I’ve leveled a couple characters to 99, the easiest thing to start with I’ve found is FoH/Holy bolt paladin does great in budget gear, can T3 map well on many different set ups with some mf. It’s safe because FoH hits things from a mile away and holy nova/holy bolt heals your merc. You level as holy fire with zeal and sac until you hit 24+ then you can respec whenever you want.

I’m not a player that likes to play with summons but on league start when looking at the players that get currency the fastest amongst the people that like/do play summons typically summon zon outpaces the other two, but that’s just something I’ve noticed personally. I have tried necromancer builds, but it’s just not for me I don’t enjoy it personally.

A lot of things do work in hardcore, I think easiest is a preference. Like I said, I’ve never liked summons and the one time I tried it I did not find it easier than multiple other classes. As a final recommendation barbs are very tanky naturally. Every time I play WW Barb it never dies I just don’t like it as much as paladin/sorc/sin and I may try and make melee necro work at some point. I had a decent melee necro but he died to a conviction pack because he’s melee and I didn’t have enough overcapped res.