I was leaning towards the brig for this group also for the very same reason.

As for the portals, I haven't had one in group yet so I'm use to running around, plus the guild I'm in has the majority of portal's/bells I'd need in it and with the 15 minute recast of the CoGH it should do everything I need.

Since I know what I want now, I am currently working on getting my controls setup to be the most efficient. Currently I don't think they are all that great but they have worked so far. i'm pretty sure I'll need something better when I get into doing 6.

My current setup is such that my zerk is controlled normally, either through the 1 through = keys or the mouse. I control the other two with the use of the number pad. Here's how it looks, all on the numberpad:
0 = Assist
1 = Single target spells from Temp and Coercer
2 = AoE from Temp and coercer
3 = Debuffs from temp and coercer
4 = Single target small heal (temp)
5 = Single target reactive (temp)
6 = Group Reactive (temp)
7 = Single Target Large Heal (temp)
8 = Temp's single target ward that heals
9 = Group heal (temp)
Enter: Coercer's Peace of Mind

For 1 through 3, and I have macro in each of the characters that has all of the appropriate type of spells in it. The ones with the longest cast are at the top. This seems to work well if I keep spamming it to keep them casting. I also have each of the templar's heals set to cancel any current spell being cast so that the heal will start immediately.

I'm sure there has got to be a better way to do this, but I've gone through the wiki and forum posts and haven't really found anything. The wiki is where I got the idea to do the longest recast spells first on the macros and that does seem to work well.

I'm afraid that when I start adding in more characters I won't be able to use them all to their fullest. Spamming spells is great for a spellcaster, but for the dirge and brig I should allow time for the autoattacks also.

I know this is a HUGE question since there is so much you can/could do, but I'm totally lost as to how best to do this.

Thanks again!

Edit: After reading about some of the changes coming in the next expansion I wonder if I need to rethink any setups. Probably too early to tell, but some of the changes do sound promising...