4a) Necro pets are like wet paper now and only 1-3 will be allowed on most raids (they cause a debuff from the raid mob). Necro's can charm undead in groups and charming is really OP. Necro DPS is stack all dots and lifetap in between.
4b) Bards are super in demand due to the DPS they add and utility. They don't really kite like what you're thinking on live though. Probably one of the most in demand raid classes by a long shot as well.
Go hard my dude its fun for a bit on these servers =)
Thanks for that - was just reading up on the swarm kiting changes made A LONG time ago - the change was very reasonable I guess. Sucks because it was a lot of fun to see how many mobs you could stack in a circle without dying or how many you could drop on someone that made you mad/stole your camp. Seems like the bard solo dynamic sort of changed a little bit from what I remember but I think I'll give it a try. The utility of the songs was like a Swiss Army Knife.
Were Necro Pets nerfed? Wasn't aware of the raid mob debuff.. I enjoyed soloing with them a lot with heavy pulls/fear kiting and it was a good way to get by when camps/groups were always full on my server. Do the experience rules favor grouping over soloing? I know some independent servers I've read up on had rules that favored that as a way to bring people together.
Those were my two favorite classes from that bygone era, I'm going to do some more reading on what I can expect from either.