I'm thinking of coming back after a long time not playing. My main concern is that I don't want to spend too much time running after preps to have a decent char in PvP fights and, if possible, being survival enough to do some solo exploration.

Of course I thought of going Battle for absence of prepping. In terms of survivability for exploration, I thought of a felar ranger (but they're more or less limited to wilderness) or a bard (but I never played them so I have no idea of race/repertoire and tactics to play them). Defender seems the way for survival (do poultice cure blindness?) but I wonder if it's not better to go berserker for more damage. Any other toughts for a Battle combo?

I also tought of an inducted character (probably shaman) but I'm not sure I'm ready to spend much time in role writing...

When I think of wizards (muter, shifter, etc), I feel that they need to spend their time running after ABS wands to be competitive at higher level wich is definetely not appealing to me. But maybe I'm wrong since I never played one.

Anyway... any advice is more than welcome!

Battle anything
Paladin
Shaman
Assassin (only fight tough people when in trance)

"Easy" preps like protection vs. alignment are probably still worth using. If you have an elemental vulnerability, then maybe something to cover that.

In situations where you can afford to suffer the side effects, then purchasable stone skin.

Battke defender assassin
Battle defender bard
Acolyte/Empire healer/shaman
Acolyte paladin
Acolyte conjurer

Reasonable tanking, damredux, and healing all in one.

Admittedly, if you want full power, you definitely want to follow a religion, but you can also manage the PvE game w/o empowerment. Given there's a handful of pretty open and active religions, I don't think priests are too difficult right now, and if you HAPPEN to manage not to catch your Imm, you're not horribly crippled in the meantime.

Paladins are really survivable and seem to do good even with just their built in preps.

Shamans are kind of close in that regard, but the maladicts available to you can make several tough mobs seem mediocre. Their built in preps are no joke either.