Imperial Sanctum (mission)


 * This is a Mission entry. For information on the location Imperial Sanctum, see Imperial Sanctum (Location).

Mission Objectives

 * Destroy Shiro

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

Primary
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 special 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.

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

With 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. This spirit will fight alongside Shiro until destroyed. The spirit will always be of the same profession as the banished player, but will use a fixed skillset, not the skills of the banished player. The player who was banished can run back to the fight through a round dark passage that ends with a glowing portal.

It is best to destroy the bound spirit as soon as it spawns. This not only removes an ally of Shiro, but also return the banished player immediately as well as give the party a Morale Boost, which recharges all skills including Resurrection Signets and the skills obtained from Kuunavang. It is, however, also important to keep the pressure on Shiro, as he heals himself too quickly.

Shiro's other devastating skill, Meditation of the Reaper, sends him into a lotus-position stance in which he will absorb the next 700 damage dealt to him. After this damage has been absorbed, the stance ends and he steals 20 health from each party member for every second he was in his stance. Therefore, if Meditation of the Reaper was active for over 20 seconds, he will all but kill the entire party. Therefore it is imperative that this stance be ended as quickly as possible. There are only two ways to do this: either deal 700 damage to him quickly to end the stance, or disrupt the stance directly. There are only two skills that will disrupt stances directly, the Warrior skill Wild Blow and the Assassin skill Wild Strike (for more information, see Stance). Note that knockdowns by themselves do not disrupt stances, including Meditation of the Reaper.

Note that Shiro appears to be immune to knockdown effects. Therefore strategies and skill combos that require knockdown will not work on him.

The party thus needs to keep an eye on two events at the same time: a member getting banished, and Shiro entering his meditation. Banishment will show immediately as the party member's name will be greyed out. Meditation will show in the Effects Monitor.

The following are useful tactics:
 * Anti-warrior hexes work great against Shiro. This includes Clumsiness, Faintheartedness, Empathy, and Spiteful Spirit.
 * The elementalist special skill Celestial Storm is very effective in dealing huge amounts of damage to Shiro for a long time as well as helping to quickly end the skill Meditation of the Reaper by reaching it's 700 damage absorption limit.
 * Blinding, Ward Against Melee, and Aegis chaining are useful tactics in evading Shiro's attacks.
 * The party should designate a few members to apply constant damage and conditions to Shiro to prevent the fight from dragging on.
 * Primary or secondary rangers should bring Charm Animal to replace with Kuunavang's special skill, the pet will remain with you effectivly giving you a ninth skill.

Master Level
Complete the mission in under 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Reward: 2,000 XP, 200 Gold and 1 Skill Point.

Additional Notes

 * 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.