Talk:Imperial Sanctum (mission)

Henchie Walkthrough
I posted the solo henchie method i used under "strategy", i finished it in 1:56 with this setup. I tried to keep it uniform, but i'm still fairly new at this. Cheers! 75.3.161.157 16:00, 16 December 2006 (CST)

Annoying glitch
Can someone explain this to me please:



By the way, in case you were curious, the Envoys are not world objects. I saw a construct walk right rhrough where Emissary Heleyne was standing. &mdash; Stabber &#x270d; 17:36, 3 May 2006 (CDT)
 * Glitches like that happen all the time. I've seen tons of those, spirits, minions, etc attacking and doing stuff in the middle of cutscenes.  This is why I really think ANET should have just gone with movies instead of in game animations.  They dont glitch up and you see exactly what you're supposed to see everytime without the random bugs and extra fighting. | Chuiu 17:50, 3 May 2006 (CDT)
 * I personally feel that the game takes up enough hard disk space without another several dozen megabytes for FMV. It would require longer D/L's when new content is developed, or having to wait for a CD to arrive in the mail.  As a last point, its nice when the party is included in the cut scenes in real time.  Makes more sense to me to report the bugs, have Anet fix it as they see fit, and send a small patch. | Rohar 13:30, 18 May 2006 (EDT)

Yet another glitch I just discovered: the henchmen can get stuck on the wrong side of the door after the cutscene. &mdash; Stabber &#x270d; 08:34, 4 June 2006 (CDT)



I've had a brilliant glictch though. He went into meditation, and then somehow we (7 henchies and I) broke the meditation's effects, while he was still meditating (not the effect, more like the emote). Basically he just sat in the air as we continuously chopped at him. Masters with henchs. Awesome. Silk Weaker 08:33, 13 July 2006 (CDT)

Honestly, a strange and perplexing glitch happened to me today, with screenshots as proof... "Sister Tai" was banished, and she managed to make it out of the portal at the top. However, she was teleported to the SE corner, rather than back to where everyone else was. (though I wish I knew HOW she did it, I'd like to explore that area)
 * Obviously, Panaku taught her how to Shadow Step anywhere she wants, whether or not there are available targets. Did you never notice how Sister Tai has two daggers hidden in her socks?
 * (PS: I am just kidding about the daggers. But she totally knows how to Shadow Step) --MagickElf666 17:03, 8 June 2007 (CDT)

Master
I believe you need to finish in under 2:30 minutes to get master. | Chuiu 17:52, 3 May 2006 (CDT)


 * 2:28 was enough to receive masters, so that's probably accurate. --Xylia 09:39, 31 July 2006 (CDT)


 * I removed the note about Expert because it said the level was achieved at 2:00 which is less than Master. --Karlos 00:05, 8 June 2006 (CDT)

Expert
An anon edit in the article claimed that: (We did expert in 4.37). Foo 12:55, 23 June 2006 (CDT)

I did it in 2.35 min with henchmen and only got standard and expert rewards. Ramlov 05:06, 25 September 2006 (CDT)Ramlov
 * oops, nevermind my post --Mooseyfate 12:13, 23 April 2007 (CDT)

Echo
The note says E/Me's should bring echo to copy celestial storm. I think this should be edited, since it applies to all other professions as well, exept maybe the ritualist, who gets Celestial Summoning


 * Why not ritualist? -- [[Image:Ritualist-icon-small.png]] Cwingnam2000 22:33, 6 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Well, you can get only one Celestial Horror, but you can copy the celestial skill, cast the original. and the recast the copy to get 20 seconds of extra endurance for the creature... I think that all classes can bnefit of copying. Mithran 05:27, 25 October 2006 (CDT)


 * Actually, it's pretty useless for the necro - the summon lasts a heck of a long time even without botm (honestly, i think it's one of the most useless celestial skills.)

Even though it's the assassins that get the Celestial Horrors...

"warrior body-blocking" technique
I am strongly against this section being within the article. I have gotten Masters for all my characters, and have only used this method once (where, incidentally, it failed - but that may be because some teammates were not following the instructions). As a general rule, I am against any "tips" that lock into a team build. There are many possible team builds for this, we should most certainly not get into the habit of listing all possible combinations that will work within a mission. If the author feels strongly about this section, have him create it as a team build article. I do not believe that it belongs in the mission article. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 10:33, 20 August 2006 (CDT)
 * I think the general idea is the easiest way to do the mission although I don't like the writeup. The way I'd put it is simply "bring two warriors (only in case one gets banished), body block, and watch him die."  If you actually body block as opposed to just stand next to him, he won't move and the warrior skill will splatter him.  Anything else you bring will just speed it up.  Necros are in no way necessary if your team is actually cooperating with the body blocking.  --68.142.14.32 11:04, 20 August 2006 (CDT)
 * The described technique does not lock anyone into a specific team build. All that is required is one warrior.  One.  That leaves 7 possible slots for any type of "unbalanced" team you like.  Heck, even 7 assassins could accompany the warrior and get the masters. Other mission articles in this wiki have very detailed strategy walkthrus that prescribe very specific team structures.  The Raisu Palace mission, for example.  I added a short bit with enough detail for any newcomer to understand how to get the job done.  Masters reward, every time, if everyone on the team understands and applies the technique.  Is that so egregious, given that most people repeat this mission over and over because you have to go through it to get to the end-game crafters and amulet NPCs?  Please leave the detail in this article.  I sat by for literally 2 months hoping someone would add this bit to the article, because I got tired of explaining over and over to teams how to get through the mission quickly.  I've done this mission literally 20+ times now.  I've patiently stood by and let PUG leaders try it their way; failing multiple times.  I've seen no other technique that is as easily communicated, and as consistent.  Everytime I explain this to a PUG that has failed two or three times, the comments are "wow!" when we breeze the mission on the very next try.  These days, if I ask a PUG that I'm forming "who is familiar with the warrior-body-block technique?" At least 2-3 people already know of this.  It's not big secret; it's effective enough to be fairly well known by the experienced players.  Is not this wiki's purpose to help folks who are struggling with the game?--Shaktiboi 01:02, 21 August 2006 (CDT)
 * Step 1: "Start with 1-3 warriors, 1-3 necros, and the rest doesn't really matter except that one monk might be useful. 2 warriors and 2-3 necros is ideal." From experience with past articles, I know that a large number of users of this wiki will read this to be 3 warriors and 3 necros.  That only leaves two available slots.  I have no problem with a mention of the technique, it's the attempt to specify a team build that bothers me - if other articles have it, point them out to me - I've actively worked to purge that where I see it.
 * I like 68.142's recommended abbreviated version, as that seems adequate. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 08:43, 21 August 2006 (CDT)
 * The abbreviated revision looks fine by me; all the relevant info is there. Thanks all.--71.145.182.59 09:39, 21 August 2006 (CDT)

