Tanking elementalist? Have you gone mad?!?! As a matter of fact, I might have, but that doesn't meant that this build doesn't work great. Note that this build is for E/Mo, but could be modified to be used with a different secondary perhaps. By the time you are able to get all of the skills used in this build though, you will likely have access to the secondary changing quests.
Attributes
10+1 Air Magic
11+2 Earth Magic
10+1 Energy Storage
Skills
Earthquake
Enervating Charge
Stoning
Aftershock
Aura of Restoration
Ether Renewal (elite)
Armor of Earth
Divine Boon
Let's start with the top for skills. This is your offensive arsenal. If you wish to change this up and pick fire magic instead of air perhaps, be my guest. However I choose this combination because it makes good use of earth offense spells (you need earth attribute for the armor). Enervating Charge is there to be used in conjuction with Stoning, to allow many knockdowns followed my aftershocks.
Now the last 4 skills... they all have something in common. They are all enchantments! So every one of them makes Ether Renewal more effective. The idea is, Armor of Earth keeps you from taking much damage, Aura of Restoration restores some health, and then every 30 seconds you drop a Ether Renewal to be used with all 4 enchantments for some massive healing for health AND energy.
But Master... why did you pick Divine Boon if you aren't even a healer? Well, for one, it's an enchantment, but obviously that's not the only reason. The reason I chose it is because every other skill in my build has a somewhat cumbersome recharge time, whereas Divine Boon has 1/4 cast and no recharge, making it THE most spammable spell in the game. Why is this important? Ether Renewal takes effect every time a spell is cast... so if you spam a spell you get tons of heals. Once Ether Renewal is activated, spam Divine Boon and you will EXTREMELY fast.
So put this all together and what happens? In a typical PVP game at least one warrior decides he's going to come after me. "Oh look, a E/Mo... I'm sure he won't be too hard to kill". They come at me and I cast enervating charge.. now the target is weakened. When he gets to melee range, I hit him with stoning to knock him down and then immediatly cast aftershock. All of this will use up a decent chunk of energy, and as soon as he gets up he will start attacking, so this is where I use Ether Renewal. The enemy has already taken severe damage, but now finds that he can't seem to hurt you at all! Spam Divine Boon while stoning is recharging, then drop a Stoning and go back to using Divine Boon.
Obviously, when faced with ranged foes, it's difficult to use Aftershock effectively, but usually spamming Enervating Charge and Stoning does the job well enough especially when you have far more defense than anyone expects of an elementalist... you will really catch them off-guard being competent both offensively AND defensively. Obviously Earthquake is best used when against multiple foes.
Weaknesses of the build -
-Mesmers that remove enchantments. The entire defense half of this strategy depends on enchantments ALONE. If they kill ether renewal right after you cast it, or interrupt ether renewal, that's a pretty big hit to your healing capability. Luckily, if you are spamming divine boon, it will be difficult for them to remove an enchantment other than divine boon which is obviously unimportant.
-I'd like to make room for Whirlwind, for those situations where all the warriors decide to come at you... Whirlwind followed by aftershock is just killer. I'll try to make an adjustment and squeeze whirlwind into the mix if I can, even if it means removing earthquake. I don't want to, but whirlwind is more useful if you are going to be tanking...
Please leave comments, let me know what you think.
My new versatile tanking Elementalist
MasterDinadan
Lupinicus
I think a bigger worry would be Rend Enchantments.