I am new to muds (sorta), I played Achaea but only for a few days and then I got busy and my character got deleted. But that was the only time I've played a mud. I don't plan to buy any credits, they are too expensive for me right now. I may buy some sometime but it won't be a lot and won't be for awhile.

I want to be good in PvP, since I find that a lot of fun. I haven't RPed in a long time either, but once I "re-learn" how to I am sure I would be pretty good at it.

I want to be good on my own, since I don't usually have time to group so I mostly solo (and bash I guess its called here). Warriors don't really interest me, same with most melee characters, I prefer magic/druid type classes.

Also, whats a good race to be for that class?

Thank you very much:) And I hope I have a good time here.

well its going to be hard to pvp activly with only ingame lessons but vary much doable. id suggest maybe a bard mugwump. as they can be rather good with just average lesson although on the squishy side.

Spellcaster types tend to be among the worst bashers.

Some suggestions, however...

Aquamancer/Telekinetic/Tailor/Faeling (or Mugwump) - fair damage output, added tankiness. Faeling for more tanky forcefield, Mugwump for more damage. This one could take some doing, to get the Forcefield -and- Staff abilities.

Nihilist/Tarot/Enchanter/race with high Int, Con or +eq - guardians are worse than mages for damage, but tankier pre-Forcefield and Putre/Ghost makes you very survivable.

Celestine/Astrology or Healing/Cook or Enchanter/race with high Int or +eq - again, guardians are among the worst for bashing, but a Celestine Astrologer or Healer is passing fair and quite survivable. Cooking with Astrology to maximize self-buffing. Enchanter with Healing so that if you trans Enchantment, your healing ability (mana expensive) becomes less mana expensive and suddenly hunting becomes more profitable.

I don't know druids well enough to make suggestions for them. Of mages, Aquamancers are better set up for bashing. Of guardians, Nihilists edge out Celestines for simplicity. If you're quick to make full use of more advanced skills, Celestines would be the better choice.

Also note, greater edge in bashing usually equates to loss of advantage in PvP. For any of these recommendations I've made, they have given up some small amount of their PvP potency.

Something to watch for - the ability to fly is amazing useful for the basher. In so many places you might hunt, flying is a way to take a break in relative safety. Flying races, or Guardian/Wicca classes can fly.

guess you didnt catch the part of his no credits thing huh?

Some of those are obviously going to be slower than others. But then, if we really wanted to maximize hunting/pvp ability with the least credits... it's Tahtetso. And I'm not being biased here, I think. Monk guild + Angel Font makes for great early bashing.

But I do know several multi-trans people who've never bought a single credit with real money. Any of the ideas I gave seem sound.

Eldanien hunted to 80 as a Celestine pre-Symbol. It's not -that- tough.

i agree as monks/warriors can be for the most part fully combat capable with 1 transed skill which is rather easy and quick to get maybe a months worth of casual playing if you work hard.

hmm, well how do warriors compare to monks? I do prefer mages, but if warriors/monks don't need credits to succeed then I'll be one of them

Warriors are simply not effective in the higher tiers of PvP without credits for artifact runes.

Best bet for low-credits is Bard or Druid. Druid bashing sucks, though, so Bard.

well warriors are kind of weird from the other classes as they do attacks that dont always give a set affliction unless using maneuvers. while monks are fast but take some understanding both do vary well. although warriors cost alot of cash. and both classes will take some credits but generally if you care enough you can get them in game.

Mugwump bard or mugwump mage. If bard, get illusions. If mage, get telekinetics.

i do well enough with out arti runes. -peer- if only my cpu wouldn't freeze everytime more than 4 people are fighting.

I've never been much of a music person, in games and in real life. I think I'll go mage.

An Aquamancer Mugwump a good choice?

yep

Aquamancer Mugwump wouldn't exactly be my cup of tea, specially if you're going Telekinetic in the future, though they are indeed faster than most so attacking would be lovely. Merian Aquamancers are quite nice though slightly softer than Mugwump, they are both really soft anyway. A Faeling Telekinetic Aquamancer is UBER soft without telekinesis forcefield but great with it, plus you can get to fly, which is a good thing mobility wise.

There are several good options. I disagree strongly with whoever said that magic-types have the worst hunting; at low levels, they actually do better than warriors.

1. Mugwump/faeling bard, but you already said you do not want to go bard, so moving right along...

2. Merian/mugwump mage (aquamancer is probably a little better since you can use demesne for healing eventually). I would also not recommend telekinesis as other people have been. Dreamweaving is a possibility; it is useful for mage combat, and more so for aquas than geos. Telepathy is by far your best choice. Telekinesis is amazing for bashing, but only if you learn a LOT of it, and even then you are not as tanky as some people say. Telepathy gives you some defenses (from the base skill psionics - it sounds confusing now, but it will make more sense once you get settled in and start learning your skills) and is the best for PVP by far. If you do decide to go with dreamweaving, I would suggest furrikin as a race instead of merian/mugwump.

3. Loboshigaru/kephera/krokani monk. Monks are very nice for hunting, and have some very good defenses. They do take some work to understand, though, and they are not great in combat until higher levels. They are also still under development, so you would have to deal with your skills changing regularly. If you go monk, you can choose between psionics with a specialization in psychometabolism for some nice defenses (increase your strength or dex by 2, glide over water, lots of resistances), or acrobatics which also has some nice defenses, mostly revolving around the ability to contort yourself and dodge attacks. Either one could work well for the races I listed.

