Gate of Madness (mission)

Rewards
In this mission, the rewards are based on how many shrines to the five gods you have captured at the end of the mission

Walkthrough
You must first get to the area where the shrines are. Follow the ravine on this map until you can go no further and there will be a bridge to your left hand side. Traverse this. Make your way back along this side in the same direction you came. You will come to a hill with two shut gates. Approaching the top most of these gates Shiro, antagonist from Factions, speaks and a few waves of Shiro'ken enemies spawn from both doors. Once these are dispatched you can move through the gate.

Once through the gate the Lich, antagonist from Prophecies, speaks and five chaos rifts open and a number of enemies spawn. Don't be too quick about moving into this area until the rifts have formed. Each rift, like in Prophecies, is defended by three Portal Wraiths which must be defeated for the rift to close. Enemies, such as Margonites, appear from these portals and will continue to do so while the portal is open and you continue to kill them rather than the wraiths. Close all of the portals.

As you close the last portal a door opens allowing you to approach the area where the five god's shrines are. Unfortunately this area is defended by both Shiro and The Lich. Take out the Lich, ignoring Shiro for the meantime. Even if you aren't particularly interested in the bonus it is worthwhile traveling to each of the shrines to get each god's blessings. Each shine is guarded by Margonites of the class commonly associated with that god; Mesmers at Lyssa and Monks at Dwayna for instance. Shiro will follow you around while you do this and do some damage but is not particularly dangerous until you actually start attacking him. Consider the tips below for your assault on Shiro to complete the mission.

Bonus
The bonus for this mission is to capture and continue to hold the shrines to each of the five gods. These are initially easy to capture, but even if you leave no enemies at the shrine over time they will revert back to neutral which will cost you the bonus. If you are able to defeat Shiro fairly quickly once you have captured all the shrines this will not be a problem. As with other Nightfall missions you must finish the mission to receive the bonus.

Allies

 * 20 Kormir

Monsters

 * Margonites
 * 24 Margonite Cleric
 * 24 Margonite Reaper
 * 24 Margonite Seer
 * 24 Margonite Ascendant
 * 24 Margonite Sorcerer
 * 24 Margonite Bowmaster
 * 24 Margonite Warlock
 * 24 Margonite Executioner
 * 28 Margonite High Priest
 * 28 Margonite Patriarch


 * Shiro'ken
 * ? Shiro'ken Monk
 * ? Shiro'ken Ritualist
 * ? Shiro'ken Elementalist
 * ? Shiro'ken Ranger
 * ? Shiro'ken Warrior
 * ? Shiro'ken Mesmer
 * ? Shiro'ken Necromancer


 * Titans
 * 28 Titan Abomination
 * 28 Pain Titan
 * 28 Madness Titan
 * 28 Armageddon Lord
 * 24 Risen Ashen Hulk
 * 24 Hand of the Titans
 * 24 Fist of the Titans


 * ? 30 Lich Lord
 * 31 Shiro Tagachi

Follow-up

 * You are transported to Abaddon's Gate (Location) to confront Abaddon himself.

Tips for Defeating the Lich
The Lich is relatively easy to kill. He is weak to holy damage and possibly to fire damage. He will not withstand focused fire from the team. Take care as he can hit hard and has some area of effect damage.

Tips for Defeating Shiro
After getting so far through the missions it is important to be able to take out Shiro and stay alive while you do it. His skills are the same as the final mission in Factions.


 * Anti-melee skills are helpful. Such as Empathy, Insidious Parasite, Price of Failure.
 * Spoil Victor allows a necro character to deal considerable damage to Shiro in a short time.
 * Conditions, such as blindness, are good but Impossible Odds allows him to spread these back onto your team. Use these with caution.
 * Use any stance ending skills to remove Battle Scars which heals Shiro. Examples are Wild Blow and Wild Throw.
 * Be wary, stay clear and spread out when Shiro uses Impossible Odds. This does a lot of area of effect damage in a short space of time.
 * Impossible Odds can be interrupted but it is difficult to do so. Heroes are very good at interrupts.
 * Skills which disable Shiro's skills, such as Blackout, might also work, but this has not been confirmed.