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 PBAoE skills that can hurt and also some normal attacks that do 333 with each hit. So blinding is also good. Also that a few of Lich's skills are based off adrenaline, finding ways to drain adrenaline can weaken him a lot. It seems the only way to drain Lich's adrenaline is through Blackout, since the Lich uses ranged attacks that won't trigger the visage enchantment.

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.


 * Another quick note for killing Shiro

The boundary of aggro circle of Shiro is the gate before the stairs to the central basement (where Lich & Shiro are). Make use of this point we can kill him.

Steps to kill Shiro

1) Go inside to kill Lich.

2) The whole team stay outside the gate (don't stay too close to the gate) (casters/rangers/paragons should stay far away but still able to attack Shino & heal the tank just outside the gate) (flag you henchman & hero). Flag your hero tank (if you have one) JUST outside the gate.

3) One of the real player stand at the gate or go inside a bit, then Shiro will come out to attack you, shoot him with a bow or do something else (in most of the case you don't need to do anything) to pull him outside the gate.

4) If you have hero/henchman with you, call target to attack him when shiro is very close to the gate.

5) Shino will teleport outside the gate, then fight Shiro outside the gate. Only the tank is allowed to stay close to Shiro. Other teammates can only make range/magic attack on Shiro.

6) When Shiro's HP is low he will use Impossible Odds and your tank may die. When your tank is killed, stop all attack and go away from the gate, Shiro will then run back to the basement through the gate.

7) Resurrent your tank and repeat the above steps until Shiro is killed.

The above steps can at least prevent you from game over but you may not have enough damage to kill Shiro.

Suggested skills for monks : Protective Spirit, Healing Seeds, Healing Breeze

If Shiro's health is too low for Spoil Victor to take effect, yet he is close to death, it may be best for a warrior to take the fall. Having low health on a warrior will mean Shiro still loses health and WILL kill himself with this technique. However, it MUST be a warrior to do this, since they take the least amount of damage and can stay at smaller health for longer, guaranteeing Shiro's demise. This, however, will only work at its full potential with a REAL team. With a hench team, you will want three monks all spread out, a Spoil Victor necromancer and one HEAVILY supervised warrior. Shiro should only have his focus on the warrior, who also must take Wild Blow for Battle Scars, as stated above.
 * A small tip for a Spoil Victor necromancer + warrior

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 have to take out the Margonites which are hanging out at each of them to speed it up and to keep them from recapturing the shrines. Be careful, the shrines will eventually become uncaptured EVEN if there are no Margonites left. 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 will help you to kill Shiro, as you get a buff for each one captured.

The Margonites at each shrine are themed to the profession of that god, e.g., you face two Monks at the shrine of Dwayna, four Mesmers at the shrine of Lyssa, etc.