Overall, there are a lot of possibilities. I would recommend deciding what kind of character you like to play. I have had characters in all of the different organizations, and they are all unique. Magnagora is harsh and corrupt, Glomdoring is secretive and "communistic" (as in, universally devoted to the same cause), Celest is "good" in a dangerous way ("the kindest thing we can do for them is to destroy them all"), Serenwilde has a little bit of everything and so is usually filled with political conflict. Even within an organization, the guilds are different. The Ur'Guard (warriors) of Magnagora focus on discipline and training, while the Geomancers (mages) of Magnagora tend to play the 'insane' role.

If you would like to post some thoughts on how you like to play, what kind of environment you are looking for, what you like to do, etc. we can help suggest a guild that might fit you well. For example, will you bash a lot? Kill everything that moves? Become a merchant? Run a guild or organization? Do you stick to a given concept of morality, or do you mind twisting things a little to get to your end? Will you be a lifelong devotee to your organization, or simply join to learn what you can from them and work toward your own goals?

My reasoning for stating this is because Guardian/Wicca types are on the lousy end of damage output, which directly affects how much killing you accomplish for a given period of time. Magicians tend to be squishy, particularly when you go for the high Int races to boost damage output. A mugwump magician is among the most frail race/class combinations there are. Hence telekinesis. I don't know how a mugwump telekinetic does it, but a faeling telekinetic is crazy tanky. Faster sip + a mountan of Ego makes forcefield super potent. Add in the ability to fly. And yeah, spellcasters outhunt warrior types early on, but for the bulk of one's hunting career, warriors outhunt spellcasters save for certain niche builds - such as the faeling telekinetic. I'm trying to look at this in terms of total hunting ability, rather than fixing upon the earliest levels or the uppermost levels.

Bards are very potent (after the initial period working up your instrument bond). But then, I get the feeling they're on the verge of a minorsecond nerfing.

If you go with warrior, expect your hunting to start off lousy. Assuming you go with a non-frail race, by the upper end, your overall tankiness far surpasses others and your offense has caught up by then.

I certainly agree with mitbull's monk and organization notes, though.

A loboshigaru monk is a bashing monster, particularly if you take in constution platters, life karma blessings and every other trick to boost HPs. They survive situations through sheer regeneration that would astound many. My lobo monk alt made me seriously consider the race/tertiary change for Eldanien, which I wouldn't have thought possible. Kephera gains tankiness at a trade of offensive potency - but I'd actually hazard the suggestion that a Psymet regenerating Loboshigaru is more 'tanky' for purposes of bashing. There is of course the question of whether they'll stay that way as monk skills get tweaked. I don't know that what a Krokani gains makes up for the opportunity cost of massive regen or beefed up defenses. At least as far as bashing goes.

As well, your organizational affiliation will affect your character in so many ways. Even for a bashing-oriented character, this is something to give a lot of thought towards. You're going to be limited in one degree or another by your organization. Celest restricts a lot of hunting targets and tends to have a fair amount of pressure to chip in when there's conflict. Magnagora, I couldn't say. In the past, they were the most slave-driving organization unless you were a 'top ranked' basher. That's almost certainly changed to some degree, but I think it's their schtick. Serenwilde would seem to have the fewest constraints, but at the same time, there's more politicking going on that might see various people frowning on your character for whatever reason. Glomdoring, I've absolutely no familiarity with but mitbulls seems on the mark overall. I'd trust what he says.

Except for entities loyal to Glomdoring, we have no particular bashing restrictions. Anything that is not Glomdoring is to be transformed or destroyed. That's always been my take (ICly of course ) on bashing.

Somewhere along the line, I had it in mind that he wanted a character focused on bashing rather than PvP. Maybe this'll teach me to read.

PvP potency for the fewest credits...

Monk, Acrobatics. Go for survivability in your racial selection.
Bard, Illusions. Go for fast EQ race.

You do have a point. Overall, I think they balance out - magic-based classes will fly through lower levels, but will slow down a little at higher levels, depending on their skills. I would actually say that MDs are vary good bashers throughout, because of drawdown/mother/sprite/nymph. Mugwumpi are very squishy, but because they are fast they can also avoid being hit until higher levels. As a mugwump MD, I could just shield-whore and keep most creatures from being able to hit me at all. Also, as awesome as forcefield sounds, it doesn't make you as tanky as you would expect because mages don't have very good defenses. In most cases, better defenses > more health. When I was a faeling geo, I tried hunting with Krellan (mugwump MD, before titan) a couple of times. I died quickly both times, while he barely felt any damage at all.

So, yes, you have a point that magic users are a little behind at mid-range levels. Still, I think mages can get to pretty nice damage, and MD ents help them a lot in bashing to help balance things out. Bards are going to be tweaked soon, so I'm not sure about them. Druids are absolutely worthless for bashing, regardless of your level. Also, even though warriors are very good for bashing at high levels, they will fall behind in combat unless you invest a lot of money - that's the difficult tradeoff.



These have actually ironed out a little more for monks. Awhile back, the admin changed monks so that bashing damage is comprised of a combination of dexterity and strength. So, a high dex race (like kephera) can do as much damage as a high str race. In fact, I think dexterity actually counts for more. In my own testing, I tried increasing my strength by two to see how many hits some random mob took, then dropping my strength back to normal and increasing my dex by two to see how many it took. The dexterity increase seems to make more of a difference. The only reason I would consider krokani instead of loboshigaru is that lobos have the magic weakness, which will hurt you when you get into fighting bards and shadowdancers.

I think my original suggestions are probably my picks for a combination of good PVP and hunting. There are other combinations that are good for PVP but not for bashing, or vice versa. If you want a balance, I think I'd go with one of the suggestions in this thread.

The best low credits are monks and bards. Bards currently seem to be better pvp's too. Both are good bashers. For a bard, go mugwump.

And magic classes totally own bashing. The only potential exception would be monks, but I still haven't seen it happen yet. In any case, just look who keeps winning the death competitions!