Article rework
I cleaned up the article a bit following the reworking of it. I think that the tactics section could be restored closer to its pre-rework format, but I'm leaving it for now. I am also unsure if the summary of Shiro's skills should remain in the article, as links exist to where they are spelled out in their own articles. However, those articles could be beefed up with some of the skills detail from here. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 11:34, 21 August 2006 (CDT)

Knockdown
The artical mentions that all knockdowns fail unless they come from a warrior. I just tried shock on my W/E but it didn't have any effect at all? This was during normal combat and during his meditation. --SK  12:13, 5 September 2006 (CDT)
 * I tried Shove with my warrior as well and wasn't able to knock him down, nor could I knock him out of Meditation with it. I don't know of anyone that has knocked him down successfully, so I doubt the veracity of the "only wars can knock him down" comment.  I'd like some specific examples that people have seen. --Dfscott 11:36, 5 October 2006 (CDT)
 * backbreaker and Counter Blow had no effect either. --I Follow The Blind 09:22, 5 October 2006 (CDT)

I think there are enough people commenting that KD does not work (even with a warrior) that I've added a dispute tag to the article. There are too many warriors bringing useless KD skills into this mission. --Dfscott 11:36, 5 October 2006 (CDT)

He could be knocked down in the beta event. This is just old text left from then &mdash; Skuld 11:46, 5 October 2006 (CDT)

Killing bound spirits?
There seems to be a bit of a debate whether or not to kill the bound spirits (that replace the banished people). Many parties I've been in tend to ignore the spirits, but I'd argue that killing them greatly aids the party. The elementalist's celestial skill deals enough damage to kill a bound spirit (water magic skills can be helpful in holding the spirit in place), and the whole party's celestials will recharge the moment the spirit dies. Perhaps this article needs a note about this?
 * Personally I favour killing them, as the recharge to all skills can really be a boon mid-battle. However if the banished player can make it to the portal then the bound spirit dies anyway, so perhaps that is why all groups seem to spam "omg ignore the spirits!1!" RossMM 16:11, 16 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Also i really doubt that using a celestial storm on a bound creature is wasteful, as it can be put to much better use when used on Shiro--user;Kurzspear 19:56, 6 March 2007 (CST)
 * You use it on the spirit, it dies, and then you get Celestial Storm recharged. Yes it would be better to use it twice on Shiro by killing the spirit another way, but using Celestial skills against a spirit (so long as it dies) is not a waste. RossMM 09:17, 7 March 2007 (CST)

Playing my ele, the most common frustration is that the first bound spirit is killed too early. I want to complete my initial chain of celestial storms *before* the skills are all reset. In any case, ele ftw. ;-) Krissy 03:37, 28 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Regardless of being useful or not, EVERYONE should use their Celestials on the Bound Spirit, which will induce a Morale Boost, the player being returned, and then you can ALL focus fire on Shiro. Why not spend 2 seconds bringing back a useful team mate (who will probably be the MONK or RIT of the party) so then you can pommel Shiro with all of your combined rage? --MagickElf666 11:17, 12 June 2007 (CDT)

Dispute

 * "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."
 * "Skills such as Diversion and Blackout will not disable Shiro's skills."

