Ele/War Build Pros and Cons

Hail and well met all. I picked up GW a few days ago and haven't slept much...

I built a level 9 Warrior/Elementalist who uses a hammer. I was pretty successful as a loner with NPC party until Dessidra (sp?) Lowlands. Ouch. The philosophy I was taking was 1) I wanted a character who could solo when my friends weren't online and 2) thus I wanted tons of damage dealing, possibly some disruption and knockdown while the healers healed me. Some issues:

1) I am debating refunding my hammer mastery into swords or axes since hammers are slow and the skills (that I know of) for them are not so hot. They're also slow whereas swords and axes have penetration damage and swords can do % damage (thinking gash or sever) whereas hammers just hit hard a lot (which is good if you go with the "hit hard and they die quicker" instead of the more tactical death by a thousand blows"). I also don't like the fact that you have no shield using a hammer.

2) I also don't like how the energy pool for Warriors never goes up so I was considering switching to a Ele/War. This would give me more mana so to speak at the cost of strength bonuses.

I am open to suggestions for other combinations, because I was thinking about a Ele/Mes or Mes/War instead of the everpresent War/Mo combination. I was also thinking about a War/Mo vs. Mo/War build...

Would this still help me solo? Thanks! I look forward to reading your responses

Maybe you are, but please won't someone comment?

I am an E/W, and I pretty much tank like a warrior using armor of earth+ward of melee/elements.

I was considering making an W/E, so I would be an even better tank, but I wouldn't have enough energy/energy regen to keep using all of my skills

For the record, I use conjure flame+ a fire damage axe. Threw in one low adrenaline damage skill, and a quick recharge energy damage skill, and you'll be pretty much spamming skills forever =D