How to ease up the return to GW2

I thought I'd try GW2 after years of not playing (last I played was PoE era, bounced off fully before Icebrood saga) and finally managed to get into it!

I used to live and breath this game and while I was not what you'd call "hardcore" player, I knew about everything going on. Now I'm totally in the black which is weird. I try not to get it to me, I just play through the Icebrood saga story now and try my best not to open inventory and achievement tabs etc to not get discouraged. GW2 was always a bit convoluted, but with so much added in the meantime, it's much.

How do you deal with this? What would be your recommendations for me to "ease into it"? What should I engage after getting my groove back in the story? How to dip my toes slowly into buildcrafting? What new systems should I check out?

Bonus question: would you expect the xpacs to go on sale anytime soon? Next one should be around the corner by now, no?