Gruhk was first titan, he was mainly bashed as human or viscanti. Ur'guard with low magic, its whole secret.

Aesyra was Dracnari guardian all the time but she had putrefaction to high level when she come to Celestines and those dont have putrefaction or Lich.

Niara High Elfen driud all the time i think right?

Melanchthon, Changeling warrior, Ur'Guard and later Ebonguard.

Kharvik. Mostly human warrior. Er'Guards, Paladin, Ur'Guard again and Geomancer on the end. Human all the time right, he changed to Mugwump when was titan already right?

i'm not sure about Kaervas. Geomancer all the time but started as Viscanti right? Human and Mugwump on the end right?

Yeah, Wiccans are ABSURDLY good bashers from when they get Nymph until level 80 or so. Whenever Gorgogs become too little experience or too slow.

Tae'dae can't really maintain Surge (Don't know the specifics, not a warrior), from what I understand since they have such low int. So, that makes them less tanky than they appear.

though a Tae'dae Ur'Guard could easily maintain putrefaction with the right enchants and all....much more tanky.

Nah - you need high levels of health regen + enchantments to keep putrefaction up to be honest, otherwise you do have to sip occasionally.

Hrm, shouldn't be the level 2 regen ring and a mercy enchantment be enough?

L2 regen might be enough, but L1 with mercy definitely isn't.

For the warriors, you can rank the guilds by hunting effectiveness like so: Serenguard, Ebonguard, Paladins, ur'Guard.

People rely on extreme tankiness and skills like Lich/Transmigrate as crutches. You don't need them. I was a mugwump Nihilist into my early 90's, gained one level as an ur'Guard, then went to titan as Ebonguard faeling. You don't need racially in-built tankiness, you can acquire tankiness for whatever race you have. If you are a warrior concerned just with hunting, select a race with good strength and avoid anything with balance penalties.

Bashing effectiveness concerns only two things: How fast you kill, and how well you are able to continue killing. The first you should maximize, the second you just need enough to get by with. Any more may make you feel good, but it's a waste.

L2 regen plus an enchanment keeps up with putre at 4.5k health, but lacks a little at 6k

First, merians still have fast equilibrium, just not as fast as mugwump. And mugwumps are probably due for a downgrade due to how obscene the equilibrium is. Most Aquamancers are merians, but, then again, I can't think of many aquamancers above level 80 that have always been aquamancers. Could just be me that has broken level 80 in the guild Having 20 intelegence is nice though (imperial merian + knowledge blessing), I've always enjoyed coming onto forums and seeing the occational complaint about the damage I do to them without any artifacts. I'm able to kill things quite fast, and reflections are really, really nice for the harder things that I can't tank.

Oh, and I can't really think of any Lucidian aquamancers, so that doesn't seem to be a very popular (and possibly not very successful) option. The last thing you really need as a mage is a physical damage weakness.

Well, he's talking about 4 to five trans skills, isn't he? So Resilience is nearly a must have...I'd put it this way:

Trans planar
Trans Resilience
Tritrans Guildskills if Warrior (Mages don't need all three skills trans to Bash, really)

Mugwump Mages make the best for hunting at higher levels because staff has a very low base speed. When you attach a level 3 Eq bonus onto there, they can easily get down to 2 seconds per staff. As a comparison, I am only able to break 2 seconds per swing as an Aslaran (base 12 Str) with 300 speed rapiers, but I sacrifice all forms of damage in the process (no Strength, low damage rapiers). But a Mugwump Mage is able to hit hard (base 15 Int) and fast at the same time.

On a second note, you could always attempt the Mugwump Serenguard route. I know from personal experience I could easily reach at least 5k health as a Merian Serenguard even at low level, and with drawdown/moonburst I could bash incredibly fast and tank at the same time. A Mugwump would definitely be a lot better build if you're just into bashing.

Okay, got it Thank you all who participated. Now let's talk about magi a bit. Dreamweaving and Runes are pure PK skills, I don't see anything handy there. Telepathy has Forcefield only and with low charisma it isn't very helpful. Or is it? Now, Geo and Aqua look like pretty equal for bashing, but those ur'Guards patrolling the mysterious Catacombs Well, to be short, what everyone thinks about third guildskill and the guild itself?

The single most important factor in being a good basher is having access to somewhere to bash. Why did Kharvik return to Magnagora? As it is, it seems that Magnagora is the only place with high level bashing ground (Catacombs).

And whereas people can whine and moan that yes, people like me do invade the Catacombs and tear down those rifts, it is a matter of convience. For the most part, I'd gather that you could bash there 90% of the time as a Magnagoran citizen with little to no opposition.

How fast you can deal damage and how much damage you can take is irrelevant when there is no place to bash... and knowing this, the question on my mind is why we don't have more bashing areas for mid-high level people versus more newbie bashing areas (tidal flats), etc.

And my vote for best basher goes to Niara because she had to get one or two levels in the 90s on Water and respawns on Astral without a cubix. That takes a lot of devotion compared to "I think I'll go bash the Catacombs."

Actually, Forcefield as a Mugwump isn't that bad, I think. You can go from 11 Charisma easily to 16, meaning around 4k ego at level 77, probably around 4.5k at level 80, so that means you are far tankier than without it.

Geomancers and Aquamancers are not truly equal bashing. I'd say Aquamancers are far better because you can setup the two effects that give passive health/mana and passive affliction curing as you bash in your demesne.

As for forcefield, it is in Telekinesis not Telepahy. Furthermore, Ashteru is correct that it isn't all that difficult to boost charisma enough to get a decent ego for forcefield.

Psionics also gives you the ability to resist damage types I believe, so more protection in bashing aside from the Forcefield.

Not sure if you noticed this, but according to your previous statement Geomancers would be better than Aquas because they have Catacomb access.

Uh no, he's talking about skills wise, not bashing area wise.