The God Tier
Mercenary Priest
Outside of gimmicks, like a locked door that has no key, there are three things (the classic trinity) you need for a successful PvE trip: a tank, damage dealers, and healers. Mercenaries are not only the best tanks, but also the most damaging class in the game. They are currently (and have been been for a long, long time) the most grossly overpowered class on SK.
Priests bring healing, sanctuary, gate, armor, bless, a religion spell (i.e. luck, energizer, etc.), consecrate item/armor/weapon (for the gear you acquire on the trip), and most importantly refresh - to keep all the melee classes that your formation should have pumping out damage non-stop.
The 'Meh' Tier
Barbarian Scout Paladin Warlock Shaman Bard Rogue Hellion
These classes aren't terrible, but they also aren't priests or mercenaries. They don't have the utility or healing output of a priest and they don't measure up to the tanking ability or damage output of a mercenary. A paladin or barbarian is the poor man's mercenary for tanking, with the shaman and warlock being the poor man's priest.
Hellion, scout, and rogue can do moderate to good melee damage - they are truly 'meh'. A bard can increase the melee damage output of the other classes with songs of war or provide a bit of regeneration with songs of healing - they aren't bad, but they also aren't needed.
The Dumpster Tier (i.e. You make PvE trips take longer and add virtually nothing to group)
Sorcerer Necromancer Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler melee damage is good to superb, but it comes at a price: they are extremely squishy and will be an unnecessary drain on the mana of your healers.
Finally, we have sorcerers and necromancers, which are essentially pet-based classes. But most high end PvE zones have a gimmick (air sectors, anti-magic, etc.) that makes using a pet either impossible or extremely dangerous to the caster and/or his formation.
Due to the saving throw bonus of "powerful" races, it's not even worthwhile to bring a sorcerer or necromancer for blind, sleep, curse, or petrify. They are just taking up a slot that could be filled by a useful class, like a mercenary (funny how this class can fill any slot in the formation - front row as tank or melee DPS, second row as melee DPS with a polearm or spear, and even third row as an archer with a bow/crossbow) or a priest.
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