Greetings, folks. I'm afraid you've seen such a topic a few times already, but let's make a final decision :) I just came from Achaea and everything was simple, you go Grook Mage/Horkval Monk/Dwarf Sylvan and you're good. Lusternia is quite different :) I'd say the best ones in bashing are elfen wiccans with their nymph/sprite, but maybe it's mugwump magi with their incredible equilibrium. I look in awe at the stats of tae'daes also. But I'm just a newbie here, so I want to hear professional opinions. Three points before we start: first, we discuss pure pvm, second, we speak of high (80+) level bashing, third, we don't count omnitransed artie-covered beasts, four-five trans without artifacts is good. Thanks for reading all these words and... enlighten me! :)

The best basher? Kaervas.

No, really...I think you summed it up pretty good, though I would add Telekinetic Mugwump Magi, for that little edge of tankiness you'll get with Forcefield.
Knights are very good high level bashers too, at least I think that...it takes a lot longer for them to kill, but they can tank most things Mugwumps tend to fear with ease.

A druid with medicinebag, stagtotem, and lightning. As well as trans ecology and a cudgel.
Medicinebag: almost double your sip
Stagtotem: Heals an affliction, mana, and health passivly in the location for five minutes
Lightning: gives you +1 eq
Trans ecology: Never lose exp
Cudgel: best weapon a druid can use
Race: Elfen (higher int for a seren druid with stag.) Human (uhhh sorta sucky but better exp gain). Faeling (Nice balance but thats useless for bashing as a druid). Furrikin (Roll is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice)
edit: and yellow in lowmagic adds +1 con and autumn increased exp gain for an hour

You forgot Mugwump...

Mugwumps suck for druids I dont care but this is my personal opinion.. faeling and mugwump have low con

Furrikin have 1 more con than Mugwump....

that extra 200 health makes a difference level 2 eq and roll > level 3 eq

Besides the point that a Mugwump easily can have +2 con, even more, that point is invalid...

Naw...200 health isn't that much, really....the Medicine bag helps there. And you don't have to use lightning stripes wich slow your balance down. Do they still cost armour as well?

Armour cost was removed. And who cares when yer a furrikin you still have reg balance. No exp loss is the mega plus here.. if you die you just transmigrate

Yep, that's it.^^ Though Tae'dae Ur'Guard with Lich would do the same and could be able to take much more.

warriors suck though.. they sometimes miss and are slow.. but what about roll?! Psh saves me
and lich sucks since eye sigils stop it and trans migrate takes you to a safe place

We are talking about bashing. Were Ur'guards hunt, they make sure there are no eye-sigils. And you don't have to walk the long way back to the hunting ground.

But warriors can -TANK-....woah...makes me sometimes want to be a Warrior too. :>

Ya but when you hunt you run the risk of being hunted down

Hrm....you mean by other players? I hate those fellows that jump someone while hunting....*mutter* That's so completely evil...

Actually, Aesyra became a titan with the hardest restrictions then Kaervas, Kharvik and Melanchthon.

Yep...Cosmicfire sucks...

Lucidian Blacktalon

I would say that best bashers are ur'guards. Warriors generally.
Just take tanky race like igasho take blademaster specialization and you wont be missing.
All warriors can take Low Magic for Autumb (more exp), Yellow (+1 const),
then get Weathering (+1 const) and Strength (+2 str ) from Athletics.

And here are some diffrence:

Ur'guards: Putrefaction (for cost of health reduced damage), Lichdoom (+2 str/int during night, -1 str/int during the day and on top of that wont lose exp when die)

Paladins: Honour (health mana and ego regen), Numen ( for 4 power reduced damage by half for 40secs), Trueheal (for 10p heals you and give back eq and balance, so you can escape death too)

And i'm sorry but i dotn know Ebonguards and Serenguards skills to well.

EDIT: Bah! I forgot about surge but as igasho i dont use it anymore. Just dont need it anymore. Surge converts half of your mana into health. Its 50% mythical in Athletics.

Best high-level bashing class without any artifacts is without doubt a Mugwump Mage. I don't really buy into the value of Lich or Transmigration for hunting...pvm death is 100% avoidable, and Conglutination for when you make a bad call is more than enough. Bashing effectiveness is really just a simple combination of damage-over-time and your own tankiness.

Edit: Should probably clarify that while knights can tank like nothing else, the mugwump mage will kill so much faster that there is no real competition for experience over time.

Half of your mana into max health actually, there's a bit of a difference!

There's also cannibalize which for the most part is worthless but I did find myself missing it a few times after I took tracking over necromancy. You can cannibalize your health to convert half your health to mana, or vice versa.

Edit: I'm going to agree with Melanchthon here, Mugwump Mage is the way to go, especially at higher levels with the criticals. Much faster than knights. He's right about bashing deaths also, 95% of the time I died while fighting mobs it was my fault.