Gate of Madness

You and Kormir have traveled to the Gate of Madness, seeking the Temple of the Six Gods, and in it, a way to beseech the Gods for assistance in defeating Abaddon. Unfortunately, the way is heavily guarded by Torment creatures and Margonites, as well as some old enemies from Prophecies and Factions.

This mission is considered one of the hardest in the Nightfall campaign - due to large demon patrols, -15% healing effectiveness, chaos rifts that continually spawn foes, and battles with both the Undead Lich and Shiro Tagachi.

Objectives

 * Travel to the Temple of the Six Gods.
 * Close the torment rifts by slaying the portal wraiths. [5...0] of 5 rifts remain open.
 * Activate the shrines to the Five Gods to aid you in battle.
 * Destroy the Undead Lich and Shiro Tagachi.
 * *Bonus* Rally the god avatars.
 * You have rallied [0...5] of 5 god avatars.

Reward
The reward depends on the number of shrines to the five gods you have captured (See Normal mode reward/Hard mode reward for details).

In addition to the experience and gold rewards, you also gain 45 Lightbringer title points for each level of completion in Normal mode and 100 in Hard mode.

Walkthrough
The mission can be divided into three parts plus the bonus:
 * 1) Traveling to the Shrines to the gods.
 * 2) Closing the portals.
 * 3) Capping the shrines (for the bonus).
 * 4) Defeating Shiro and the Lich.

Traveling to the shrines
Follow the left wall until you reach a bridge across a ravine. Along the way, you will encounter 2-3 Margonite patrols; take them out one-by-one. As you reach the bridge, you will pop-up a group of Torment creatures that should present little problem. To cross the bridge, you will have to defeat two sets of Realm of Torment Titans; like all titans, when defeated, they spawn additional titans so generally focus on defeating one chain of them at a time. Alternatively, skip the first bridge and continue to follow the ravine and cross the next bridge; instead of the titans, you have to deal with Margonites and Torment creatures, including Champion Puran.

After crossing the ravine, you will arrive at a gate. Shiro, the villain from Factions, will speak briefly and then summon four groups of Shiro'ken; you can avoid two groups by pushing through the gate immediately. Alternatively, as soon as Shiro begins speaking, you can retrace your steps briefly, then turn to address each group in turn; they should present little trouble. A third possibility is to run back to the base of the hill, (out of sight but still within compass distance), watch them to run to a second gate, and wait for any spirits they created to die; you will then be able to move through the first (lower) gate without engaging the Shiro'ken at all. This method also provides time to recover health and energy before the next challenge.

Closing the portals
On the other side of the gate, the Undead Lich (from Prophecies) will speak briefly and open five chaos rifts, spawning a variety of enemies (Prophecies Titans, Margonites, and Torment Claws). In addition, each portal is defended by a group of three Portal Wraiths, which must be defeated in order to close the rifts. Keep an even pace and try to keep the battles simple by focusing on one set of enemies at a time. The fastest route is counter-clockwise, beginning with the portal just to the right of the entry. The portals will continue to spawn enemies (specific to each portal) as long as they are open; if you are forced to combat multiple groups, try to defeat the wraiths first.

If you are having trouble closing the rifts quickly:
 * Work clockwise instead, tackling just the nearest portals first. Remain close to the most-recently closed portal and pull enemies from the next towards you. The mobs only respawn if you kill their entire group, so it helps to leave one alive as you proceed towards the next rift to defeat its guardians.
 * Alternatively, work more slowly by going after the Titans (who do not respawn) after killing the wraiths at each portal. Continue to circle the area counterclockwise, but leave the Armageddon Lord alone until at least three of the portals have been cleared, which will reduce the numbers and size of the roving patrols.

Once the portals are closed, the gate to the shrine area opens. Pause here to regroup and discuss or consider strategy; with the rifts closed, there is no immediate danger. However, once you cross the corridor to the shrine area, you will have to deal with Shiro and the Lich.


