GeoTank Build <Pure Defense>

I came up with this build last night, not sure if anyone has posted this build or one similiar yet but here it is.

I ran this build last night in FoW solo to see how long I could hold off a crowd. Aggroed a crowd of 6. Held them off for about 10 minutes before I got bored and died. This is however a PURE defensive build. The difference between this build and a normal 55 build is that if you lose an enchantment that you won't die in 10-15 seconds. You also cannot do damage as a nomal 55hp ele can do. But you can be stripped of either enchanments and be alive for another 30-45 seconds or so till you get that enchanment back up. You will have unlimited energy with Essence and Balthazar's which you will need if your the only tank cause you will have to spam your spells to get the healing boost from Aura of Restoration. This will keep you at full health with the +10 health regen from Mending and Healing Breeze.

Now theoretically if you go with a team you will have at least 1 other tank with you. That other tank will take some damage off of you so you can replace Aura of Restoration with Heal Other that you can spam every 10 seconds IF necessary, combine that with ward against mele and you should be able to let your monks concentrate on other party members instead of just the tanks. With another tank taking pressure off, you should also be able to drop Essence Bond and add Obsidian Flesh which will last for 22 seconds with a 20% mod. I use Galigords Staff cause it's cheap and has the 20% mod. Gonna try and run this tonight in a team. Let you know how it goes unless somebody can run it first in a team. Please post any constructive comments or suggestions.

-Fish Tank <Solo Build>

Earth - 16
Energy - 10
Healing - 9

Essence Bond Energy
Balthazars Spirit Energy
Mending +3 Healing
Healing Breeze +7 Healing
Aura of Restoration Health
Kinetic Armor Armor
Armor of Earth Armor
Ward Against Melee Armor

-Fish Tank <Team Build>

Earth - 16
Energy - 10
Healing - 9

Obsidian Flesh {E} Can's be targeted by spells
Balthazars Spirit Energy
Mending +3 Healing
Healing Breeze +7 Healing
Heal Other +120 Health for area
Kinetic Armor Armor
Armor of Earth Armor
Ward Against Melee Armor

I try extensive research in ele tank... and a ele can resist for a real long time a large army... but mesmers and necros will kill you very fast... and you have a lack of atack skills...
A ele can tank better that a warriror (better armor, can self heal) dont need a monk to help, but are very weak against lose enchants... and if u lose enchants no one monk will help u against a swarn of foes...
If you lose Aura of Restoration, or Kinetic Armor you are in trouble... and remenber some warriors have interup... and the trick of ele tank is the continuous fast casting for heal and kinetic armor...

But i not here to shame you build... thas good... trick to you with a ranger with Symbiosis in your party u have a real nice boost... the trick is a monk/necro and a ranger/monk, the monks will cast enchant in you and increase your life, ranger will cast Symbiosis, and necro will cast spitfull and degeneration skills (necro have very good degeneration skill thats take all foes in area)... you can make a 3 man uw, or a 3 man run in fow... i forget heal is for monks, take off your heal skill and take earth damage skills...

Thx Tarkin, hey no offense taken . But this build as stated is for pure defense. The damage is to be done from casters. If I am not going as a solo tank which would be rare, the obsidian skin will protect me from mesmers except for the 8 seconds in between Obsidain Skin, and necros will have a hard time killing me still with the +10 health regain and +120 from heal area every 10 seconds. The spells that are spammed are fast casting so interrupting will be a bit more difficult but still possible. If I do lose Aura of Restoration no biggie since the +10 regen and heal party can keep me going for quite a very long time till I can get it back up. Now losing Kinetic is a bit more worrysome since recharge time on that is 60sec. I can still survive without it for about 30-40 seconds or so by myself if I am the only tank but seeing how there will be other tanks there absorbing damage I should be fine. Beside this will be 1 of the few occasions that I will need a monk to cast a quick heal on me till I can get it back up. Also the healing is to be done by me and not the monk. A problem that I see very often is that the monk is constantly healing the tanks and not having enough juice left for the rest of the team in a long battle, the beauty of this build is that I can take care of myself AND the other tank or tanks with heal area and ward against mele. Thus freeing up the monk to heal the other casters or to put prot spells or heal spells on us IF we run into any trouble.