So can Shiro's skills be disabled or not? Does Wail of Doom work while other disabling skills don't? -- Gordon Ecker 03:40, 18 September 2006 (CDT)


 * I can only testify that Diversion does not work. --[[Image:TurningL sml.gif|Tetris L]] 03:55, 18 September 2006 (CDT)


 * GG, Shiro doesn't have any attack skills. :( --Karlos 05:30, 18 September 2006 (CDT)

Also, Meditation of the Reaper is NOT a Stance. -- Gordon Ecker 23:40, 25 November 2006 (CST)


 * Not in my experience; Wail of Doom does jack. -Scyfer 19:20, 11 December 2006 (CST)


 * With the functionality of Wail of Doom having been changed, whether or not it ever worked that way is now moot. Quizzical 19:37, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Possible with henchmen?
Is it possible with henchmen? They don't do enough damage, and they don't return after being banished, forcing you to kill the bound guys, and they take so long to do that so that Shiro's meditation heals him to full health, and just about wipes out the whole team. It goes on like that for ages until the DP gets too high, and Shiro wins. When I did it with a real team it took about 1 min and hardly anyone got hurt.. ridiculous that it's such a different story with henchmen. --Carth 22:44, 9 October 2006 (CDT)


 * Yeah, I agree. I've tried almost a dozen times with heroes+henchmen, using all the hints/tips in this page and nothing helps. Wail of Doom doesn't interrupt Shiro.... Grenth's Balance isn't doing much at all imo, when run on heroes. Something's off with this mission. The lack of hero celestial skills doesn't help. Scyfer 18:57, 11 December 2006 (CST)


 * Indeed it's much more effort with a NPC group. I took the tips from the article too (2 necro heros, 1 monk hero, 2 necro npcs, 2 mesmer npcs ) and it needed 3 tries for success (but 2:12 min then). The tries before he always was almost dead but then regenerated again so that I broke up and started again... but that gave me hope that it is possible. But still annoying XD --Birchwooda Treehug 06:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Have to disagree. Decided to test viability and just got expert's (3:34) using hero and hench only. Considered Grenth's Balance but realised it wouldn't be much use as Shiro's hp dropped towards the level of mine and Koss's so instead opted for Spoil Victor. My char was W/N, with Blood attrib at 12, and I also set Koss as a W/N, with Spoil Victor as his first (left hand) skill; his Blood attrib was at 11. Redemptor Karl and Devona were both banished and the Bound Monk and Bound Warrior were easily dealt with. I also used Life Siphon between Spoil Victor casts, while waiting for it to recharge. I used Storm of Swords and Life Siphon to deliver the coup de grace. Didn't bother with the body blocking technique outlined in the article - the Spoil Victor spamming was more than adequate. Fox Bloodraven 21:55, 22 December 2006 (CST)


 * the strategy in this article worked like a charm! as long as there are no monk spirits it's easy! &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.157.140.68 (talk &bull; contribs) 07:07, 5 January 2007 (CST).
 * I used a N/Me with echo SV, 2 SF heroes, a hero monk, 2 monk hench, 2 war hench. Shiro went down in about 30 seconds :) When he was at about 1/3 he used impossible odds and I saw about 20 "-115"s on the screen and he was dead. --Jogden 01:08, 5 January 2007 (CST)


 * I'll second that. I found the top of the dais where Shiro initially stands to be the best spot, simply because the henchmen bottleneck better. Having as many clumped around Shiro when he activates Impossible Odds is the key, because once that Spoil Victor kicks in, your screen is going to fill with pretty yellow numbers :) Infinity 02:03, 18 February 2007 (CST)


 * I defeated Shiro with a party of 4: Me (A/R),Olias(SS),Master of Whispers(SV) and Dunkoro in 2:39. Glenn 11:16, 6 January 2007 (CST)

I just tried following the henchmen advice, and I have a major problem with the suggested henchmen to bring. I tried it with master of whispers, Olias, Dunkoro, 2 warrior hench, and 2 mesmer hench, and the problem is the mesmer hench. When they get banished, the bound mesmers have shatter hex making it very difficult to keep spoil victor, spiteful spirit, and empathy on Shiro. Much better to bring 2 ranger henchmen instead of the 2 mesmer henchies. You can run olias as a Blood/domination N/Me to get spoil victor and empathy, and run master of whispers as a curse/blood necro with SS and barbs, and they can both bring awaken the blood for a damage boost Alinius 11:35, 4 February 2007 (CST)


 * I have run some tests. The henchmen have the celestial skills. It is pretty easy to defeat Shiro with expert reward with this team configuration: You, Olias and 6 henchmen (2 warrior, 2 necro, 1 elementalist, 1 ranger). With you having Wild Blow in x/W or W/x and Olias having: Spiteful Spirit, Insidious Parasite, Enfeeble, Awaken the Blood, Rip Enchantment(against Sliver Armor of the elementalist bound spirit), Signet of Lost Souls (or a similar Spoil Victor build).  Make sure to kill the bound spirits as soon as they appear, Keep Olias on Shiro except for taking enchantments of the elementalist bound spirit, and most importantly, take out Shiro's stance Battle Scars with your Wild Blow as soon as he uses it.  It works fine for me about 2 times out of 3 depending on when the warriors use their celestial skill. Tnyp 03:07, 27 June 2007 (GMT+2)


 * I've tried the strategy outlined in Tnyp's post and it does indeed work. I found Imperial Sanctum to be a bit of a crap shoot with henchmen/heroes for the following reasons.  1. Poor AI judgement as to the use of the Celestial Skills; especially important when you get to the Impossible Odds phase, the one time I did beat him with Tnyp's strat it was because the henchies hit their Celestials at the right time (when he was low on health and went into Impossible Odds). 2. Inability to stick to assigned targeting.  By far one of the biggest problems is getting AI players to stick to Shiro when he goes into Meditation of the Reaper, especially if there's other targets around.  They can be directed with Ctrl-Shift-Space but they'll lose interest if something else is attacking them.