 * Consider doing the bonus now.
 * See: Bonus (below)

If your party consists of 3 more heroes and/or henchmen, now is the best time to complete the bonus by capping the shrines to the gods.
 * Capping the shrines gives the party up to five blessings useful in defeating Shiro and/or the Lich.
 * You can take advantage of a scripting anomaly which makes it much easier to cap them now.

Defeating Shiro and the Lich
Most groups encounter some difficulty defeating one or both of these foes. The most important step is to pull them apart and it is almost always easier to have Shiro chase you. Set up your party just outside the corridor to the shrine area; if you have them, you can use spirits and/or minions and/or tanks to block each boss from reaching your backline.


 * Shiro

Initially, Shiro is not difficult; he starts by dishing out manageable amounts of damage and seems to lose health quickly enough. However, once he is reduced to 25% of his health, he will use Impossible Odds, which can do large amounts of damage, remove any hexes, and transfer conditions to any opponent he hits. There are several strategies that work well:


 * Use a tank to draw aggro and keep it protected using wards, protection spells, and/or maintained enchantments. Keep your backline away from him and, as long as you have enough damage, he will not survive long enough to do any significant harm.
 * As suggested above, use a spirit wall and/or minions to prevent Shiro from reaching most of the party.
 * Bring stance-removal skills to cancel Shiro's Battle Scars and bring interrupts to prevent Impossible Odds.


 * The Undead Lich

The two biggest threats from the lich are his high damage output and his ability to turn enchantments against the enchanted. You can counter this easily using party-wide heal, healing spirits, and/or non-enchantment protections (such as stances or non-typed skills).

Bonus (Capping the shrines)
There are five shrines to the Gods of Tyria located in a circle around the initial positions of Shiro and the Lich. You capture them the same way as you have seen in other missions (e.g. Grand Court of Sebelkeh): as each party member stands near the shrine, the ownership transfers to the party; the rate goes up with each new character present and goes down with each foe. You can capture the shrines in any order.

Each shrine is devoted to a particular god and defended by 2-4 corresponding Margonites (e.g. Mesmers at Lyssa's shrine). As you capture each shrine, the god grants a blessing to the party. If you lose a shrine, you lose the blessing but still get credit for the bonus; you do not have to retain control to win the Master's level reward.


 * Capturing via exploit

The easiest way to get the bonus is to exploit a hole in the game mechanics, using heroes and henchmen to capture the shrines; they can easily handle the small number of Margonite guards. You must do this after closing the rifts, but before entering the corridor to the shrine area. You do not have to defeat these foes, but if you can, it will speed up capture time and allow to retain control for a longer period (allowing you to enjoy the benefits of the blessings for tackling the two bosses).

You need at least three heroes to manage this: in normal mode, any triplet that can heal themselves or each other should work; in hard mode, the heroes need to be well balanced. The more heroes or henchmen you send, the easier this is and the less careful you have to be about managing them; the first time you try it, send six or seven.

There are two techniques for micro-managing the flagging:


 * Standard: flag the heroes to the center of the shrine area using the u-map (since you cannot move close enough to use the compass-map). Then move them to the first shrine until you see the game message indicating that you have progressed the bonus. Move them back to the center and repeat, until you have captured them all.
 * Death management: Flag your heroes near the gate and sacrifice yourself (usually by walking away from the gate and using one of the remaining patrols to kill you). Click on the name of one of your heroes so you can see the area from their perspective. Follow the same process as above, but with almost no chance of the party getting stuck or walking to the wrong shrine.

The second method is the easier of the two because it prevents you from accidentally triggering Shiro and/or the Lich prematurely. Regardless of the method:
 * Retreat immediately if you feel there is any chance that you have over-aggroed Shiro, the Lich, or the shrine guards.
 * Flag your heroes back to the portal area before tackling Shiro and the Lich.


