I dont even know where to start, other than to say, welcome back.
E/N is fine. Focus on fire or earth ele skills, for the most part, and get to level 20. Likely you'll wish to switch to E/Mo for group play or play with heroes and henchmen, E/A to access some solo farming capabilities inherent in the class.
My ele has been a farmer as of late (various E/A builds), when I play her, but she has enjoyed fire and earth ele builds in PvE. Rather than suggest a specific build to you, I'd direct you to read the Elementalist forum here a bit and find things that interest/suit you, maybe asking for some direct advice there. You're going to quickly find that you'll wan to get Factions and Nightfall also for further skill flexibility, but you'll be fine for now. Read about skills available and where they can be found from the links provided by Rahja (hiya Sojar).
Factions has probably the fastest leveling areas there are, due to the quests around Kaineng City. Outside of that, gather up yourself some Heroes from Eye of the North and work through that. Heroes will make your life easier and you can likely level there faster than where you are in Prophecies - though you'll need to progress further to get access to where certain skills you'll want reside.
Gear.. just get basic max armor for 7.5k or so, and a collector staff, or a cheap staff with a couple mods, in the element you are focusing on. You can buy something cheap in Lion's Arch, but dont go shopping uninformed.
If I was able to get in game, I'd simply grab my ele and help you out a bit. Itd be easier in game, but alas, my PC is RIP so I cannot. The advice to join a guild is probably the best of everything said.
Have fun and good luck!