Imperial Sanctum

Objectives

 * Destroy Shiro

Walkthrough
Shiro uses five skills which make him hard to deal with if you come unprepared.

This is a stance that enables Shiro to regain health by stealing life as he attacks. The life he steals is based on the highest damage he takes from any single attack while under this stance, which can make high-damage armor-ignoring skills dangerous. Like any stance, it can be ended prematurely by skills like Wild Blow, Wild Throw or Wild Strike.

This skill will replace targeted party member with a bound foe of the same profession, and banish the party member to a nearby island. The party member can choose to run the long way to the teleportation orb and rejoin the rest of the party, or wait in safety for the party to destroy the bound foe allowing the banished player to return. Shiro will not banish a player character if that is the only player in the party, nor will he ever banish heroes.

Shiro starts using this highly dangerous skill once he drops to about 30% health, giving him an incredible attack speed and allowing him to inflict tremendous amounts of damage in a very short time. He also transfers any conditions he might have to the targets he attacks, making some anti-melee counters like weakness ineffective (blindness can still be useful, as Shiro has to hit his target to transfer the condition). However, it can also be a way to get him down fast since it will trigger any hexes that involve attacks, such as Empathy or Spiteful Spirit.

This skill gets more and more dangerous the longer it's allowed to continue. While he is in this meditation, the skill absorbs up to 500 damage, at which point it ends. When he comes out of this meditation he will steal 20 health from each player for each second it was active. If it stays active for its full 30 seconds he will steal 600 health from each player, which will most likely result in a complete party wipe.

This skill is nasty in combination with Impossible Odds. It will allow him to shadow step to any player and attack and in combination with Impossible Odds it will cause him to jump around from player to player dealing significant damage without any warning.

Hero/hench
Different strategies have been used successfully in this mission; however, some of them require that you have access to the heroes of Nightfall or Eye of the North.

If you are considering using a hero/henchmen mix, you should examine the skills they have equipped and what their Celestial skill will do, compared to what you could put on a hero. For example, the Necromancer Celestial skill is generally less useful compared to a Necromancer hero with Spiteful Spirit or Spoil Victor, so the hero would be preferred. The Warrior Celestial skill can cause a lot of damage, so consider bringing both Warrior henchmen. The Mesmer henchmen carry skills like Empathy, and also their Celestial skill will greatly improve the party's casting speed and recharge time. The Elementalist henchmen receive a very high damage dealing Celestial skill, so consider bringing them instead of an Elementalist hero.

Heroes are not affected by Echoing Banishment, but they also do not receive the Celestial skills given by Kuunavang. At the same time, if you are the only player in the party, Shiro will not banish you either. Thus if you bring only heroes, your party will be immune to banishment. This will mean there will be no Shiro'ken to give you morale boosts, so your Celestial skill will be unable to recharge if you take it. However, you can also set up your whole party with only anti-Shiro skills, which can almost guarantee success in either mode.

Remember to flag your heroes/henchman if you are not the only player in the party. If you don't, your heroes/henchman will become inactive as soon as you get banished, because they will try to go to you.

Warrior strategy
An effective strategy involves forming a party of mostly Warriors. They will need to equip stances to help them avoid Shiro's attacks, and "Watch Yourself!" to raise their armor rating. A source of healing might be needed and for that you normally bring Monks which will then move into either the north or the south corner of the island to stay out of Shiro's range. There they cannot get banished and will spam skills like Heal Party and/or Light of Deliverance.

You can use this strategy with only heroes and henchmen. Bring three Warrior heroes (or two and an Assassin), the two Warrior henchmen, and the two Necromancer henchmen. When the fight begins, the two Warrior henchmen will use Storm of Swords, and the Necromancers will use Star Servant. If the whole party body blocks Shiro, each Storm of Swords will deal 3,000 damage over the course of 15 seconds. This will leave him with little health, allowing your melee damage to finish him off.

Elementalist strategy
Bring a Warrior henchman. Have everyone in the party except the Warrior henchman stand all the way to the right or left pavilion (all of them must either be at the right, or the left, as splitting up means Mhenlo has a high chance of attempting to bounce back and forth between the two groups, easily grabbing the aggro of Shiro and thus running out of your area of effect skills). Use Armor of Earth, Ward Against Melee, Magnetic Aura, Arcane Echo, Echo just outside of Shiro's aggro range. Aggro Shiro and wait for him to banish the Warrior henchman, and when he does, use Celestial Storm, Echo, Celestial Storm, Celestial Storm. You will want to use damage increasing skills like Ebon Battle Standard of Honor at this point. The Bound Warrior should die, and recharge all of your Celestial Storms. Use all of your Celestial Storms again while maintaining your defensive skills and Shiro will drop very quickly. For Hard mode, Sliver Armor should be used just after the first Celestial Storm chain together with your damage increasing skills.