 * Capturing without exploit

If you are in a group primarily composed of players (or if you do not wish to use the exploit), take on the bosses one at a time; which you chose is a matter of taste:
 * The Undead Lich puts out heavy damage that can be painful to a moving party. However, he also walks very slow, and breaks off pursuit more quickly. Running in and out of his aggro radius or using walls/captured shrines to block him can keep him busy without enduring his damage output.
 * Shiro is easier and safer to pull: he deals relatively minor damage until his health runs low and he is a dogged pursuer with a very large aggro radius.

Whichever you target first, as you capture each shrine, kill its attending guards (so that they do not pester you during the boss battles and so you maintain the bonus from holding the shrines).

Skill recommendations

 * Generally useful
 * Lightbringer: helps immensely against nearly all the foes in the mission. Also consider Lightbringer's Gaze and Lightbringer Signet, as appropriate substitutes for other interrupt or energy/adrenaline skills.
 * Punishment hexes are always useful and especially against Shiro, e.g. Pain Inverter, Empathy, Price of Failure, Insidious Parasite, Spiteful Spirit, and Spoil Victor.
 * Interrupts work well against the Undead Lich and are generally useful throughout.
 * Bring resurrection skills:
 * Rebirth for recovering from near-wipes.
 * "We Shall Return!" for party-wide recovery.
 * Sunspear Rebirth Signet (or Resurrection Signet for heroes): there are plenty of morale boosts that will recharge these fast-acting skills.
 * Enchantment-based builds are vulnerable to one or more foes from each group and especially to the Undead Lich's Hunger of the Lich


 * Specifically useful against Shiro
 * Stance removing skills, such as Wild Blow or Wild Throw, to end Battle Scars.
 * Attack-blocking skills, especially Critical Defenses (which can be maintained indefinitely when tanking Shiro).
 * Conditions can be dangerous against Shiro, since he can spread them using Impossible Odds.
 * Blind is great when bringing spellcaster-heavy parties, e.g. from Blinding Flash, Eruption, Ebon Dust Aura, Shadowsong, or Sneak Attack.
 * Deep Wound can be very useful if managed carefully.
 * Shadowsong plus Displacement can render Shiro harmless; he will either miss (due to blindness) or get blocked (preventing him from removing blindness).
 * Shiro cannot be knocked down, unless the knock down lasts at least three seconds.
 * Shield of Judgment will activate continually.
 * Earthbind can cause him to be vulnerable to knock down.

Allies
Human
 * 20 Kormir

Foes
Demons (Margonites) Demons (Torment creatures) Phantoms (Undead) Shiro'ken Titans (arranged in spawning pattern order)
 * 24 (26) Margonite Executioner
 * 24 (26) Margonite Bowmaster
 * 24 (26) Margonite Cleric
 * 28 (30) Margonite High Priest
 * 24 (26) Margonite Seer
 * 24 (26) Margonite Warlock
 * 24 (26) Margonite Sorcerer
 * 24 (26) Margonite Ascendant
 * 28 (30) Margonite Patriarch
 * 24 (26) Margonite Reaper
 * 28 (30) Blade of Corruption
 * 24 (26) Torment Claw
 * 28 (30) Arm of Insanity
 * 28 (30) Word of Madness
 * 28 (30) Herald of Nightmares
 * 28 (30) Shadow of Fear
 * 28 (30) Rain of Terror
 * 28 (30) Spear of Torment
 * 28 (30) Scythe of Chaos
 * 24 (26) Portal Wraith1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Warrior1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Ranger1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Monk1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Mesmer1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Necromancer1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Elementalist1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Ritualist1
 * 28 (30) Shiro'ken Assassin1
 * 28 (30) Armageddon Lord1
 * 28 (30) Risen Ashen Hulk1, 2
 * 28 (30) Hand of the Titans1, 2
 * 28 (30) Fist of the Titans1, 2
 * 28 (30) Titan Abomination
 * 28 (30) Pain Titan2
 * 28 (30) Madness Titan2

Bosses
Demons (Margonites)
 * 28 (30) Champion Puran &rarr; Magehunter's Smash
 * 28 (30) Curator Kali &rarr; Invoke Lightning

Boss-like foes
Envoy Lich (Undead)
 * 31 (33) Shiro Tagachi1
 * 30 (32) Undead Lich1


 * 1) Cannot be targeted by Lightbringer's Gaze.
 * 2) Only spawned from other slain Titans, does not drop any loot.