 * My party was Quick Channler Rit (Me), A/W with stance removal skills Wild Strike and Wild Blow (Other Player), Olias with Spiteful Spirit Build, Hench Warrior, 2 Hench Necros, Hench Ele and Hench Ranger. Take him down fast when Meditation of the Reaper is up. Battle Scars must be removed from him when he uses Impossible Odds.  If both are up at the same time he simply gets too much health back. Cynicide--203.34.164.66 22:49, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

I just finished HM with heroes only. I was monk with life bond, life barrier, balthazar spirit, spirit bond and celestial skill; heroes: olias: spoil victor, blood of agressor, awaken the blood; master of whispers: awaken the blood, spiteful spirit, insidous parasite; zenmai: siphon strength, jagged strike, wild strike, death blossom, wild blow. Dont take any1 else and dot give heroes another skills or they wouldnt hex properly. I ran, hexed him, when he used meditation, zenmai ended that with 3 combos, then our hp dropped to 10%. I healed that lose with celestial skill and hexed shiro again. Completed HM Masters in about 1:30 with 4-man party. XMarkOS 10:26, 3 July 2007 (CDT)

I tried this several times with heroes and henchies, and after noticing (a) how little damage output the henchies seemed to have anyway, and (b) how they'd get banished and replaced by enemies that would draw the fire of my spirits (I was running a spirit-spam ritualist), I decided the henchies were hurting more than helping. I ditched them and just went in with three heroes and found it was much easier that way. Not sure if that's true with any old build, but it sure helped in my case. The heroes I used were Olias as N/Me with Spoil Victor/Empathy, then Koss and Zenmei with just their normal builds, nothing special. I figured with a party that small, Mhenlo would be monk enough. I did end up needing to cast Flesh of My Flesh on Zenmei once, but aside from that Mhenlo kept us going and we defeated Shiro just fine. --68.112.142.241 11:29, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

This mission isn't too bad. I just did it in hard mode and got Master's in 1:28. It was easier than I thought. I was W/Me with Wild Blow, blocking stances, the celestial skill, and Echo. I had MoW as SV, Olias as SS, Ogden Stonehealer as protection. I equipped all my heroes with a sword and shield and set them to aggressive. I also brought the two warrior henchmen and two mesmer henchmen. Then we attacked. I echoed the celestial skill and was able to use it 3 times. Since the heroes all had swords, they bunched up against Shiro as well. Easier than I thought. jhu 05:37, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

2:30
Finished this mission on 2:30 exactly, got masters. Jebus 14:39, 28 January 2007 (CST)


 * My team did it in exactly 2:30 and got Expert's. -- Gorfax Silverdale 00:48, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * [[image:shiro-230.jpg]]
 * Maybe Jebus was under 2:30.5 and Gorfax was over 2:30.5 . Ghost1 18:55, 5 February 2007 (CST)
 * If it was due to rounding, I would think it would be because Jebus was over 2:29.5, whereas Gorfax was under 2:30.5 -- both would round to 2:30, but only Jebus was actually under the wire. --68.112.142.241 09:59, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Echoing Banishment for other campaign characters
What happens when Echoing Banishment is used for Elonian characters and other new campaign characters? I did it on my dervish and I think a bound spirit was put in my place because I was teleported back to the fight without going through the portal. Ghost1 19:02, 5 February 2007 (CST)

I did this as a Dervish and was replaced by a Bound Warrior. Would be an idea to test it further, as I was set as D/W, so not entirely sure whether the bound spirit was based on the second profession.

EASY!!!
This was so simple, we had a group of 8, with 1 hero monk, I did all the work basictly, with a touch ranger in less than 30 secs
 * That's like, totally amazing! Please sign your comments and show proof that you did it in 30 seconds. Otherwise it's just a waste of space :-) --MagickElf666 11:19, 12 June 2007 (CDT

Yes, I ran triple touch rangers (myself and 2 heroes) and it was very easy. -Voodoo Rage

3x touch rangers with my warrior, and pets .... normal mode 1 min 4 seconds, hard mode 1 min 10 seconds. Pictures as follows... name of the build is "Tar and Feathers". http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/5760/gw221.jpg http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/4391/gw222.jpg

Shiro updated ?
I also killed Shiro in less than 3 minutes, with heroes and henchmen, something like one week ago. I retried it today, with the exact same team and lost... I'm not sure wether Shiro has more hp than before, or more armor, but I'm quite sure he's tougher. (I suppose, if Shiro has indeed been changed, that the update came between 10 and 15 March 2007). Aoku 19:33, 14 March 2007 (CDT)
 * I think Shiro has had a MAJOR boost. I remember passing him a few times a month or so ago, and some time before that, and it was difficult, but not impossible. I just did a bunch of back-to-back runs with some top players from my alliance, and we failed several times in a row (we have yet to pass him, actually). Were talking GOOD players, with excellent armor and equipment, excellent ability. If a hero or henchman is brought along, Shiro becomes INSANE, and is impossible not only to beat, but half the time the party is wiped within the first minute (impossible odds followed by meditation wipes out the team every time). If ANET has changed Shiro, I'm here to say, this is screwed up in the extreme. This is not fun, not entertaining, not enjoyable in any sense of the word. For a mission that players are FORCED to play over and over to get to the Divine Path and reach endgame armor and weapons, this is really, really screwed up. It needs to be fixed. Jrista 02:26, 17 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Shiro is the final boss in Factions, and should therefore be the most difficult foe to face, not one that you easily pass through again and again and again, abaddon isn't too easy either, and you have to pass him for primeval. Complain less and adapt more.
 * With respect, Abaddon is a push-over compared to Shiro, you certainly don't have to take as much of a gimmick team build for Abaddon as you do for Shiro. BramStoker 03:46, 30 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Just got Master's @ 1:49 with 3 heroes and 3 henchmen. Was run 3 of 3. The run before this was around the same time but we just couldn't knock down the last sliver of health (I got excited and missed my timing). It just comes down to the skills being brought and a little luck that Shiro does what you want (IE: staying put, heh). (May 31st, 2007)

