Also, if you have not yet completed the pre-Heavensward Main Scenario Quests, I believe that you still qualify for Novice status. Type

/nastatus on

in order to get back your sprout icon and mark yourself as a novice adventurer.

Why would you do this? In order to gain access to the Novice Network. The Novice Network is a special chat channel designed explicitly to answer questions exactly like the ones you're asking above - and in fact, I've personally answered those very same questions in Novice Network, many times over.

Once you have your sprout, find any Mentor (they will be marked with a Crown icon, a Crown-and-sword icon, a Crown-and-flag icon, or a Crown-and-hammer icon) and ask to be added to the Novice Network. Or, just wait, and a mentor will most likely invite you whether you ask them to or not. XD Once in the novice network, mentors will be falling over themselves to answer any questions you might have. It is much faster than depending on a message board.

To answer your question about ilvl 86 gear, no, that gear will not take you far. That said, at your level you should be able to earn Tomestones of Poetics which can be traded in for ilvl 120 gear quite cheaply - and also to upgrade it to ilvl 130 (also quite cheaply). This will serve you well for any level 50 content.