Ice has its shields that can be rotated to mitigate nearly 100% of incoming damage. Rage, Atomic, and Fire all have the ability to heal nearly 100% of health lost to damage. I feel like Earth is lacking something in that regard. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but if so, I've been doing it wrong for four years. Jackhammer/Upheaval to keep stone skin active, Gemstone Shield with 2-3 gemstones in 8-player content and when overwhelmed with incoming damage in 4-player content. I also use Soothing Sands to heal back some of the damage I take. This works great if I have a decent healer in groups, but the other tank powers I've tried out provide much more survival when running solo against bounties or soloing group content. That means they also provide more survival in groups to be less of a burden on healers.
In any serious group content, most tank powers need a healer in the group since healing back is usually only a portion of (about 50% max) of damage taken. Rage is an exception to this since they can usually match or exceed a healer's total healing, but you rely on soders for longer fights. With ice, again it depends on how hard adds hit. If you're running gemstone shield instead of brick for earth, you might want to add another shield to your loadout too to help out. This doesn't apply to open world bounties, however, since there's usually significant pause between their attacks and they don't hit as hard as other end-game content.
You might want to check out the Tank comparison by L T. That can help a lot with getting an overview about the pros and cons of each power. Like Shar Dental said. Ice can get into trouble when lots of damage comes in and you can't rotate all shields perfectly all the time. Ice is still a strong tank. Fire has the healing.. yes.. but outside from block fire tank is really not that great. Rage is just a strong tank. About earth: I recently came back to tanking and some from the forum helped me with that (thanks to Cryo, Wet Fluffy, L T). Aftershock tanking is not a really good option. The pet is the way to go with earth tanking in hard content.
I am not an earth tank but end game earth tanks mostly use the pet, u dont need to rely urself on heals but u need to pay attention to brick all the time to recast the very millisecond he dies or else...
That is unfortunate that Brick has to be used. I hate having to use up two power slots (or three if I use totem) for essentially one power.
Just a reminder that chronometric emitters are almost essential for all tanks. Part of tanking is "juggling" or ccing adds because it prevents them from attacking or running around or doing a powerful move. So you can relieve some pressure on yourself by stunning adds. I also use smokebomb as a group stun, works perfect.
Oh, I don't know. I do a somewhat reasonable job of being a tank with Fire at the high ends. I do have Sidekick maxed out along with a Boo Junior(Baby Boo also has the shield). Two extra shields and two extra ways to get damage out there. The Sidekick also heals and restores power. I don't use the chronometic emitters. Maybe I should try them out. So if you want to tank without Brick, max out you sidekick and if you have a Baby Boo or Boo Junior, and have a 4 compartment Utility Belt, use them. The Utility Belt is overlooked a lot of times, but what can be placed in there might mitigate the weakness of your loadout My current belt on my Fire Tank(Well, all my tanks have this loadout more or less. It's not good for PVP though) Slot 1: Boo Junior(or Baby Boo) Slot 2: Sidekick Slot 3: Orbital Strike(Sometime replaced with a Compartment Trinket) Slot 4: Supply Drop With the compartment trinket, you can get another shield and a way to restore power.
