@Nail, but you do realise that a “I wouldn’t bother” advice is not really welcome in this topic? Such words and other “ET is death!!1” opinions are ruining the game way more than XP save.
As for mods @OP - it depends. Whatever floats your boat.
If you like more competitive and serious gaming, look for the suggested ETPro. But this isn’t probably the best place to start, unless you find a civilized public server without loads of high egos and trolls. Which are a rarity at the moment, unfortunately.
Otherwise, if you prefer something easier, join any other mod: silent, etpub and nitmod are currently the most popular ones. You need to watch out for bot-filled servers though. TB (TrackBase) serverlist is useful for that.