Which Heroes?

I play a SS/Echo Necromancer, and I completed Factions/unlocked hard modes a few days ago. I thought I would give some of the easier hard modes on Shing Jea a shot, but I ended up getting my ass kicked even on the simplest ones. I was running with a woh monk, a searing flames ele, and a ws dervish with little success. I was wondering what the recommended heroes/hero builds would be that would work well together for the majority of hardmodes with a ss/echo necro, and what sort of henchmen would be best to bring also.
Thanks for any suggestions.

It'll be a lot easier on your monk if you provide more buffer, such as minions. Look into becoming a MM yourself to soak up damage.

As for heroes, I wouldn't run a SF ele, since in the early missions, I don't think there are a lot of enemies to contend with and that's best for giant groups of enemies. Single target spike might work better. As for Dervish, it should be ok but I'd have to see the build (you might need more survival skills). The monk, also, should be fine, I'd just need to see the build to make any comment.

Melee heroes are bad. The AI and spacing are just terrible, and it's hard to get top-notch melee builds on a hero bar anyway. Elementalists are extremely nerfed in HM due to massive armor buffs on almost all mobs. Searing Flames isn't bad, but you'll want more sustainable damage.

Honestly, Hard Mode takes a big paradigm shift in build-making. I suggest www.pvxwiki.com and look for a hero bar template that will work well and introduce you to build-making for HM. One thing I will always pressure you to include: either a spirit Rit or Minion Master Necro.

Once you get used to what a good build is really made of, you can start to play with your own. But for now, better to start with something proven and work towards your own configuration.

You also want to be very careful about pulling with the mobs. Their rit spirits fire like machine guns, so getting too many rits in one group makes winning impossible. All 4-man party areas are very difficult compared to most 8-man areas, so expect a lot of "do overs." Some group-wide consumables from EotN will help and a summoning stone for bad areas.

I find it's generally best to have an interrupter, a protector, a healer, and a DPS for party-size 4 areas. The protector and healer will keep you alive while you slowly kill things.

The interrupter should be a hero (preferably with AoE interrupts e.g. Panic which is only available in the final mission in Prophecies). If you can shut opponents down, it's a lot easier to kill them.

You could fill any of the other roles, but I would recommend being a minion master (Animate Minions + Shambling Horror probably), making you effectively the DPS member + near infinite energy. Discord and Necrosis work very well in these areas, because everything is fleshy - easy to put conditions on (e.g. Jagged Horror) and then you just need a hex (which either your interrupter or you can carry). SS is also good.

If your healer or protector is a monk, making them secondary interrupters works well - a few points in Inspiration gives you reasonable energy return for Leech Signet and Power Drain, and they can also contribute to the fight.

Note that the early areas are actually very hard in hard mode - because you've only got 4 or 6 party members, and if you're by yourself you can only fill 4 slots with level 20s.

For 4-player areas I use an MM Necro hero, an SoS Rit hero, and an HB monk, plus whatever I happen to be. (If I'm the SoS, I bring an BHA interrupt Ranger hero instead of the SoS hero.)
For 6-player areas, I bring the same thing except I add 2 Henchmen - whatever feels good at the time.
For larger party areas, where there are 2 henchie healers, I substitute the BHA Ranger hero for the HB monk and bring the 2 henchie healers and, again, whatever other 2 henchies feel right at the time.

P.S. I find being an MM to be a bit boring, so, even if I'm playing my Necro (SS), I use the MM hero.

imo some sort of Spiritway (i use 1 SoS rit 1 Soul Twisting rit and 1 Imba hero).
OACjEuiMpNXzyJGzbyMHnU7qJA -SoS
OACiAyk8gNhmWvw5jLz9NdmA -ST
OQCjUmmMaOhff8D2Cvj5xsY5NA -Imba

It depends on the healers in the area. So in the trail with all the mantids I remember I had trouble breaking through all their shield of regens, until i ran a grenth derv (before the update). It ripped through their enchants, and I blew threw it. Would probably run an A/D with Dark Apostacy there.

There arent that many decent healers in HM Shing Jea, so I would run with a AotL or Jagged Bones MM with prots, a UA or WoH monk, an Interupter (I like PI on a meser with like wastrels worry). As a necro, consider running the AP Mark of Pain nuker, or SS works well in HM as well. But you need to be careful, coz they hit hard and as ull probably be running all casters ull take alot of damage. Also, you could run N/Rt SoS, coz SoS is just godly.

Was my post deleted because I recommended Sabway or something?

Prot>heals in HM
SF is ok, just bring weaken armour

When i use my necro I find really comfortable with these heroes:

SoS Rt: OACjEyiM5MXzyZ1kZKNncDzLGA
SoGM communing Rt: OASjcggMpOO7z23czFtzc2BnJA
AotL MM: OANDUshvSyBVBoBKg1DBE3VvTA

in areas where corpse exploiting is not useful i replace the MM with a panic Mesmer

I find as an ele, my standard 3 hero setup is

Me - Twin heats MoR burninator (NM) or Earth AoE (HM)
N/Mo Jagged Bones Minion Bomber with Dwaynas Sorrow
N/Rit healer with Icy Veins
Rit SoS

Works for most areas

Melee heroes are not bad per se, but only when the area features foes with AoE skills like Zealot's Fire or Ignite Arrows; but it's usually not worth to find out first if melee heroes could be used in a specific area than to simply use ranged ones.
For 4-man areas I've made the best experience with 1-2 main healers and 0-1 support healers (example), and myself and the last hero as offensive as possible.

As others said don't worry, 4 men areas are the most difficult. If you can do shing jea, almost everything else in cantha is a joke.
I did a shing jea vanquish just today, I didn't do any there for a bit since I was about to fail back when I've done the peninsula so I was a bit restless now, but I currently have too many dp removals and wanted to use them somehow...
Anyway I went with a WoH monk, my beloved AotL MM and a SoS N/Rt with half channelling and half restoration, and myself being ranger (bm but I'll be flamed). I don't know if that area was particularly easy but I tended to forgot I was in HM and didn't have any chance to use cons. I have to do the rest and see