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Holy cow you weren't kidding when you said that you spent alot of time trying to find the ultimate earth tank...lol. The Glyph of Elemental power would give you an extra second but you'd be left with 1 less heal spell which would be vital to keep yourself and your fellow tank alive though. If Obsidian Flesh lasts the 25 sec with the 20% mod then in the 5 second down time you should be ok IMO, that's only enough time for 1 or max 2 strips or degens to hit you. If your up to it IGN me tonight and we can try to come up with something to see if we can tank for a finite amount of time even with enchantment strippers and necro degens hitting us.

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I know flesh golems do melee you. i said that I assume you are talking right outside of ember light camp right. I have been able to farm the mako hydras there for awhile with just the plain geo farming build . But i never get good drops from those darn things though Now the flesh golems i never tried farming with this build but i'm gonna make a slight tweak and give it a shot tonight and see how it goes.

hi.

what is the purpose of the solo build aside from just... you know... standing there?

also, for the team build, i hope you're joking about tanking with heal area in your skill bar. heal area heals everything, allies and enemies included. if you are tanking mobs of enemies and lletting your allies kill them, you are healing them every time you use heal area. this is detrimental to the team overall.

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okay.

also, keep in mind that you cannot heal yourself with heal other.

yeah the +10 energy regain should be more then enough with another tank absorbing the damage at least i hope so that is. I'm just wondering if there were myself and a real tank or two if a group can get away with just one monk and add a damage dealer instead of a second monk.

I made a geotank for the THK mission (cuz monks were on strike).
It worked very well, even against the mesmer/necro mursaat (but I did have henchies there also).
My build went something like this (don't remember attb dist. cuz I am at work)

Obsid Flame
Crystal wave
Kinetic Armor
Armor of earth
Life Bond (to help out henchies + get extra energy for very little hlth loss)
Balth's Spirit
Essence Bond (usually just on henchies until I was taking all the hits)
Aura of Restore

Getting to the keep I put LB on as many people as I could manage and kept Balth's on me all the time. After we got to the keep, I grabbed the torch and just camped out near the king. It was really easy (we got the bonus). I dropped LB off everyone, put EB on the 2 fighters and me, put Balth's on me, put up Aura and Armor of Earth as often as possible, and put up kinetic whenever a group closed on us.

My problem farming outside Ember Light Camp (and I have similar problems with similar builds elsewhere) is that with the slowdown from Obsidian Flesh, I can't be too picky about who I aggro.

And the Flesh Golems beat me down pretty fast. Even if I hold up against melee (and that only works in some builds), the armor-ignoring Death Novas eventually take me down.

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^thx
There was a time I thought it was not possible, I was just doing it wrong. It is really manageable if you take all the damage.

I only used LB until I got to the keep, after I was there I dropped it becasue I was the only one taking large amounts of dmg.

yeah but, didn't really read this post but, i'd say that blackout mesmers totally beats that Obsidian Flesh. I am myself a Geomancer and Blackout is not Spell. It is a Skill. So its blocks you for about 8 seconds=that makes u die for 8 secs.

~Maedhros

Yep, there certainly is a way to keep obsidian flesh up forever Not goona spoil it / make it completely available, but I'll tell you this. You need to be a R/E for it to work. Have fun figuring it out! Shouldn't be too hard.

You don't need to be a R/E, you can also be E/R.

It's fairly common knowledge.. use Serpents Quickness, which will drop Obsidan Flesh's recharge down to 20, basically giving you unlimited Obsidan Flesh. You can also do it with Mist Form.

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