I got an ogre beastlord to lvl18 and it's been ok and I enjoy the class but I am going to reroll them as an SK because I mained an SK on p99 for 4 years and know all there is to know about SKs up to velious. I am going to make an ogre sk and want to make a trio around it. I could go full Ogre and make SK/SHM/BST and be done with it, but I don't think I will. One thing to note is that the research spells for casters is a big drawback for me and it might be hard to get some of those. I know I can just skip most but meh. I'm thinking of doing SK/DRU/ENC or SK/CLR/ENC but honestly I am slightly leaning towards sk dru enc. Thoughts?
If you save up the words for the research spells you want/need, most people will do the combine for you for free. Enchanter spells are often available in the bazaar (I have Mesmerization, Strip Enchantment and Allure on my trader currently); can't speak for other classes. https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/takp-research-materials-vanilla.3084/#post-16477
SK, DRU, ENCH is very a strong combo don't worry too much about research spells, as other have said you can vendor dive the materials and ask for a free combine easily
Keep in mind there are differences from P99 to TAKP for SK's. For instance disease cloud does nothing here for aggro. Its all AC taps and snares for aggro, so clinging and and shadow vortex are your aggro spells early on (and forever really while you add some more later on). If you are into fashionquesting, Ogre fashion is kinda weak here, so be aware of that. That may not be a thing for many, but it can be for some.
As a Druid I’d suggest SK/Cler/Enc instead of SK/Dru/Enc. The SK and Druid have too much overlapping Utility. They both bring snare and Druids primary strength as a healer is low aggro CHs, which is made irrelevant by your superior snap aggro on the SK (other than scenarios with 4+ mobs at a time where you can’t tag all of them before a CH lands). The only thing Druid would buy you really is runspeed buffs, which you can get via SoW potions, JBoots or Run3, and teleports which are convenient for sure, but just regular run of the mill gameplay especially level 60+ in PoP isn’t extremely valuable. Cleric on the other hand buys self rez which is an enormous time saver. Also you get Virtue which is huge to have over just 9s when you’re on your own. Lastly they’re just much more efficient healers especially at lower AA/gear points in time. Druid though would give you a high level Druid/enchanter which is the best duo to powerlevel a third character with on this server. So if you do go this route and get your SK/Dru/Enc trio to level 65, you could level a cleric 1-50 in about two-three hours /played time. Someone really experienced can do it in an hour or less /played time.
Disease cloud got nerfed to oblivion quite some time ago on p99. Clinging and vortex is the exact same thing we use for aggro on p99. Ogre fashion is the best.
If you know everything about SK, why not pick War, Bst, or Shm? All would work with a Enc/Dru ok, although Shm in particular would require some gear before tanking harder pop content. All 3 have easy to very easy shrink options too. Bst seems like an obvious pick, if you're used to classic, but then I'm partial to them.
If you are going to charm for dps either cleric or druid will work. I will say divine arb and the faster heals on the cleric have reduced my enchanters deaths (although not eliminated them) and the cleric stun is really nice for charming. On the other side having a snared charm mob in space makes recharming doable as well. I often miss track and nukes and debuffs on my druid while running cleric so ymmv. Beastlords really take off around 60. But play whats fun - not whats smart - and you'll stick around longer.
