| You can get into groups as pretty much any class. They really only have Healer, Tank and DPS, at least as far as leveling up / dungeons go. Classes stack well too, so you can have two healers in a group with two tanks (especially if one or both is a zerker) or you could go 1 healer 1 tank 4 DPS.
As has been mentioned a ton, bards are not impressive on their own. They bring fantabulous buffs to groups (dirges boost melee, troubs boost casters) but won't be scoring too high on the parse.
You really should play what you want and not go for "what's needed most." Try out a bunch and see what you like. I personally think that the spellcasting in this game sucks, and it doesn't really feel like you're casting a spell. It's hard to explain, but it just seems like spell casters are just doing combat arts, whereas a game like EQ1 or even WoW you "cast" a spell. Point being that you should try lots of stuff and *gasp* have fun! | 