after a long time of being gone...

hey, I used to play a lot back when prophecies came out, played a little bit of factions and just bought nightfall... now, I have a few 20s left back from when I played a lot, and decided to get some better gear... and I wanna start with a weapon... there's a bow I want in a place a just heard about called sorrow's furnace. So just not to sound like a total noob, what kind of builds do people use to run it? so I can find a pug and get my bow... or are there better bows out there?

If you kept your gear from the last time you played, there is not much to improve on. There is a new Silencing string, and Sundering was improved from 10/10 to 20/20. If you don't care for either of those, there is little reason to replace your old bow...unless you just want a pretty skin to look at. In that case, check out the wiki page for green items. Most of them are pretty cheap nowadays.

can't you put insignias on armor now too? does it stack with runes and stuff?

Insignias aren't really 'new,' per se. They act as a replacement for what were inherent armor mods in Prophecies. For example, what used to be Druid's Armor is now known as Radiant <armor skin> of <rune>. The Radiant insignia provides energy just like the old Druid's Armor; only the taxonomy is different. The real benefit lies in that now you can craft whatever appearance of armor you desire without being stuck with lame stat bonuses.

I see, awesome... is the top armor class still what is at drok's forge?

Yes, endgame armor is still 60/70/80. I doubt that will ever change.

Drok's Forge armor is still max stats armor, yes. Of course, there is still "cooler" looking and more expensive armor elsewhere.

looks mean nothing to me, efficiency is what I want

I'd still like to know what builds people want to see in sorrow's furnace

Only help I can offer is that I see a lot of b/p rangers and order necros in the area. Here is a link that can explain how those builds work.
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Category:Profession_guides

Your best bet might be to post a recommendation request in The Campfire section of guru.

what is a good pet? if I remember correctly a lot of people used the spiders in fissure... or was it underworld?

Pet doesn't really matter. The spiders are from Underworld, but they're just fancier. They don't do anything extra.

when people do uw runs do they usually do the quests that lead to the spiders apearing? I can't afford a spider run since they seem to go for 25k from what I've been reading... and I don't know if I can trust pugs like that

You don't need a spider then. Any other pet is equally good and won't cost you a dime.

but he's already level 20 right?

most pets are the same(except damage type), except bears are "not as good". brutal mauling gives them a slower attack rate and lower dps. but it does activate attack skill puffs(i.e. anthem of flame)