[guineapig]

Our DoT is basically a debuff that also does damage. I know they aren't used often in classic because mob hitpoints are so low but later on stacking out Dot and other Debuffs seriously lowers the damage output of harder to kill mobs. Not to mention our slows are nothing to sneeze at either.

Most of what we do just makes things easier for those around us. Making mana more plentiful, making kills faster, making heals less frequent, making offtanking unecessary, etc. We also have both invis and invis vs undead (necro is the only other class that gets that I think).

As stated before, our charmed pets when used can out DPS an entire group.

On a solo basis we are the only class that can go practically everywhere in the game without requiring any items or potions. We can do quests regardless of faction requirements, in most cases with little to no faction grind, which saves many many hours of work.

Chain stuns! We have an arsenal of spells that enable us to completely lock down a mob without any chance for them to react. All of our spells are magic based which some might think of as a detriment but we also get the best Magic resist debuffs in the game and it's an unresitable spell!

In later expansions we get interesting spells like horryfying visage which even helps crappy tanks keep aggro better.

The class is special and one of the best defined in the game. Things like charisma buffs, memory blurs, our enchant metals line, are all fairly unique. We even have a small DS available to us, ATK buffs, oh and almost forgot all of our mana syphoning spells! Including a mana leech spell!

No it's not an easy class to solo with and wasn't meant to be. It was designed as a complex class that takes a while to truly master and is indespensable in group situations.
I for one appreciate the fact that my main character is basically like playing EQ on hard mode.

You complain about it being difficult for a chanter to solo? Tell that to a warrior or rogue! At least we have soloing as an option and you should be happy with that.