I will contribute to this discussion by simply saying;
Give the necro some love.
I've played a necro manually and enjoyed it although was not sure how to box it, include in a group until gave the CWTN / Sic plugin a run through it's pre-release beta. This was educational, to be made aware of necro features I was otherwise ignorant of. That strongly gave me a bias of NEC > MAG for groups. The key selling points of a necro in a group, beyond -
"they can do dps" - are as follows:-
Gone are those awful days of twitch. Now the necro has a mana drain line of spells. Send in your pet(s), land the dots and then throw in a mana drain whilst wait for blood to recycle. It will give your group some mana per tick, whilst you get on with doing more necro things, like blood or dots or pets etc.
- Synergy ( Defilers, .. for blood )
The '.. for blood' line of poison DD has been around for many levels, perhaps overlooked as a DD instead of a DoT. It has a recourse that can enhance your damage output. But from level 105, it's the trigger of the necro focus AA for group synergy. Defiler's Synergy. Which gives your group, a percentage increase ( 15%, 20%, 30% or 40%; at respective levels of 105, 110, 115 & 120 ) to the critical damage of both, DD and DoTs. Outside of the necro, are there many other toons in the group throwing DD or DoTs at the mob, that would benefit by having their crits getting boosted?
- Pets ( yes, he did say plural )
We know the three pet classes [ BST, MAG & NEC ], have their own pet to buff and order into battle. There are also some AAs, that with a lengthy reuse timer bring some pets to battle. But then the necro has this 'call skeleton ..' line of spells available to it. Three short life pets, that can zerg the mob, with a new wave to send in a little later. No significant downtime. Feature in the rotation between DoTs, Blood, Mana Drain.
- Rez the dead / ( ..Ally )
It's familiar that when the priests are down, it's either run back or if the group has one, have the necro perform the rez services. It could be thought as painful as it requires the essence emeralds. To get those, necro would either trade these from other necro, or source their own by killing players in sacrifice. That was until I learned of a side perk of the '.. ally' spells. The main gain is the life tap it gives your pet, but there is also a small chance the pet will farm an essence emerald for you, for free, no mats required, from killing mobs. You can build up your own stockpile of EE, or trade them on to other players.
If the tank is either SHD or PAL, then they will benefit from the mana drain and synergy.
The healer, will benefit from mana drain, and if they are also applying damage casts then synergy will help too.
The dps, if they are casting spells, mana drain and synergy will help those.
A group line up with BRD, ROG and BER, perhaps NEC isn't so useful as other options.
But if the majority of other toons have mana bars, if the CC is from ENC over BRD, it becomes quite interesting option.
Regards and Best Wishes