Bodyblocking + Impossible Odds strategy
The idea behind this strategy is to turn Shiro's Impossible Odds skill against him by triggering hexes like Empathy and Spiteful Spirit as much as possible. Bring one or two Warriors and at least one player with access to these skills. Once Shiro's health is low enough, he will start using Impossible Odds. At this point cast Empathy and Spiteful Spirit on him, and have all players stand adjacent to Shiro so that you all damage him by means of these hexes. Warriors should use Storm of Swords, and Necromancers and Assassins should use Star Servant and Star Strike as well to create even more combatants that will contribute to the damage.

Blocking skills will be highly useful in this approach, since you will be deliberately exposing yourself to Shiro's most dangerous ability. In particular, a Ranger with Celestial Stance will improve the party's survivability immensely.

Assassin + Warrior strategy
For this strategy, all you really need is one Assassin and one Warrior (although multiple Assassins can come in handy). The idea is to have the Assassin immediately use his/her Celestial skill on Shiro as soon as the battle starts, then once all Celestial Assassins have been spawned, have your Warrior run into the crowd and use Storm of Swords. This will cause Shiro to take more than 250 damage per second for 15 seconds and, when done correctly, usually causes death within 5-8 seconds.

Assassin
With the proper build, this mission can be performed fairly easily using only an Assassin and Mhenlo healing. Generally, this involves Critical Defenses, Critical Agility, and an attack chain that deals heavy damage quickly and can be spammed.

Other tips

 * In this mission, your Celestial skills only recharge when a bound Shiro'ken is slain; therefore, it may be useful to activate them only when really necessary, or when both Shiro and a bound Shiro'ken are engaged in battle. The death of the Shiro'ken will instantly recharge the skill.
 * Shiro cannot be knocked down unless Earthbind is used.
 * Shiro's skills cannot be disabled. Most of his skills cannot be interrupted either, because they lack an activation time.
 * The mission becomes considerably harder if Monks are present, as they may be replaced with Bound Monks. Consider using Ritualists with Restoration Magic or going without healers entirely. Remember that Mhenlo will accompany you.
 * Adrenaline and energy denial are largely ineffective; the only skill of Shiro's that needs either of these is Riposting Shadows.
 * Shiro tends to use Riposting Shadows followed by Battle Scars when Riposting Shadows ends. He almost always uses Battle Scars immediately after coming out of Meditation of the Reaper (unless his health is low enough to qualify for Impossible Odds).
 * Impossible Odds has a duration longer than its recharge, and Shiro sometimes uses it solely to remove all hexes from him.
 * In Hard mode, Shiro appears to have Natural Resistance, which makes maintaining hexes difficult. On the other hand, Wastrel's Worry damages faster and can be used to end his Meditation of the Reaper quickly.

Skill recommendations

 * Anti-melee hexes such as Empathy, Insidious Parasite or Spiteful Spirit. Pain Inverter and Spoil Victor are useful, too. Keep in mind that Impossible Odds removes all hexes from Shiro; cast them right after Impossible Odds is activated.
 * Activate Shield of Judgment on multiple characters when Shiro's health is low and he begins using Impossible Odds, as Shield of Judgment will not knock down Shiro without Earthbind present, causing Shield of Judgment's damage to trigger more often.
 * Echo and Arcane Echo allow you to use your Celestial skill multiple times in a row.
 * Skills that deal damage while ignoring armor, such as Obsidian Flame, are a big help when fighting Shiro; but be sure to remove his Battle Scars stance first.
 * Binding ritual spirit attacks are armor-ignoring, but won't deal enough damage for Battle Scars to become dangerous. A group of spirits is a good way to soak up damage from Impossible Odds, too.
 * A bonder Monk can help mitigate damage if you can keep him out of Shiro's shout range (or like to rely on luck). Protection Prayers skills, such as Shield of Deflection or Life Sheath, are best brought on a secondary Monk due to Echoing Banishment.
 * Shiro will not use Echoing Banishment if your party consists of 7 heroes, so bound Shiro'ken will not appear. Hex removal skills are unnecessary, since Shiro does not use hexes. Shiro can transfer, but cannot inflict, conditions via Impossible Odds, so condition removal skills are also unnecessary if your party doesn't bring skills that inflict conditions.