Im not sure shiro has been made any harder... at least i dont think so.. i can still solo him =\
 * I'm almost 100% sure that you can't solo shiro. You'd need great survivability, and great damage that isn't dependant on him attacking, or MoTR will kill you.
 * Umm Yes you can, I've did it just now 86.130.57.190 19:24, 13 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Shiro can be soloed easily with an assassin but that is about it. Actually can kill him in under 45 seconds with the build. look it up. :)
 * The assassin can't solo kill him without SS/SV necros. --NYC Elite 17:59, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Extremely useful tip against Echoing Banisment
I just tried it and it worked wonderfully! I set my second proffesion to Assassin and used Death's Charge on a spirit on the top of the hill, and it teleported me directly in the portal. I stayed only 3 seconds in the Mists!
 * Are you sure you weren't using Spirit Walk? RossMM 21:19, 21 April 2007 (CDT)

Why would you ask a such a stupid question?


 * I was under the impression that Death's Charge didn't work on spirits, but I tested it since then and found it does. You also might want to read GW:NPA before being so rude in future. RossMM 19:23, 4 June 2007 (CDT)


 * Saying someone is asking a stupid question is not rude, and it is not an attack. Please do not be so sensitive and quickly turn defensive just because someone is unfriendly. Also, before you question what someone says, check your sources (so it seems you did so after the original post), and you'll avoid being 'accused' of asking stupid questions. --MagickElf666 03:01, 10 June 2007 (CDT) (sorry for being a doofus)


 * It certainly is rude, if not an attack. There is no rule against asking questions either. Learn to deal with it. --Kiiron 09:35, 13 June 2007 (CDT)


 * I was unsure whether it classed as a personal attack. However as they made a rude comment with no attempt to explain why my question was stupid I felt like it would be a good idea to link to the NPA page, as although it may not be completely relevant it should at least encourage civility. RossMM 04:35, 14 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Meh, in my defense, I was in a sarcastic mood that night (those spammer in GW reallllllly tick me off). But in any case, one must learn to grow a thick skin when chatting on the internet, because not everyone is friendly. I edited it now. --MagickElf666 01:07, 15 June 2007 (CDT)

Strange Glitch
Well, I am a mm necro called Erienne Nix with a flesh golem and I joined a party to finish the mission...we ran in to attack him, and i think there was a body nearby (I can't remember exactly if there were any bodies around so it might just have been a strange occurance...) so I started to summon a flesh golem but he banished me. They killed the spirit and I was transported back...but I had summoned around 9 flesh golems and we killed him within around 20 seconds because of it...not sure why it happened but it might work for hard mode.


 * If you had an assassin in your party it's likely the result of their Star Strike celestial skill, as the creatures it summons look identical to Flesh Golems. If you didn't have an assassin then it sounds like a weird bug indeed. RossMM 19:23, 4 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Necromancer celestial skill brings in a creature that looks like a Flesh Golem, but has nice effects for the party (+25HP/+3 energy per hit it makes), Assassin celestial skill calls in an ally every time a party member hits a target. That also has the look of a Flesh Golem. Lastly, the Warrior celestial skill affects all adjacent allies, making a Warrior and Assassin the deadliest combo for Shiro. --Kale Ironfist 20:14, 4 June 2007 (CDT)

Meditation
His Meditation skill description says he absorbs up to 500 damage. What if you are able to use tons of life-stealing and degen, will that 500HP mark never be reached and in turn, Shiro will be kept asleep throughout the process? --MagickElf666 17:05, 8 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Provided you did it within the 30seconds that meditiation is active, yes. Lord of all tyria 17:15, 8 June 2007 (CDT)

Rebirth GLITCH
Warning - Do not bring Rebirth. If your heroes use it, DISABLE IT! Here's why: Today I was doing this mission so I could craft Ascended Canthan Armor for my Ritualist. I was the first to Die, as I was running an unbalanced build, and we only had one Monk. Our Monk began casting Rebirth on me, but then was Banished. Once I was resurrected, I spawned in the Mists. No problem, right? Except after killing all of the Spirits (I had a spirit-kill spammable skill) I tried walking through Portal to rejoin my party, and nothing happened!! I kept trying many, many times, walking in and out of the portal, and nothing happened!! So I am convinced that if you get sent to the Mists from either Rebirth or some Assassin Shadow Stepping skill, meaning you were not banished yourself, there is no way to rejoin your party, and you then become useless. I'll be adding this to Article page. --MagickElf666 17:20, 10 June 2007 (CDT)

easy 2 minutes
There are 2 very easy ways to get Master's quickly, being:
 * 1) You just take 2 monks, 6 eles, and use your celestial skill to aoe him to death.
 * 2) 2 monks, 6 warrior/rangers with pets and you just chain storm of swords.
 * 3) What I just did was 2 monks, 5 warriors, (only one had a pet) and me as a sin. STill got it in two minutes, and there's no need for an extra storm of swords so star strike helps greatly. I'm far too lazy to scroll up and see if anyone has said any of this, but that's just what I did.&mdash;[[Image:Cheese.jpg|50x19px]] Cheese Slaya  ( Talk ) 13:11, 15 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Me and a friends guild did this without any healers at all, just lots of warriors/eles and a necro I believe. Lord of all tyria 13:49, 15 July 2007 (CDT)

Spiteful Spirit + Insideous Parasite + Spoil Victor will kill him in under 45 seconds if you give him plenty of bodies to hit.

