Actually all weapons have not been nerfed, that's becoming a very common misconception. The only ones nerfed were the assault rifle, scrambler rifle, combat rifle, SMG, and scrambler pistol; most weapons were not nerfed, in fact some were buffed (laser rifle and mass driver).

To the original poster:
With this latest buid (1.8), you should have had your dropsuit skills refunded. Be very very careful on how you spend your SP. I recommend making fits with the militia basic frames from the market's militia section, testing out what you like before deciding on a dropsuit race/type. To further help you decide on your suit type, I would suggest checking this (click here); it lists the new 1.8 bonuses for all the dropsuits, and their slot layouts, HP, etc. 1.8 released with lots of bugs, so some slot layouts, bonuses, and stats might be different than they'e supposed to be when they're fixed.

Assaults and commandos (the heavy specialization with 2 light weapon slots) have bonuses to specific weapon types like projectile weaponry, laser weaponry, etc, so if you want to be an assault, you need to know which weapons are covered by your suit bonuses. You can find the weapon type categorization here.

Since you haven't played in 9 months, you should be aware of many new weapons currently in the game.

Rail rifle: basically an assault rifle with a tiny 0.25 second spool up time before automatic fire, it has amazingly long range, and doesn't sacrifice much damage per second. Even after the nerf it kicks ass.

Combat rifle: a burst assault rifle with extremely high rate of fire, it completely destroys even after the nerf. I strongly reccomend it if you want something relatively easy to get back into things.

Magsec SMG: a higher damage per second SMG with also longer range. I strongly recommend having the sill to level one to use the standard one.

Ion pistol: fast firing pistol, but has less range and damage per second than the scrambler pistol. It has a charge shot ability, but it will automatically make the weapon overheat, and it isn't enough to kill most suits; you're better off sticking with the scrambler pistol if you need a pistol.

Bolt pistol: a high range, high damage, low rate of fire, and low magazine size automatic pistol. Franly I'm no sure how I feel about it yet.

In addition to all these new weapons, I reccomend you try all the weapons in the game at least once to find what you like.

Before specializing deeply into a weapon or dropsuit, I would make sure you have good core skills.

Shield upgrades for more base shields

Amor upgrades for more base armor

Electronics for more base CPU

Engineering for more base powergrid (PG)

Etc

As for just playing better, I would suggest try to avoid running into heated combat areas, and attack from behind, flank more, that kind of thing. A scout dropsuit would also be really great for this kind of thing because they are stealthy, their passive scan precision and ranges offer great situational awareness, and they have a bonus.

I would also advise playing a support role to help yor team if you don't thrive in combat; put some drop uplinks for your team to spawn (but not too close or enemy will find it, maybe 120 meters away), drop nanohives to replenish your teammates' ammo, or carry a repair tool to repair your teammates' armor. If you go the support route, logistics dropsuits would be a good choice for you since they allow you to carry multiple equipment. A scout could also pull off the support role thing since they now have 2 equipment.

In my experience, fitting armor plates and armor repairers are a good general strategy for staying alive. Might want to give that a try. If you like stacking HP with armor plates and/or shield extenders, you might want to try the heavies (basic heavy, commando, or sentinel).

Tell me if you want to now anything more specific.