Guild Wars 2

I dont have a lot of money so i couldn’t afford to come back to GW2 right away when my PC broke down, since all i had was a super low end laptop as a backup. That’s my leaving story.

However now that i’m back the game feels completely foreign to me on my max level characters. Should I start a new character fresh to get a feel for it all or is there something i can do or queue for that will feel natural to me again?

If you have empty character slots, make new character to experience NPE change (new player experience), mostly interface enhancement. The personal stories are still the same. If I were you, I will keep the lvl 80 characters for: (1) birthday gifts, (2) playing lvl 80s’ content (e.g. fractal and dungeons). My thought is GW2 hasn’t changed much over a year. Not sure whether or not you miss the living story 2, which can be played again (unlikely LS 1).

you can also watch some streamers on twitch.tv for a visual “feel” of what’s going on. or hit me up ingame for a friendly hand

The biggest change you’ll have is the trait system. At lvl 80 you’ll have enough points to unlock everything in the training tab on the hero panel. After that you can pick 3 trait lines that fit your play style or check out metabattle to see what people say are the optimal builds. Extotic gear is still fine or you can start crafting ascended. Weapons are easier and give a bigger boost. Amulets can be bought with laruls. Rings from fractals and accessories from guild missions. The rings and accessories can be bought with laruls as well but at a higher price.

It may look like a lot has changed, but it’s mainly the visual aspect of it. Take those max characters and jump on a chest train or world boss train. Complete maps or do world completion. As you go along, you’ll see not much has changed.
Or, make one alt and see the minor adjustments. It doesn’t have to be your main, but something else to experience the new changes.