Coming back to GW, confused!

So it's been a few years, and I've been really feeling the itch to play again. Last thin I remember doing was numerous Sorrow's Furnace runs on my monk (and FoW and UW). But that seems like old news now. Anyways, I have a few quick questions.

1) Monks aren't healers anymore?! People have been telling me eles are primary healers now...what's the deal? What changed?

2) What are people running PvE-wise? All these abbreviations are confusing me.

3) I'd like to jump back into some PvE content, and I don't mind leveling a new character. Are there any classes (builds I should say I guess) that are particularly in high demand now? I remember back in the day nobody wanted to play a bonder monk in FoW, and I used to love doing it (even if it was so boring lol).

Cheers. I had a fun time opening all my birthday presents in game

monks are still used a lot as healers... specially the UA (unyiealing aura monks)

1. Ether Renewal revert in PvE happened, resulting in this build. I wouldn't be ditching a monk to take one of them or look for them over monks though.

2. For all your knowing-what-the-current-builds-are needs, there's PvX wiki. Get used to it.

3. Assassins are in high demand and have been for a while. Elementalists, Monks, and Ritualists are also in demand, Warriors and Necros almost but less so. This is all based on what sees the most play in today's speed clears (a term you're probably not familiar with, but it's just like it sounds), which ANet has recently been turning its attention to for nerfing and toning down.

Common Guild Wars and internet terms

Monks haven't been changed. It was Ether Renewal that was reverted (or at least buffed) to how it was ages ago. Basically, with high energy storage (you'll be able to afford it) and 3 enchantments on you (ER counts) you'll get 12 energy back every time you cast a spell. With Monks, one of the hardest parts is balancing prot/heal spam with energy management. ER basically nagates this completely. In fact, you actually gain energy on cast, so big prots (think: prot spirit) can be used on recharge without concern. Also, since you make an energy profit on cast, you can afford to spend all 4 of your energy pips on maintained enchantments.

Signet of Spirit (SoS) Rits, Minion Bombers (MB) Necromancers, ER Eles (has Monk and Necromancer variants), Smite Monks, etc. Just look through PvX. You'll find stuff.

Look at the speed clears on PvX or Guru. Since Anet takes about 6 months or so to make decent sized updates, you don't need to worry that something will get nerfed. For regular PvE, basically anything other than a Mesmer, Paragon, Ranger, and Dervish should be able to get groups. Don't worry about this too much though, you'll end up playing with AI more than you do with people and games are for fun: if you want to do something, do it.

Also, while you were gone, a wiki was added as in-game help via F10, Help on Menu, or /wiki in chat. The first two will bring up situation specific info, the /wiki can have a word added, e.g. /wiki armor, to get specific help. This wiki opens in another window.

The Campfire section of guru has subforums for each profession with stickied basics threads that will give you a good idea of the uses of the professions.

Join a guild for help. The Guild Connections section has "guild looking for members" and "player looking for guild" forums.

Welcome back, and enjoy the game.