@Tirpitz721 Im not too experienced with the mod yet so take my answers with a grain of salt. 1.)Not sure what you mean with upgrades. If you mean item-upgrades then no there arent very nice items to find in normal mostly items usable with lvl 25 and lower. I would advise progressing to nightmare lvl...

Wait a sec how is your DPS around 2,2k with a needler?
I have
http://imgur.com/S7amQ9q
and my DPS is only half that much.