The new NecroFollow

By far the easiest class to solo up untill mid 70ish/80. Beyond that point without a ton of AA's for the pet, some pet focus item and mage summoned gear they do not tank well any more. You can still aggro kite, fear is resisted too much, you can still tank undead when you can find them with the undead slow.

1 to 50 do dungons. yep, you can pull 3 or 4 blue mobs with an even tossed in or even a yellow once in a while in the old world and pet tank. After the first heal from your merc, the mobs will attack your plate wearing healer and you can pull them off of it one at a time and kill them and actualy move through the dungon.

about the merc, put it on passive till you pull then switch it to balanced. it does not run away when the mobs attack it if you do.

50 to 70 do kunark. at this point your pet can still tank 2 blue mobs but they are taking longer to kill so your merc is going through more mana per fight. more down time but still more effecient than kiting time vs xp earned wise and more loot. outside of kunark the mobs have considerably more hitpoints thus longer to kill and more down time.

at 70 do infected paw till mid 70's. easy single pulls of yellows and the mobs have a reasonable amount of hitpoints. probably the fastest xp gain in the game for those levels. mobs are hitting harder but t1 merc can still keep up.

upper 70's you are done pet tanking more than one blue mob at a time untill you get 1 to 1.5k AA's for your pet and dots. The mobs hit too hard and have too many hitpoints. You can still solo but will be running for the zone if you get a single add. After 1k in AA's or more you can pet tank 1 even con but will still be heading for the zone with an add. even now

at uper 70;s and into your 80.s and beyond you are better off in a group. the xp gain soloing is so slow and tedious it is simply not fun any more. This is the point where the defiant armor and mercs stop being a big advantage like they were at the lower levels. The problem, there is not alot of grouping going on. If you want to get invited to one of those few groups, better play another class. Bard is the most desirable, shamy probably second. mage will get an invite before you too. stronger pet and dd spells. chanter too. can probably beat out a ranger or druid though. beast lord has you beat as well with stronger pet and slow. your glory days are over.

my sugestion, if you want to group, go to a zone where the mobs are blue to you. groups wil take a high level dps over a low level one and if the mage is 5 levels lower than you, you will probably beat them out.

spells, 70 to 75 percent of them you do not need to buy. you will never use them.
the entire desease line of dots, skip them.
the debuffs, skip them.
fear mostly useless after 60, to many resists. unless you want to kite skip them.
pet shields, by the time you get them they will not protect from even a single round of melee, skip them.
all of your darkness snares after dooming, skip them unless you do really want to kite.
focus spells, skip them, were only marginally good for the expansion they came out in
ALL of the dd spells you get, skip them. too little damage for the level you get them. use the dots.
the ae spells including the bonestitched charm series, skip them. too little to late.
all of the undead line except slow, skip them. including charm. charm is hugely mana ineffecient. better off with pet.

for group necro is great sustained high dps. i can out taunt just about any class my level through damage unless the mage or wizard blows half their mana on one target. great pullers. good to have in a wipe. a fd necro with a suspended healer merc can save a bunch of time recovering from a wipe.

but that does not out weigh the benifit of a back up tank a mage pet brings to the table, slow from beastlord, shamen, chanter, bard or player buffs and back up heals from shamen, druid, real cleric. nor does it out weigh a superrior puller like sk, monk, bard or even crowd controll and mana regen with a chanter or bard. you will take a back seat to them unless you are higher level than the zone you are grouping in. with very little grouping going on in the game, this is important after mid to high 70's.

from 80.s and on, i only log in for 30 to 40 minutes begging for a group and if no luck i play another toon. to give you some idea of how often i get a group, i have 2 lvl 55 toons after the two months since i hit 80. my necro is in the mid 80,s after two months of grouping. it does not happen often so maximize your potential and group in areas where the mobs are blue.

I have to agree with everything hexeez said. Necro are, were and will be the best solo class in the game. Kiting and root rotting are the primary strategies you will employ. You can easily solo to 100. No merc required (buffs and the occasional rez.. "how can I die, I have Feign Death!?!?"). As a Necro, your pet is just a mana-less DoT (and sometimes a speed bump). It is not your primary focus and you can solo with out them (you can kill multiple yellow and red con mobs without your pet solo no merc.. not that you want to, but you *can*).

Necrotalk has a fairly current suggested AA path - http://necrotalk.com/showthread.php?t=11310 (in the AA forum http://necrotalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=15 ).

And forums full of places to solo organized by level range (with tips) - http://necrotalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6

If you're looking to pet tank, Mage is the way to go (although Necro's highest level Warrior pets with top pet focus items will approach the Mage pets in tank-a-bility). If your goal is to be the DPS king in groups, I'm really digging mah Wizard.. she makes teh big numbers.