Having a problem with Earth/Empathy

First and foremost, starting at level 22, you should be slotting SO level enhancements instead of DOs. Buy them at the origin-appropriate store in Talos.

If you are short on money, that's easy to fix. Go to Wentworths, and put low bids in on level 50 recipes that nobody uses, like Sleep, Range, Taunt. Look for any recipes selling for less than 1000. Buy as many of them as you can, then run to a vendor and sell them to the vendor for easy profit. In a very short time, you can make a million or two.

Next, are you using Quicksand? That power has a huge 25% Defense Debuff, which should make it easy to hit high level foes. It is auto-hit to apply the Slow and Defense Debuff.

Take a look at my old Earth/Rad guide for some information on your Earth powers. Link is in my sig.

A couple of quick things you should know: Many Area of Effect (AoE) powers that aim for a single foe and hit the foes in the area around the foe have a 20% Accuracy penalty. This includes Stalagmites and Stone Cages and most controller AoE Holds (but Volcanic Gasses is special). As a result, you need to slot those up with much higher accuracy. This, plus not using SOs is probably why you were missing so much. Higher level foes require more accuracy.

Standard SO-type slotting for Stalagmites is 2 Accuracy, 2 Stun, 2 Recharge. Slot the two Accuracy first, then add the others as slots become available. Note that Stalagmites, if it hits, will stun minions and lieutenants but only has a 20% chance to stun a boss.

For Stone Cages, start with 2 Accuracy, then add EndRdx, since the endurance expense is pretty high for an AoE Immob. Note that the duration of the power is already quite a bit longer than its Recharge, so slotting for Immob duration really isn't all that important. A few other things about Stone Cages -- it has a 12 second -Knockback effect, even though the cages themselves last much longer. As a result, you do NOT want to use Stone Cages after using Earthquake, or it will neutralize Earthquake for 12 seconds. On the other hand, you can use Stone Cages, wait for 12 seconds and then use Earthquake and the foes will bounce inside their little cages.

Quicksand and Earthquake are Location-Targetted AoE powers. They do not need accuracy. Quicksand is auto-hit, although some foes (like Council Warwolves and Vazhilok Cadavers) ignore Slow powers. The Defense Debuff will still hit them, making them easier to hit. Earthquake has a chance to knockdown, and this will effect even bosses. Earthquake+Quicksand is one of your best ways to control groups, especially groups with bosses.

Earth Control has three main forms of AoE control: Stalagmites+Stone Cages (Add Quicksand to make it better), Earthquake (+Quicksand), and Volcanic Gasses (+Quicksand). Each of those types of AoE control has times when it may work better than the other forms -- it depends on the foes and the situation. There is a fourth form of AoE control, but most people skip the PB AoE (Point Blank AoE, or in an area immediately around you) Sleep power called "Salt Crystals." It looks cool, but the foes wake up if they are disturbed at all . . . and most teams tend to throw out lots of AoE powers, making Salt Crystals mostly useless. It can be useful solo or duo, but as an Earth/Emp you should spend most of your time on teams.