I just recently started back again (2 years off) with a druid, and a I have him up to lvl 82. But my equip is not great... i want better stuff and was wonder what the best way to go about it...should i just keep searching (which i have), trade with others (i don't have good things to trade if i did i would use them), or should i buy from online vendors

The best (and cheapest) way to get items is magic find. Sorcs are best for mf because they are the least gear-dependent class. Start out by building a sorc and mf your way to the top.

I am assuming by magic find you mean to have equip that allow for greater chance to find magic items. And then use the magic items to build up? Sorry to be so newb. Also how would i go about transferring items from one character to another?

Yes, magic find depends on the gear your char is wearing. The more magic find you have, the higher the chance of good items dropping is when you kill bosses.

If you are playing single player, you can download a mod that lets your transfer items from one char to another. If you are playing online, you will need a friend to stay in the game and switch out chars to transfer. You can also create a password protected game and stay in there for a long time, and then switch chars to do the transfer, but this route is a lot riskier and the game might close before you get your char back in or you may get dropped and lose everything you dropped in the game.

Best bet this patch is to run with a Hammerdin or a Cold Sorceress. Lightning Sorceresses are very proficient for this stuff too, but also very gear gear dependent. Hammerdins can be used with relatively cheap gear, but optimally they need to be very expensively suited.

I'd say make a Blizz/Orb Sorc and get to work. You can pick one or the other really. The main thing to remember with any MF Sorc is to invest at least one point in Static Field, because with bosses (Mephisto is the primary hot spot for MF runs) you can get most of his health down with a few simple casts of it. Lightning Sorceresses take bosses down really quick with Static and Lightning. Works great.

Blizzard Sorc is also great for doing Pindle runs, which is a very fast and efficient way of magic finding. Doesn't require any gear or time and can be done very easily. Just make sure not the hit the WP inside of Nilly's dungeon, or it'll close the portal in Harrogath, which is your access spot to Pindle.

I believe he's got a 97 tier drop rate on him, meaning he can drop any item in the game except for Tyreal's Might (and maybe Azurewrath, not sure). Neither are really used anyways, especially Tyreal's Might, so it doesn't really matter. If you feel so inclined as to get that armor for whatever reason, good luck. You'll be running Baal forever, and it's not really worth it.

I say Blizz and Pindle. Hell, your Druid can probably do it just as good. Just make sure you kill him and his guys as fast as possible, because the dead soldiers at the entrance will reanimate, charge you, and probably kill you if you don't make the kill and get your drops relatively quick. I did Pindle with my Wind Druid. Toss up hurricane and spam some tornadoes; you're set. Have fun.

If you're not elemental though, don't bother.

quote Arcaida

Best bet this patch is to run with a Hammerdin or a Cold Sorceress. Lightning Sorceresses are very proficient for this stuff too, but also very gear gear dependent. Hammerdins can be used with relatively cheap gear, but optimally they need to be very expensively suited.

I'd say make a Blizz/Orb Sorc and get to work. You can pick one or the other really. The main thing to remember with any MF Sorc is to invest at least one point in Static Field, because with bosses (Mephisto is the primary hot spot for MF runs) you can get most of his health down with a few simple casts of it. Lightning Sorceresses take bosses down really quick with Static and Lightning. Works great.

Blizzard Sorc is also great for doing Pindle runs, which is a very fast and efficient way of magic finding. Doesn't require any gear or time and can be done very easily. Just make sure not the hit the WP inside of Nilly's dungeon, or it'll close the portal in Harrogath, which is your access spot to Pindle.

I believe he's got a 97 tier drop rate on him, meaning he can drop any item in the game except for Tyreal's Might (and maybe Azurewrath, not sure). Neither are really used anyways, especially Tyreal's Might, so it doesn't really matter. If you feel so inclined as to get that armor for whatever reason, good luck. You'll be running Baal forever, and it's not really worth it.

I say Blizz and Pindle. Hell, your Druid can probably do it just as good. Just make sure you kill him and his guys as fast as possible, because the dead soldiers at the entrance will reanimate, charge you, and probably kill you if you don't make the kill and get your drops relatively quick. I did Pindle with my Wind Druid. Toss up hurricane and spam some tornadoes; you're set. Have fun.