Exploring the mists
Is it possible to reach the outskirts of this mission? How? Is it possible with heroes/henchmen? How about going alone? What kind of group do you need to get there? How about your own stats? Any special tricks to ensure the access? I have explored 99,6% of Cantha, and I'm still missing the mists areas (except the one in North-West.) --Aozora 15:27, 25 July 2007 (CDT)
 * See the bullet on Imperial Sanctum (last one in the section) here. &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 17:38, 25 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Thanks */bow* --Aozora [[Image:aozora.png]] 03:45, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

That doesn't tell you about rhe mists (area north of the shiro mission). It tells you about exploring the docks north of the palace. Further, being banished always seems to take you to the same area to the north west, leaving the other two in the north and north east unexplored. How to get there? &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.226.191.237 (contribs).


 * There have been more bullets added to the list since I made that comment - the one you want is now the third from the bottom of the Cantha section. And yes, players always get banished to the same area in the northwest - the others are inaccessible (at least, I've never heard differently).  &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 23:39, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Celestial Skill usage with Hench
I've noticed that some Celestial skills get used as often as possible by the Henchmen, and others do not. Brutus and Sheena have no problem using the Necro skill, and Redemptor Karl will use Star Shine at appropriate times. Even Aeson spams Celestial Summoning whenever possible.

However, I have noticed that Kai Ying absolutely refuses to use Celestial Storm whatsoever, and it really hurt since I was expecting that to solve Meditation of the Reaper for me. Also, Lukas and Devona seem to be very reluctant about using Storm of Swords; I've only seen it used once, and that was when the party was nearly dying. Hardly useful then.

I didn't try all the hench and so I am not sure about the other skills, but it just seems strange how some Hench will use the skills and others won't. It is even more frustrating since Heroes can't get the skills...Thank goodness that Shiro is still a pushover, or else I'd never make it through here without *gasp* capping Factions elites! (T/C) 14:46, 11 August 2007 (CDT)
 * Or *gasp* getting a PUG.--Gigathrash 14:50, 11 August 2007 (CDT)
 * Maybe I can't *gasp* get a PUG because I was the only one in the outpost! >.> Not many people in Imperial Sanctum at 12:00 midnight...In any case, PUGs are bleh and everyone knows that. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 14:54, 11 August 2007 (CDT)
 * That's true ;P. Maybe I should start hanging around there so I can assist random people in Shiro destroying.  Or I could just be lazy and do forbidden chest farms until someone requests help.--Gigathrash 14:58, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

Updated skill usage
Shiro now banishes heroes and henchies...so they get stuck and you have to kill the bound spirit. Jaimes Laig Romarto 19:45, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Um....he's been banishing henchmen since forever. -Gildan Bladeborn 19:56, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
 * but not heroes. Jaimes Laig Romarto 01:45, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Heroes not "banishable" yet I think.
I have been doing this for a few hours (trying to do masters alone with heroes/hench) and the heroes never get banished even once... Well unless I get extremely lucky that my heroes never got banish in those few hours trying, it is not updated yet.
 * As a note, I wasn't alone with H/H. Jaimes Laig Romarto 08:23, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Hard Mode made easy!
Fight him like usual pounding away until he reaches 25%-33% health then use Pain Inverter and swarm him, keep some blocking ability or Shield of Absorption on one team mate and watch him explode. 65.30.20.38 22:06, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmm...just finished my 6th attempt...need this for guardian title...last time shiro did 600 dmg to me AND my group of h/h...600 freaking damage! that is just insane. i was using wb on him as often as i could. and, tried pain inverter, he stopped doing anything for the duration of that; then wailed away. has done that 2x now. not sure if anet has put in a 'fix' or not but so far, im not even getting close w h/h...
 * lol you actually need EotN skills to thrash him in HM? Just get a necro with Reckless Haste, Price of Failure, and Spoil Victor on him (maybe some other people add Emp and SS for good measure) and just watch him own himself. We finished it on the first try faster than I've ever finished it in NM (cause he attacks even faster... and kills himself even faster) --Gimmethegepgun 04:51, 20 November 2007 (UTC)


 * ..reckless haste - check; sv-check; price of failure-check; empathy-check; ss-check; shiro killing himself -- no way. so far, only success i've had is with a hero ONLY team; and we were just too slow.  still, did manage to kill him.  oh well...2hours is enough.  will try again tomorrow.

Solo Masters


After trying many different methods I finished this mission quickly to get masters solo. I did it twice in a row and got around the same time. I will explain what I brought to show some rough guidelines; although, I'm sure that most will have a different party structure. Before I get into that here are some things that I noticed:

Shiro did not banish me, or any of my heroes. Henchmen were banished, but I did not notice them being out of the fight permenantly.

