Personally I would wait for the combat update! However as stated above a barrows or zerker! You could still quest the account fully and turn it into a turmoil zerker! It will set you some new goals to complete!
Anyway... So sorry to hear about that man. Must suck considering you spent a long time working on it! But as you said I guess she didn't know any better
You could try levelling up the defence to a decent level to PK, someone above said to level 20, which sounds good. Just try new things out!
Don't be too mad at your GF though, at least she tried to get involved in something you enjoy doing Unless she maliciously ruined it to get back at you for doing something bad to her haha!
Good luck with the account, you never know it might be better with defence!