How progression actually works in Guild Wars 2
There is no gear treadmill and no single ladder. What there is instead, and why that makes the game hard to advise on.
Most MMOs progress vertically: a number goes up, last season's gear becomes worthless, and the question "what should I do" answers itself. Guild Wars 2 threw that out, and the result is a game people praise for respecting their time and then bounce off because they cannot tell what they are supposed to be doing.
It helps to know what the systems actually are, and which of them gate anything.
Gear stops
There are six rarities and the ladder ends at ascended, with legendary beside it at identical stats. An exotic set is a few per cent behind ascended and a few silver to buy. That is the whole vertical progression in the game, and you can finish it in an afternoon.
The one thing ascended does that exotic cannot is take infusions, which is where Agony Resistance comes from, which is what gates the higher fractal tiers. If fractals are not your plan, ascended is a small upgrade you can take your time over.
Masteries are the real progression
Account-wide unlocks tied to each expansion's region: gliding, the mounts, crafting improvements, access mechanics. They are permanent, they apply to every character you will ever make, and several of them change how you move through the world rather than how hard you hit.
The catch that confuses everybody is that mastery points are locked to the region that earned them. Thirty spare points do nothing for you if they are all in a region whose tracks you have finished.
Achievements are a currency and a map
The game tracks thousands. Most are incidental, some award mastery points, and a few gate collections. Their value is less the points than the fact that they describe content you have not seen — a half-finished exploration achievement is a map you have not walked.
Instanced content has its own ladders
Fractals scale in difficulty and gate on Agony Resistance. Raids and strikes gate on knowing the encounter, which no tool can measure and no gear implies. Dungeons are largely a currency source now.
What none of this has
There is no correct order. A player who spends three years on collections and never enters a raid has not fallen behind, because there is no line to be behind. That is genuinely freeing and it is also why "what should I do next" is a real question rather than a beginner's one.
The useful version of the question is narrower: given what I have already done, what is one thing that would open up more than it costs? That usually has an answer, and it is usually a blocker rather than a goal — an empty gear slot, a mastery you never trained, a region you have points in and never spent.