Imperial Sanctum (mission)

Mission Objectives

 * Destroy Shiro

Note: Mhenlo is not required to survive; he can be killed and have the mission continue to completion.

Walkthrough
The mission is very straightforward. Proceed to the small island up ahead and destroy Shiro.

Make sure all your human party members speak to Kuunavang to pick up their celestial skills from her before proceeding. If any party member gets to the end of the bridge, it will trigger the cutscene which will close off the way back to Kuunavang.


 * Note: If your party includes henchmen, do not skip this cutscene before you see the gate close behind the party! If you do, some of the henchmen may be caught outside the gate, unable to contribute to the fight.

Shiro possesses many powerful skills, but the three that will most tip the scales to his favor are Echoing Banishment, Meditation of the Reaper and Impossible Odds.


 * Echoing Banishment: Shiro will send off a party member into the Mists and he/she will be replaced by one of Shiro's bound spirits. The spirit will always be of the same profession as the banished player, and will use a fixed skillset. It is best to destroy the bound spirit as soon as it spawns. This will return the banished player immediately and recharge all skills. The player who was banished can run back to the fight through a round dark passage that ends with a glowing portal.


 * Meditation of the Reaper: Shiro absorbs up to 700 damage dealt to him. After this damage has been absorbed, the skill ends and he steals 20 health from each party member for every second he was in his stance. if Meditation of the Reaper is active for over 20 seconds, he will kill the entire party. It is imperative that this skill be ended quickly. If a Warrior knocks down Shiro during Meditation of the Reaper it ends immediately. However, Shiro appears to be immune to knockdown effects from a profession other than Warrior. As such, spells like Meteor and Gale do not work unless they come from a Warrior.


 * Impossible Odds: For 10 seconds Shiro does massive amounts of damage to all foes in the area everytime he hits. Note that this is also a skill like Meditation of the Reaper and cannot be removed. Shiro will use this skill when near death to deal huge amounts of damage allowing him to quickly dispose of the entire party in a couple of strikes. It is imperative that everyone scatter to avoid the AoE damage from this skill. A good way to counter this skill is to use stances to evade or block the attacks. The Ranger's celestial skill, Celestial Stance, is very useful in this regard. Note that blinding Shiro while he is using this skill will NOT work, as Impossible Odds transfers all conditions from Shiro.

Other skills Shiro may use include Battle Scars and Riposting Shadows.

Tips

 * Echo chain Celestial Skills. This is especically effective with Celestial Storm.
 * Togo's corpse is exploitable, so Animate Flesh Golem will provide extra help. Alternatively, you can toss in a Well of Suffering.
 * Anti-Warrior tactics, such as Clumsiness, Faintheartedness, Empathy, Spiteful Spirit, Blinding, Ward Against Melee, Aegis, and Spoil Victor, work very well against Shiro.
 * The Elementalist celestial skill Celestial Storm can quickly end the skill Meditation of the Reaper by reaching its damage absorption limit.
 * The party should designate a few members to apply constant damage and conditions to Shiro to prevent the fight from dragging on.
 * Rangers who rely on pets should replace Charm Animal with the celestial skill. The pet will remain despite having the skill replaced.
 * The Necromancer elite skill Wail of Doom can interrupt Shiro and disable all his attack skills. With Soul Reaping of 10 or higher, one can effectively keep him without his attack skills constantly.
 * All players can body block Shiro, while Warriors use the skill Storm of Swords. This skill benefits from any creature blocking Shiro, including allied spirits, pets, and minions. This tactic is quite effective for getting the master's reward, as it usually kills Shiro in under 2 minutes. Bringing two Warriors is advisable in case one is banished.
 * Skills such as Diversion and Blackout will not disable Shiro's skills, and Shiro cannot be knocked down. Energy and adrenaline denial are also ineffective, as none of Shiro's skills cost adrenaline, and only Riposting Shadows has an energy cost.
 * The hexes Spiteful Spirit, Empathy, and Insidious Parasite will do ridiculous amounts of damage to him, since he attacks and uses skills very rapidly.

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of this mission, players will be taken to the Divine Path area to celebrate their victory as well as get access to special items and crafters. See the area article for details.