a good thing.
WvW got some love in the last few weeks. I havent checked recently, but the initial responses was very positive, with big queues to get into WvW. A lot of it is to do with the new rewards system for skirmishes and also the new legendary backpack.
Pvp got automated tournaments, but as a rare pvper, im not best placed to say how that is going. I think it is now solo/duo queue only now based on popular feedback?
Rather than tell you to search yourself, here are some links for the recent updates
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/june-06-2017/
Pve had two new episodes, with new maps and masteries and legendaries
https://www.librarything.com/profile/Randulf,
https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Randulf
(edited by Randulf.7614)