Welcome back... I've recently come back and have similar goals. I prefer solo work, and highly prefer a trusty weapon over any spell book.
My main character is an ABC archer... Here is the template that he uses, which works very well for what I do:
120 Archery
115 Tactics
120 Bushido
100 Healing
100 Anatomy
100 Spell Resist
65 Chivalry
720 Total
120 Archery: Obviously for chance to hit and damage.
100-120 Tactics: Extra damage.
120 Bushido: Perfection (damage), Evasion (resist), Lightening Strike (chance to hit).
100 Healing: Straight forward... Since you will not gain anything from Bushido stances, you will rely almost entirely on bandaids to keep your hide running.
100 Anatomy: Needed for healing and gives a lesser damage bonus.
100-120 Spell Resist: Good for resisting paralyze (highly recommended as an archer), poisons and debuffs. If you are going PvP take it to 120.
65 Chivalry: All you need to cast the most necessary Chivalry spells with high or 100% success. Your way to get around and deal much more damage, especially in PvM. Cure and heals can come in handy, but your bandages will handle most of that.
This template is very mana intensive, you will want to dig up some high + Mana and Mana Regen items and especially a high mana leech bow to keep your mana pool up. If you feel the need, change Spell Resist for Meditation... It allows you to continue dishing extra damage, and may be worth changing out. Poison and Paralyze will be quite a bit more annoying, though. Keep in mind Meditation will require a medable suit (leather or lighter, not studded), but that is fairly irrelevant these days, since leather armor can easily have better protective stats than plate armor (sadly enough). If you plan on going PvP at all, Spell Resist will serve you better. Even for PvM, many people recommend taking Spell Resistance.
More information here:
http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=1721
I play on Atlantic, it's apparently the largest (most populated) shard at the moment. There seem to be quite a few active guilds if that's what you want. Lots of people willing to help new players or return players. New Haven bank is usually littered with some basic equipment to help you get back on your feet as well.
If you need help in game feel free to send me a PM/ICQ, but keep in mind I'm fairly new myself.
Happy hunting!
~ Solikos