Objects

 * Statue of Abaddon

Opening cinematic

 * Kormir: "Report, my friend!"
 * Tormented Soul: "It is an old temple of the Six Gods."
 *  : "Six gods - from a time before Abaddon's fall."
 * Kormir: "Indeed. Once this temple stood on the shores of the Crystal Sea."
 * Kormir: "But the Margonites so loved Abaddon, that they defaced the statues of the other gods."
 * Tormented Soul: "And when Abaddon fell, he pulled it down into Torment. It is now overrun by his Margonite worshipers."
 * Kormir: "You have done well, spirit! Join your fellows in the Mists."
 * Tormented Soul: "Thank you. May the gods stop Abaddon's madness!"
 *  : "Kormir? Are you all right?"
 * Kormir: "No. We teeter on the edge of chaos, and it is my fault."
 *  : "It is not your fault. Abaddon has worked for centuries to free himself."
 * Kormir: "Very well. My responsibility. Let us pray the gods will aid us."

Initial dialogue

 * Kormir: The Temple of the Six Gods lies just beyond this chasm.
 * Kormir: We must reach the temple and try to commune with the gods. This may be the key to defeating Abaddon.
 * Kormir: Tread carefully. A powerful evil surrounds and pervades this place.

Intermediate dialogue
When first approaching the temple.
 * Shiro Tagachi: You are fools to come here. What can mere mortals do against the power of a god?
 * Shiro Tagachi: No matter. Your journey ends here. My Shiro'ken shall welcome you to this holy place and entomb you within its walls.

When getting closer to the temple.
 * Undead Lich: You may well be impressed with yourselves to have made it this far. But, do not expect me to be as friendly as that Canthan bodyguard.
 * Undead Lich: Your presence is an affront to this temple's Margonite worshipers. You shall be greeted with open claws and shown no remorse in their house.
 * Undead Lich: In the unlikely event that you survive their wrath, I shall be waiting...

When entering the temple.
 * Undead Lich: Did the Margonites wear you out? No? Good. We hoped you might have some strength left for us.
 * Shiro Tagachi: You cannot stop Nightfall! Abaddon shall rule the world as the one and only, true god.

Combat dialogue
Shiro Tagachi
 * I shall enjoy cutting you down.


 * Is that all you have?


 * Taste my twin blades of torment!

Undead Lich
 * Fear my power!


 * I look forward to raising you from the dead... as my minion!


 * You are outmatched!

Ending cinematic

 * Kormir: "Gods, we beseech you. Hear our prayers."
 *  : "We have come where living men should not be. We have fought armies, crossed wastelands and conquered demons."
 *  : "Now we are in the heart of Torment. We must destroy Abaddon before he destroys the world. But we cannot battle him alone."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "You are not alone. The gods are always watching."
 * Kormir: "Watching? We need your help. We are only mortals, and we challenge a god."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "There was a time when the gods walked the earth. Every thought and achievement was a gift of the gods."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "But now you must realize that our gifts are within you. Dwayna lives in your compassion, Balthazar in your strength."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "Melandru dwells in your harmony, Grenth in your justice."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "And in your inspiration, Lyssa is there."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "The divinity is within you. And so, we give you our blessing. That should suffice for the task ahead."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "And to you, Kormir, a most special gift."
 * Lyssa's Muse: "This is your world, now. This is your decision. You must make the choice that only a mortal could make."
 * Kormir: "Our decision? They leave us some words of encouragement and expect us to fight a god?"
 *  : "The gods said we have a choice. A choice that only a mortal could make."
 * Kormir: "Yes. Yes, there is a choice. We can end this. We don't have to be driven by gods and their avatars. Let us go."

Trivia

 * The 13 November 2008 update improved the reward so that you receive Lightbringer title points in addition to the experience and gold rewards.