Here is what my party consisted of:

(Human) R/W Modified Thumper

(Hero) Rt/Any Restoration Ritualist

(Hero) N/Mo Modified Spiteful Spirit

(Hero) N/Mo Modified Spoil Victor

Then I brought the following henchmen:

Sheena Necromancer, specializing in Curses and Death Magic Seaguard Hala Mesmer, specializing in Illusion Magic Lukas Warrior Devona Warrior

The rit could be changed for any hero healer I presume, that's just what I brought for the party effects and minor blocking ability. I used my ranger celestial skill (In place of charm animal) twice, the first time when Impossible Odds started, then I killed a bound spirit, and then used it again the second time Shiro used Impossible Odds. By that time he was very close to death. Applied SS and SV as soon as Impossible Odds started both times and maintained by forcing hero's to cast it. Shiro dropped easily.

Tried the above, 4x now and never got shiro down below half health. Maybe just bad luck. By the end the last attempt, I was in the middle of about 4-6 wells created by the 'bound' necro --shiro banished sheena 3x. My ranger celestail skill did not do anythhing i could tell other than draw shiro to me...killed me 3x.


 * But when you brought heros/henchmen with you then it isn't solo. Solo ≠ party. --Birchwooda Treehug 06:18, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I just did it with three warrior heroes and two warrior henchmen; they kept Shiro in one place while I triple chained celestial storm on him. But it only worked because celestial storm also caught the bound warrior, giving me three more celestial storms to use. Following that I just cast as many elementalist skills that are similar (firestorm, etc.). From then I just got lucky; h/h had managed to kill another bound warrior at that point and Shiro was definitely dead by that point. :D

Give Me Masters or Give Me Death?
I've done this mission numerous times now (I have numerous PvE characters and decided to finally get them all to the end of all campaigns), and one thing I've noticed is that it seems almost impossible to complete this mission without getting masters. Either we run in and kill him quick, or we're toast. If the battle drags on, fatigue and DP accumulate and we just end up losing. If we haven't won in the first two and half minutes, we're not going to win at all. It's amusing that the greater rewards are for winning quickly. If you can stick it out with him for over five minutes and still manage to win after that, you deserve a freakin' medal. --68.187.144.197 07:58, 20 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Shiro's damage increases exponentially as his health goes down because of things like Impossible Odds. It's quite easy to just sit around and tank Shiro without trying to kill him. 55s do a remarkable job, for example. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 08:07, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Yup. people either go into battle with massive damage potential, ruin his Meditation of the Reaper and have something like SV, SS, empathy, insidious parasite, or simply a few Celestial Storms and have him killed. In comparison, it can go badly if monks get banished and/or not enough dps is achieved, his Impossible Odds is used when everyone is grouped without anything damaging him per hit or when too many are dead/banished and he decides to use his meditation. the trick isnt just consistency and stability, but an element of shear power and exploitation of his rediculous ability, which, with the community having a long time and a variety of skills, have been able to discover - Xav 19:07, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

I Had over 40 minutes of fighting with Shiro in this mission and can still not kill him but neither can he kill any of my heroes or henchmen. I finally had to call it quits and map back to town. No DP at all as he could not kill anyone. Me R/E close combat/pet build, 2 Hero monks with WoH, aegis, protect spirit and such, A MM necro with flesh golem, and both warrior and mesmer heroes. I can get him down to 200 or so life but then he just regains it with Meditation. We do too much damage to let meditation last long enough to hurt us, and enough healing when it and impossible odds hurts, to negate damage from it. I literally sat in the mission for over a half hour just beating him, killing bound spirits, beating him, rinse and repeat. Every time he would get close enough to kill mediation would end doing 2-300 damage to my party and healing him back to half health. It is annoying. I do not want to redo builds just for a 2 minute fight (supposed anyways). I think that I will have to sub one of those mesmers for a necro and one of the warriors for an assassin and see how that goes. I have full confidence that the builds described here will work but I want to try the easy approach first and I will get back to you on that. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.194.187.100 (contribs).


 * Wait... MM? Why?  You only get one Shiro'ken every 40 seconds, there's no way minions would be useful in this mission.  Swap that for Spoil Victor/Spiteful Spirit, and that's probably the only change you'll need to make. &mdash;Dr Ishmael [[Image:Diablo_the_chicken.gif]] 00:46, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Amulet of the Mists
Shouldn't the amulet, and what one can do with it, at least be mentioned in the article? 213.114.237.26 10:44, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Lead Baloon
Just saying, the mythbusters made a baloon out of lead,so the metaphor to it in strategies may not be the right one:)--68.38.224.29 20:05, 2 February 2008 (UTC)


 * How about saying he drops like an anvil? That'll work :P --Gimmethegepgun 20:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)



Off topic on how to beat Shiro
Did anyone notice the smoke from the two jars in front of Emperor Kisu is actually composed of chinese letters?

this is a pretty solid hero build against him. 84.84.179.39 12:57, 29 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Not really, since you'll just end up blinding your party when he uses impossible odds. Quizzical 15:11, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Short mission, long article?
Well, I guess it fits the unwritten rule that articles get longer as a campaign goes along, whether or not the mission content justifies it. But it would probably be possible to improve this article by selectively deleting half of it, even if you add nothing.

We really don't need eight separate "strategies" for beating Shiro, most of which assume a player of some particular class, and many of which assume heroes or multiple players. Having a couple heroes available does make the mission dramtically easier than henchmen only, so one could perhaps justify listing both a henchmen strategy and a heroes strategy, but one should not assume the presence of a player of any particular class.

