Gate of Madness (mission)

Just some quick notes for those having trouble on Lich + Shiro.

Drop the Lich first, he's weak to holy, and fire(maybe) damage. A Dervish with Avatar of Balthazar or Heart of Holy Flame can drop him easily. Focus fire on the Lich, and make sure he goes down as quick as possible. He has some PB AoE skills that can hurt.

When tackling Shiro, any anti-melee skill can help a lot, Empathy, Insidious Parasite, Price of Failure. If you only have one necro, use Spoil Victor, as it will cause a large amount of damage to Shiro very very quickly. If a second necro is available, Spiteful Spirit is always good. Blindness and Weakness are always good for damage mitigation, but becareful as Shiro can spread these conditions back to you. The skills Shiro has available to him are Battle Scars, which should be ended with Wild Blow, or wild anything (strike, throw), Riposting Shadows a shadowstepping skill, and the much dreaded Impossible Odds. Impossible Odds can deal a massive amount of AE damage in a very very short time, so make sure that no one is too bunched up. Use markers to spread heroes out, and use spells/skills like Aegis, Guardian and Displacement to protect you and your party. Shiro will not have Meditation of the Reaper, or Echoing Banishment, so there his main form of healing will be Battle Scars, which should be ended by a wild strike as soon as possible. If he somehow catches a high damage spell while Battle Scars is on, he will be doing a large amount of life stealing.

With Spoil Victor, Shiro will deal a large amount of damage to himself, leaving the party to knock down the last small bit of his health bar. Shiro can still be killed without Spoil Victor, but it might involve some kiting, especially if you are doing the quest with a large number of heroes/henchmen. Therefore, bringing some degen is recommened.

A Curses Necro with Spinal Shivers and a Cold weapon wielding melee (Pre-release bonus pack scythe for Dervish) can further interrupt Shiro, preventing him from getting off his dreaded Impossible Odds properly, if at all.

A Blackout Mesmer has also been said to work, disabling Shiro's skills. This is, however, unconfirmed.

Bonus
Whether or not you want to do the bonus, the Lich should go down first. This saves another mob chasing you around in addition to Shiro while you are trying to rally the gods. The Bonus involves capturing each shrine of the Five Gods. You'll probably have to take out the Margonites hanging out at each of them to speed it up. Like all Margonites, these are usually pushovers. One thing to be careful of though, is to make sure you are not bunched up at the stairs at each of the shrines. Bunching up means you're one Impossible Odds away from a wipe.

The bonus may actually help you kill Shiro as you get a buff for each one captured.