Demons or Necros?

I'm looking to start more of a concept character than anything, but I'm unsure of whether to go for Demon Summoning or Necromancy. The advantages of both sides, for this particular concept...

Demons:
-Cool pets
-Pets are more ranged than melee, thus easier to control (Touch wood)
-Never actually seen the level 26 pet, so curiosity throws in there.
-Hell on Earth. 'Nuff Said.

Necromancy:
-1/2/8 attacks are closer to dark theme
-Life drain gives a bit of a heal
-More damaging attacks (Moderate, High DoT, Moderate > Minor, Moderate, High)
-Lich has hold and fear attacks.

I'm also looking to take Dark Miasma as secondary (surprise surprise), and Soul Mastery as my patron powers (i repeat: what a surprise)

Can anyone either point me in the right direction for one of these builds, or offer up a decent build I could try running? (Preferably IO's instead of sets, but I can improvise)

Kthxbai

I have a feeling that if you're going for concept, Zombies/Dark is a tall order to beat.

Heh, you're probably right. But that should make it somewhat easier as far as using concept to determine what you want, if 'real-life' is a factor.

Considering your Dark choice; magic, incantations, chanellings, old-tomes of lore, something like that?

Then:

Where does your character do these things, or focus on these things? Near the dead, or near some spiritual/cursed grounds?

I think Zombies actually pairs better with Dark Miasma because Lich can reliably layer -ToHit with Dark Miasma to grant the equivalent of soft capped defense via ToHit debuffs. You can also go with a Musculature Radial for increased pet damage as well as augmenting the ToHit debuff on Litch, Dark Servant, and both your attacks/secondary.

I actually really like the Litch now that his Torrent is Knockdown rather than Knockback.

It appears you are asking more about style than substance or min/maxing damage/second or debuff ability. To be honest, I would have to compare for style and substance after both sets hit level 32 . The demons appearances are starkly different once they get the second upgrade, abyssal empowerment.

If you are going for how they play, the demons and necros do share a lot of commonality. Two of the three little demons like to fire off a volley of ranged attacks and then proceed to melee range; the third one stays at range. The three little zombies like to puke about twice and then move into zombie slapping range. The two second tier demon start briefly at range, and then move into melee range. The gargoyle really moves into melee quickly. The second tier necros, the grave knights are far better in melee range. I tend to push them into melee position quickly if they for some reason stay back. The demon prince has ranged powers and some very strong melee attacks. He seems to dive right in, which is great since he has a powerful slow debuff icy aura around him. The slows your demon prince has in his attacks should not be discounted. The lich is strictly a ranged character. Again, this isn't bad when he is using cone attacks and debuffs such as fearsome stare.

Demons and the zombies have ways of healing themselves. Demons and Necros both have a recharge instensive pet power that you can toss the Pet and Recharge Intensive Pet IO pet aura buffs into. To me, both demons and necro have very nice appearances. For the Demons, you can use a lot of secondaries that are successful. For Necros, and of course this is just MY opinion, there are realistically only 2 sets, /Dark and /Thermal. (I can see FF as being successful, I just can't wrap my head around the aesthetics of the combo.)

The major differences between demons and necros is that demons out of the box without the secondary are far less squishy than zombies. At level 32 with the empowerment, your ember demon will use his AoE heal that heals all demons, teammates, and allies within the heal radius. Ember demon also has a resistance aura that affects demons, teammates, and allies. Considering the secondaries I suggest for necros, twilight grasp, shadow fall, warmth, and fire shields provide your zombies tons of buffing goodness that cover some of the big holes in the zombies resistance, specifically fire damage.

In damage per second, it is my opinion that demons/thermal is negligibly different from necro/dark. However, the demons would still be more sturdy -- twilight grasp and the to-hit debuffs would be that good for keeping the necros upright.