mages and necros both solo very well, and are both very strong classes. its all about your playstyle, do you wanna for the lack of better words.. blow **** up with decent nukes and have your elemental pet wack away at em, or do you wanna really make a mob beg for mercy when you stack on a few dots, fear em, and have your pet beat away. both can be appealing. i have played both a mage and a necro on the seventh hammer. my necro is 70, and my mage is 60. to be honost i have more fun on my necro, and i tend to be able to solo better as a necro, but that dosnt make necros any better at it. mages can solo quite well, its how you play your class; and i honostly think i play a necro better. think about how you wanna approach your fights, with dots, or with direct damage, and go from there. necros do get some forms of direct damage, their lifetap being one of them, but a mage gets the stronger nukes. keep in mind that necros do get lich, which enables them to gain back their mana faster. as far as race goes, my necro is an iksar, my mage is a DE. i too liked to level in Gfay, theres something about that foresty area, and great exp spots. with the expansion PoP, you really dont have to worry about what race you are, just dont get to close to kelethin if your KOS. i made an iksar for my necro because of their hp regen, helps with the lich ( at lower levels), and a DE for my mage.. because well lets face it, DE's look cool. money making? both can pull in some nice plat at later levels. as far as grouping, i soloed most of the time on my mage and necro, but when i did group, i enjoyed grouping on my necro more. they have more utility to give to a group including twitch, heals( not the best heals, but heals nontheless), awesome damage, and on occasion if we got to many adds i would taptank one of the mobs.. pretty much chaincast litetap, leaving the tank with 1 less mob beating on him, putting less preassure on the tank. now you can get away with that at lower levels, but i find if i try and taptank a WOS mob.. well lets just say its not pretty, they have alot of hp, and hit hard. mages in a group provide good damage with their nukes and pets. having your air pet out helps alot with damage, having the air pet stun means the mob is taking damage while the tank is not. even if the stun lasts for a sec.. thats 1 second the mob didnt have to attack, and that 1 attack could of been a double attack. i find that mages at later levels are used for good DPS, and they get alot of utlity spells as well, pet kits are nice, mod rods, which i dont know if you remember, has a right clicky effect that damages you and returns mana. very nice to have in raids. i can go on and on describing mages and necros, but the choice is yours, i hope some of this info helps in what you decide to make.