What are some nice builds and what I should do starting out.

buy gear that has high ee, try to get a decent dungeon, and buy gear every 10 levels or so.

Melee can be cheap to start with:
Barb
Fighter

Mage for welling items and also healing in catacombs.

Guardian... best for Hybrid... tank/damage and heal
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Grind it out first in Arena with melee classes.
Find what drops and upgrade items
When the tough get too tough... re-roll character.

OR

You can join cata group and hope that they help you gain levels (drag you up)
On your way in catas... be fast and get gear that drops... upgrade your items as
you are levelling... some people will help by letting you pick up some drops that could
help you to help them as well.
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If you get some interesting items... put on Mule characters to sell items... you might get some fg.
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Try to get yourself started with TierIII items... (bronze sword/armor are TierIII items)
Upgrade your items as you go... Stick it out... it is boring at the start with nothing / no fg
BUT... it will get better as you get use to it... and it becomes addictive...

T4i

scroll down for a list of builds -> http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=22760522&f=74

any questions feel free to shoot me a pm

go for ee or str (:

Nice info. Will help me, too. Thanks :)

Thanks for everyone's help I'm currently lvl 9 and trying to get levels each day.