Getting Started again

[Taem]

So I fired up D2 last night and found out it's basically like a whole new game -- I've forgotten nearly everything. This is a good thing -- I need something to play but at least for a time I need to stay away from things with a serious time commitment like WoW (which I'm coming off of).

I've not played since 1.10. One thing I've never really done is a sorceress -- I think I had a mid-50s CB/FO sorc, but I like to get most of my characters up to 78 or so.

1. I have no gear as I'm starting from scratch. I am not opposed to twinking but I've got nothing to twink her with.
2. I want to be effective at farming Hell Mephisto. This character will bootstrap other, more interesting ideas.

I'll definitely need a dual-element approach, and I favor survivability a bit more than uber killing speed.
So with these conditions, anyone have any recommendations?

Are there any significant changes to the game to worry about that came with 1.11b? I don't even remember where all my sources of information are anymore. I've been trying to find an updated online skill tree and all I find are 1.10 versions it seems.

I haven't even made it past act 2 Nightmare yet, but from what I've experienced, your cold tree has the highest odds of survivability because you can greatly 'slow' your enemies down. Perhaps Frozen Orb or Blizzard. Combine this with a Holy Freeze mercenary and you should go the distance without dying IMO. I'm not sure what monsters have what immunities in Durance 2-3, so I can't recommend another skill tree, however charged bolt has always been a favorite of mine. You will never be able to maximize both elemental skills if you invest in synergies (even by an unreasonable level of 99), but you can focus on one. Now that you got me thinking, a good approach might be to use cold simply to slow your enemies down and invest heavily in your first element for the get go - your hireling must be capable of dealing with monsters immune to your main elemental attack. At later levels, you can gradually increase your cold skill, mastery, then synergy in that order.

Just thinking out loud. Hope you find a successful build!