Completing the mission
Upon completion of this mission, the players will end up in the Divine Path.

If this is the first time your character has completed this mission, remember to talk to Suun in Divine Path. There will not be any quest nor reward indicator over his head. Suun will give you the Amulet of the Mists. You can then go to one of the nearby adepts and trade the amulet for a unique item. You can only receive this amulet once per character. If for some reason you forget to talk to Suun and leave the Divine Path, you can perform the mission again and talk to Suun to receive the amulet.

NPCs

 * 10 Oracle of Time
 * 30 Kuunavang

Allies
Human
 * 20 Brother Mhenlo

Foes
Spirits
 * 24 Spirit of The Mists

Boss-like foes
Envoy Shiro'ken
 * 31 (33) Shiro Tagachi
 * 20 (26) Bound Warrior
 * 20 (26) Bound Ranger
 * 20 (26) Bound Monk
 * 20 (26) Bound Necromancer
 * 20 (26) Bound Mesmer
 * 20 (26) Bound Elementalist
 * 20 (26) Bound Assassin
 * 20 (26) Bound Ritualist

Opening cinematic

 * Shiro Tagachi: "So. You're of the royal line."
 * Shiro Tagachi: "You'll do nicely."
 * Shiro Tagachi: "I have returned."

Initial dialogue

 * Brother Mhenlo: "Remember friends, Kuunavang has offered her help! Speak with her before you continue; her wisdom and teachings could well keep us alive!"
 * Brother Mhenlo: "Shiro has returned! But his power must not send us into hiding; we must confront him before he gains more power!"
 * Shiro Tagachi: "I thought I only needed to kill you once in the Courthouse Square...apparently I was wrong."
 * Shiro Tagachi: "You then proceeded to thwart me in the Tahnnakai Temple when I was attempting to bind Vizu, but her secrets will not help you now!"
 * Shiro Tagachi: "In the Sunjiang District, I grossly underestimated your power."
 * Brother Mhenlo: "And you continue to underestimate us even now!"
 * Shiro Tagachi: "But this time, I am ready for you!"
 * Brother Mhenlo: "We must finish this once and for all! For Togo, and for Cantha!"
 * Shiro Tagachi: "And now, without the power of Saint Viktor and Archemorus, you do not stand a chance...."
 * Brother Mhenlo: "Togo's death will not be in vain!"
 * Shiro Tagachi: "His blood has returned me to my mortal body."

Combat dialogue

 * Shiro Tagachi: ", banished!"
 * Brother Mhenlo: "To return to the battle, , you must either run to the celestial orb on top of the hill, or your party must destroy the binder that has taken your place. Either action will send you back to the battle."

Brother Mhenlo
 * "Don't let up! We've almost got them!"
 * "I'll gladly die if doing so will send you back to the Underworld!"
 * "The power you received from the Kuunavang seems particularly effective against these demons!"
 * "We'll not suffer these demons to live!"
 * "Your very presence fouls this world! Be gone!"
 * "Demon! You shall not succeed!"

Shiro Tagachi
 * "Die!"
 * "Face your doom!"
 * "Fear my power!"
 * "I have returned!"
 * "Weaklings!"

End cinematic

 * Shiro Tagachi: "I demand that you release me."
 * Messenger Vetaura: "You are no longer an Envoy. You cannot demand anything from us."
 * Shiro Tagachi: "Of course I am. You have no power over me."
 * Emissary Heleyne: "You are wrong Shiro."
 * Herald Demrikov: "Denial and disorientation are common among the newly dead."
 * Shiro Tagachi: "No. No. This cannot be."
 * Courier Torivos: "You are merely a new spirit, lost between the realm of the mortal and the Underworld."
 * Messenger Vetaura: "You are our charge now."
 * Courier Torivos: "We have reserved a special place in the Underworld for you."
 * Emissary Heleyne: "A place you will never escape from."
 * Herald Demrikov: "A place where you will finally pay for all of your sins."
 * Shiro Tagachi: "I will get you all for this."
 * Shiro Tagachi: "This is not the end of me."
 * Herald Demrikov: "You are right about that."
 * Courier Torivos: "This is not your end."
 * Herald Demrikov: "But you will wish it was."
 * Emissary Heleyne: "We thank you for your help in capturing Shiro."
 * Messenger Vetaura: "We will be watching over you, waiting for the day when you will join us in the afterlife."
 * Courier Torivos: "Until then, live a long and fruitful life."
 * : "Wait. What are you going to do to Shiro?"
 * Messenger Vetaura: "Let us worry about Shiro."