It's not just that there are too many random strategies and other assorted tips, but many of them are just stupid. There are really just three things you need to know: end battle scars immediately, end meditation of the reaper immediately, and kill bound spirits immediately unless this conflicts with one of the first two priorities. Damage doesn't particularly matter unless you have only henchmen and can't end battle scars, in which case, you're really just bringing a lot of damage and hoping you get lucky. And yes, here, hope is a strategy. That and a bit of explanation of how Shiro operates shouldn't make this the seventh longest non-elite cooperative mission page on the wiki.

My plan to clean up the article is this. Clear out most of the random strategies and assorted tips. Leave an explanation of how Shiro fights. Have only two strategies: one if the player has only henchmen available, and another if he has heroes available. The latter isn't too hard. The former basically relies on getting Devona, Lukas, and Kai Ying to use their celestial skills a lot, and hoping you get lucky. It does take some luck to win with this approach, so it might take a few tries, but it does work. A failure only takes a couple minutes, so it's not nearly as big of a deal as getting half an hour into a mission and then wiping. Finally, standardize the page format. I'll probably get around to it in several days. Quizzical 19:57, 17 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I wholeheartedly agree on purging the article. Go right ahead imo :) --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG|Ohaider!]]-- (s)talkpage 20:17, 17 May 2008 (UTC)


 * And so we reach the end of Factions. I cut the length by more than half.  The dialogues are still missing, though.  Quizzical 09:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

how du u get this?
how do you get this mission? Where do you have to come in? plz reply....
 * Just finish Raisu Palace (mission), check Mission overviews (Factions) if you are not there yet! Random Time  19:41, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Togo rezzed WTF
This is kinda weird, I was doing the Imperial Sanctum Mission for a Phoenix. Everything was normal so Master Togo's corpse was there. I had Aeson with me, later he was banished. The bound that replaced him placed the spirit restoration. We killed the spirit and, so weird, master togo came back alive! I made this screenshot of it.

IOmanHunterI 14:22, 20 September 2008 (UTC)


 * XD Did you still get to complete the mission? Did Togo help you fight? [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 18:47, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

No, I was so attracted by Togo that I forgot shiro! I completed it before. And no Togo did nothing but just stand. I couldn't talk to him either. Was it a bug or something?


 * It may not be a bug so much as a very simple design flaw. Togo is dead in this mission, and you can see his corpse, but you cannot use any resurrection skills on him. That means he was assigned to the enemy team or such. Thus, they can rez him. What they should have done was made his corpse an "object", much like the body of Paulus the Abbot in Regent Valley (Post-Searing). Probably they never expected that this could happen. It's too bad that he would not fight with you, having an untargetable free Rit healer would help on this mission. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 17:49, 21 September 2008 (UTC)
 * If what you speculate is true, Togo lacked scripting. If he had had some kind of scripting (say, set to use hero AI) and he was really on the enemy team, he would have fought against the player. --◄mendel► 07:53, 22 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Well he has to be assigned to the enemy team if they could rez him...that much I can say for sure. It is likely that he lacks script since probably in the code, after Togo dies he is effectively removed from the "Imperial Sanctum program" cause he's not supposed to do anything. An oversight I guess. On the other hand, every single time Togo is found, he always has something special to do. Except for where he just stands around in Monastary Overlook (I think), he is either giving special quest/mission dialogue, set to move to a specific location, fight certain monsters, etc. The times where he just follows you around and fights as normal is...umm...I don't think it exists. He always has a special script to run. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 14:13, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

for posterity's sake
If you don't have Critical Agility, it is not strictly necessary, but speeds up the process a lot. This can solo Shiro with just Mhenlo's assistance, as long as Shiro doesn't decide to attack Mhenlo - usually this won't happen, but he might aggro on him after Riposting Shadows. If Mhenlo dies, you're pretty much dead. Works in easy and hard mode without much time difference. If you want to speed up the process, take some Heroes with anti-melee stuff like Empathy, Price of Failure, etc. Buffs like Strength of Honor are also helpful. It is immaterial if they die or not, since you can still solo Shiro; they only help.

Alternatively, for fun you may want to try something like...

(Be sure to use a Stonefist Insignia.)

The skillbar of the player is of course dependant on their profession, but anything that has knockdowns/benefits from them would be most helpful, such as Meteor Shower or Unsteady Ground.

Earthbind lets a fair number of knockdowns affect Shiro, and Backbreaker usually works anyway. The idea here is to keep Shiro on the ground perpetually, so he is able to do almost nothing. Sometimes he'll get off a weak Meditation of the Reaper, stealing <100 health, but that is nothing Mhenlo can't take care of. As long as you can get Shiro to almost-dead while Wanderlust is up, the damage from spirits and a Deep Wound will usually finish him off even if you can't KD after that. The most dangerous thing would be Impossible Odds throwing Blind onto the Warrior, but by that point Shiro should be damaged enough to still be able to finish him.

For henchmen, you'd want to take ones which will not leave behind dangerous/annoying Bound Spirits in case they are banished. (Shiro can use Echoing Banishment even if knocked down, as it's a Shout.) Monks would be a bad idea; Elementalist might wipe out all your spirits in one blast. (T/C) 11:59, 3 March 2009 (UTC)