Bots/Dark would probably handle your play style. Bots stay at range which make them a bit easier to manage, and the Protector Bots will buff and heal the other bots. Dark will give you plenty to do and the -to hit will stack nicely with the +Def from the Protector Bots. It may get a bit boring but you can always up the difficulty to compensate.
Poisonous Ice 50 Ice/Rad
Icy Jax 50 Ice/SS
Jaxon Penn 50 Shield/Mace
Cpt Clax 50 Thugs/Dark
Lady BlackIce 50 Dark/Cold
Lady Black Ice 50 Dark/Ice
Bella Jax 50 Storm/Sonic
Operative Jax 50 SoA
Level 50 Trick Arrow Alts
TA/A-Plant/TA-Bots/TA
Level 50 Claws Scrappers
SR-Regen-DA-Invul-WP-FA
Since you are new to MM I would push you towards Bots, the undead take quite a bit of micromanaging in order to take full advantage of them. Bots are probably the most self-sufficient MM pets and dish out the damage on insane lvls, granted it wont seem this way till post 26 and more so post 32.
My recommendation:
Bots/Dark - Could fit theme of having Tech pets and dark witch powers. This is a very powerful combination. Once you get your lv 32 upgrade the Assault Bot gets Hellfire missile with that stacked on top of your Tar Patch its a thing of beauty.
COH 50s
Stone Protector - Stone/Axe tank
Righteous Infernal - Fire/Kin troller
Savior of Paragon - Nrg/Nrg blaster
Lt. Casey - AR/Dev blaster
lil sticker - Spine/Reg scrapper
Cool Fire - Ice/Ice tank
COV 50
Mu Destroyer - Stone/Elec brute
Agreed on Bots... they're tough, easy to control, and pretty self-reliant. They don't do a lot of damage at early levels, but they do enough to get by and once you get the Assault Bot (and especially after the second upgrade) they are real powerhouses.
As for secondaries, /Dark is indeed powerful and pretty active. I personally prefer /Traps (I love Force Field Generator), but either one pairs well with Bots. Both can handle fairly tough challenges... by which I mean pretty much anything in the game short of a solo Rikti Mothership raid. 
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
As the others mentioned bots would be much better for your proposed play style than necro. In addition to dark you could take a look at storm. It would also fit your techno witch theme and is quite powerful. However, it takes more skill to play well, especially on a team. When solo your bots don't get annoyed by knock back, but team mates will if you use it indiscriminately.
I definitely do not speak from experience; I too am a new player, but I had to make the same decision and this is my analysis, based on what I've read and my examination of the power sets.
Necro and Ninja are melee. I wanted melee minions, so those are the two I looked at. Necros are resistance based, Ninja are defense/hide based.
I'm playing Necromancer and I'm pretty happy so far, because I like to stand at the outskirts of a battle and assist my minions. I leave bodyguard mode on for the alpha, then start ordering attacks on one target at a time. Because I've already got my target of choice highlighted, it's just one button push to mark him for taking down. I don't see how this qualifies as micromanagement.
If you turn your squad to bodyguard mode, Jounin hide and Smoke Flash should help you keep the aggro on yourself so the damage is split between everybody, which means not only do you get a large effective resistance bonus, but everyone's regeneration rate is added together, so you heal faster, too.
But if you're going to do the tanking for your squad, bots is the way to go. I don't know why but several dozen posters agree. Full bodyguard mode and keeping the aggro on yourself means the damage is evenly spread among all your squad, and, since everyone is suggesting Dark, the group heal is very effective since your squad will usually be equally hurt, you shouldn't be "wasting" heal on untouched minions. Focus your pool powers on personal defense and holding aggro, and you can be out on the pointy end while your firing squad assists.
I didn't look at thugs or mercs because I simply did not want to play them.
This is simultaneously advice and question. Anyone can feel free to correct me or add to what I say; it'll be good for us both.
Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to try out Bots/Dark and see how that is.
[ QUOTE ]
But if you're going to do the tanking for your squad, bots is the way to go. I don't know why but several dozen posters agree. Full bodyguard mode and keeping the aggro on yourself means the damage is evenly spread among all your squad, and, since everyone is suggesting Dark, the group heal is very effective since your squad will usually be equally hurt, you shouldn't be "wasting" heal on untouched minions. Focus your pool powers on personal defense and holding aggro, and you can be out on the pointy end while your firing squad assists.
[/ QUOTE ]
There are two main reasons to go Bots if you want to tank. First, Protector Bots will bubble you, giving you more defense (close to 10% more, as I recall) which helps you take more attacks. Second, the Protector Bots also heal other robots, which means they'll take care of at least some of the Bodyguard damage themselves. That's not as important for /Dark or /Pain, but if you rely on Aid Other and Repair for your pet healing it makes a big difference. It even helps with /Storm, since O2 Boost is really a pretty lousy heal. Not that there's much need to heal anything once /Storm really cuts loose...
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
Hi MM Folk -
So I am a fairly new player who has been enjoying my Scrapper, which is my first character. I wanted to also check out the red side of the game, and provide a change of play style from my Scrapper at times.
I am a mostly a solo player, as I have to afk a lot.
The MMs seem like fun, but I have to admit that I have never been great at pet control in games, so I was wondering if you could suggest which pet set is kind of point the pets and let them do their thing. In other words, not a lot of micro-management of the pets.
Also, if you could suggest good /secondary along with the primary I would appreciate it. I DO handle micro-management of powers though, so my play style would be more let the pets just do their thing, but I would have lots to do with my skills.
Also, I kind of had a theme in mind with like a techno-witch, so was tending toward either robots or undead, and using traps, but am open to suggestions.
thanks in advance!