If you're not elemental though, don't bother.

Fishymancers are the best, potentially, especially if starting fresh. The biggest reason, as you said, is because of their ability to solo the entire game in every difficulty completely and utterly naked. You don't need any items at all realistically, and the fact that you can go one step further and build a hell of a nice set-up makes it even nicer. Running Nightmare and Hell naked obviously takes more skill, though a merc is often required to get your first kill for summoning (unless you're working with Golems, as well). They're great for running the Throne as well as some of the areas you mentioned.

And while single elemental sorceresses are fairly useless for working Hell, if you can get a Blizz Sorc through Hell with some help, Pindle is seriously one of the easiest routes, even with subpar gear and a single element. It might not be as productive as farming high tiered levels and areas, but it's insanely fast, and is one of the most successful I've ever used.

Hammerdins do need at least decent gear to have much luck, but once you do get some gear, they're great at farming just about any spot.

I think the build you use is really very dependent on where you're planning to MF at and what other applications you want to use the character for. The character I've had the best time MFing with was a Javazon. A little slower to kill the Lightning immunes, but she was a Goddess at owning everything else that moved. Players 8 Hell and all.

It's kind of up to preference really, because there are a lot of ways to go about building up items, and a lot of different characters to handle each job. A lot of people can get pretty decent items to start through gambling and crafting. Most people just don't go about those methods.

My recommendation is to get a Fishymancer and from the start of the game, start decking him out in Gold Find gear, because if you do it just right, you'll build up tons and tons and tons of gold, and it almost makes gambling more practical then hunting for your items. Plus that way you can at least take a shot at the item types you actually want.

The thing about Javazons, though, is that your choice of weapons is more limited than for any other build. There are no javelin runewords, and the uniques are few and far between, so you're basically stuck with whatever rares you can gamble.

"Fishymancers", much as I love them, have two big failings. One is that you need to build up your army before you start the MF run, which slows things down a bit. The other is that effective deployment of your army requires teleport, and if you aren't rich enough to have Enigma, repairing charges costs a fortune.

I would recommend Lightning Trappers as a beginner's MF character. They are very cheap, extremely safe to play, they can kill anything, their +skills weapons can be shopped for (although the choice of runewords is poor) and Fade solves resists issues, in case you're having bad luck with charms and armor. Trappers are especially good for Baal runs- you can play hide and seek behind those pillars in the Throne Room and in Baal's room while your traps are blazing away, and you don't have to deal with that annoying Hoarfrost attack that knocks you back, chills you and burns your mana.

Titan's Revenge is really the only option for a weapon with a Zon, but it works. And well. It even cuts enemy lightning resistance, which is a huge plus. Pair it with T-Gods and you've got lightning down. Holy Shock / Light Resist Pally will probably beat you out on resistances, but you can always get a Doom helmet for the Fade charges. Works well on just about anyone.

Naj's Puzzler is also a very very cheap alternative to Enigma, and is what I used as an alt on my characters before I could afford Enigma.

Trapsins do work well though. They're also insanely good for dueling in my experience. And if they've got teleport, eh, just give up.

quote Arcaida

Titan's Revenge is really the only option for a weapon with a Zon, but it works. And well. It even cuts enemy lightning resistance, which is a huge plus. Pair it with T-Gods and you've got lightning down. Holy Shock / Light Resist Pally will probably beat you out on resistances, but you can always get a Doom helmet for the Fade charges. Works well on just about anyone.

Sorry, I meant Darksight. Not sure why I said Doom....

And I do understand that Naj's Puzzler isn't exaclty the most common drop in the world. But if you're starting from scratch it's much much easier to get than Enigma. I found a few of them myself, but I've never found the runes to make Enigma. Obviously not everything is feasible to just grab up out of nowhere, but they're at least cheaper or more common alternatives.

Darksight has charges of Cloak of Shadows, not Fade.

What the hell am I smoking

I haven't played this game in forever, as you can obviously tell. And I should probably stopped talking.

Darksight works wonders on an Enchantress, though.