I automate everything and anything.

But rarely EQ. If you are eqing properly then stuff should sound fine on it`s own as well as in the mix, depending on how busy your mix is.

You can get dynamic/tracking EQ`s that track the main note of what they are EQing, but these are mainly for bassline and stuff with high audio energy.

When I make the dark music, I automate loads and loads. For the atmospherics I`ll have filters, volume, effects, all sorts of stuff automated so that the sounds morph and blend and move. It takes ages.

I do a lot of volume automation too. Maybe some sounds fading in or out. Or a lead riff will increase in volume slowly by 1-2 db over the whole track, so it really sucks you in.

I dunno, pretty much everything I do has a ton of automation. A lot of the time it is very subtle.