You were in a dead spot for your pet. The 49 pet isn't all that special and it's the last warrior pet you get for a long time. They eventually get better, but you'll still be depending on aggro kiting versus straight up pet tanking to take down most of your targets.
I've never played a pally. There are more then enough around here though, so they'll put in their input. I know they complain a lot about not being able to tank high level stuff as effectively as a warrior because of stun-immunity though.
For gear, it's pretty much the same as it's always been. Casters depend more on their spells, melees on their gear. Casters do look for specific focii now though, which can cost you a pretty penny if you want the best stuff. You can also use tribute for those though if you're willing to keep your tribute vault filled up. Spells in the later levels will KILL you if you're not willing to do a lot of camping.
With the current state of mudflation, melees can get some pretty nice effects in the mid levels that they couldn't get before (ie +ATK). Since the stuff is so plentiful, it's pretty cheap too. The downside to being a hybrid is you have to pay for melee gear AND for spells (just not for as many as a pure caster).
I'm going to plug the bard, even though you never mentioned them. They can go just about anywhere and do just about anything (and if you can't do it, you have no problem running away). Always welcome in a group. Can always find something to solo. Not nearly as tedious soloing as it used to be with /melody (although I still don't use it in groups). You're the Mac-Daddy puller king. Ughhh, I'm sure I left something off. Oh yeah, you can worship Veeshan (*shrug*, it's something) and you can get persistent illusion (water elemental 4tW!!). I know rogues get that too, but I'm not talkin' about rogues.
Oh, and that 50k pp will last a lifetime with your bard. They're super easy to twink out.