Rdm kinda still has its own place through out all the dd-cls' imo... they are great and outstanding for content like Palace (its still just a RDM who holds the Necromancer title) or Eureka - and well like you said for progression to push further phases... but the back-draw for these advantages is the actually the endgame... there is no given reason to take one for speedkills/farms in the end cause they'll always would either bring a loss in personal dps or even worse in grp-overall-dps : /
for the topic-question I would also say depending on grp comp Nin/Drg for Melees, Smn for Caster or Brd/Mch for range would always be a good choice - all of them are pf-friendly and have advantages in synergy/utility.
