Welcome back...
From the looks of your profile page, you've got a few different lower-level characters. The instant-80 token is nice, but I don't think it's too hard to get a character to 80 the long way, with the bonus of getting to try out different ways of playing the build. I'd probably recommend going through the personal story of whichever one you enjoy the most, focusing on experimenting with different weapons and builds. Try to complete all the home instance maps (Divinity's Reach, The Grove, etc.) for some quick XP while you're lower levels. Once you get through the story stuff, you should be familiar with the different weapons and utilities and be comfortable playing the character, so now you can work on getting level-80 exotic armor and weapons to be able to survive HoT.
For your insta-leveled Ranger character, I think it's still a good idea to try different weapons to see which combination you enjoy most. Metabattle has some great builds, but it's focus is more for raids/dungeons and PvP and IMO it's better to find a build you like to play than to worry about the best meta. For my Ranger, I stuck mostly with Longbow/Greatsword, though I haven't used that character since HoT came out so I don't know how differently the Druid plays out.
Anyways, once you're comfortable with a character and have some decent equipment, then I would do the HoT stuff. It's pretty challenging content, particularly if you're rolling solo. I can't comment on raids or dungeons since I have yet to do either and haven't really had a chance to join up with a group to knock any of it out.
Also, try to join in on as many GSCH events as you can, and rep the guild in game so you can ask questions or seek help while playing. This community is what makes the game fun IMO, and few things are as rewarding in GW2 as jumping in to help newer players or being able to ask one of the veterans to help me out.
See ya online!