I downloading the patcher everyone uses but there isn't an option for 1.8 or 1.7 on it. Can someone help, I really want to start speed running.

For getting to 1.8.3 you need to patch down to 1.1, then put the 1.8.3 files from the resources section into the 110 to 160 folder, then patch to 160, which will now actually be 1.8.3 instead of current patch. This patch is only useful for UVHM runs, though, so if you're intending to run any other category you'll want to patch to 1.1 instead.

I'm going from 1.8-1.1, so I hit "1.6-1.1" on the patcher and use the files from 1.8 into 1.1?