Enchanter vs Bard

[Raev]

I wouldn't totally discount your role in helping with breaks. When you have a Dire Wolf doubling for 250 or a Siren quadding for 180 with 70% haste and a Steel Hilted Flint Dagger, they can rip through a cloth class very easily. Having another class who can freely cast stun/mez or even root without having to channel through that really helps even an on-the-ball enchanter. So I think at high levels (= NPCs > 50) charm is much more a team effort.

Enchanters are so incredibly good because they fulfill two roles in the group (dps + cc/buffs). Shamans (tanking + cc/buffs) and Monks (tanking + pulling + dps) are superb for the same reason. Bards can do this too, though, by complementing their natural cc/buffs combination with either tanking (gear for AC and cast snare for aggro) or pulling (split with lull and then use the SS helm to pull mobs into camp while you sing songs normally).

Bards have a more interesting endgame role (enchanters mostly just buff) although really the only endgame role that matters is COH mage for FTE /cry

Anyway, in my opinion the best four classes in Classic EQ are Enchanter, Monk, Shaman, and Bard in some order. So you can't go wrong either way.