Chanter in Aion is quite different from other MMOs. Besides buffing, Chanter has attack skills (L2 prophet hasn't any). From what I've seen you can use shield, blunt, spear and you can solo very well. Even Priest has attack skills (some of them massive).
So ... If you like to assist your party but you still want to do damage, choose Chanter.
But if you want to do large amounts of damage and you want others to assist you, choose Ranger.
Anyway, both can solo, this isn't L2. And with "solo" I mean they have attack skills, you can say a Prophet with heavy armor and a DD weapon can solo, but Prophets don't have any damage skill. And in pvp, skills is the only thing you use, nobody attacks with normal hits.
Here some chanter vids where you can clearly see they can solo: