Imperial Sanctum/Guide
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The Boss[edit]
Shiro uses five skills which make him hard to deal with if you come unprepared.
Strategies[edit]
- Henchmen
Anyone can accomplish this mission fairly quickly and easily using these henchmen.
Devona (for Storm of Swords)- Lukas (for Storm of Swords)
Daeman (for Celestial Stance)
Redemptor Karl (for healing)
Kai Ying (for Celestial Storm)
Erys Vasburg (for Empathy)
Aeson (for Shadowsong)
- Heroes
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.
- Henchman/hero
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 henchmen/hero 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. One Mesmer henchman carries 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.
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. Bound foes should be killed before continuing the attack on Shiro.
Profession-specific[edit]
- Warrior
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
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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, Arcane Echo, and 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. Runners often bring Drunken Master and use it right away and then replace it with the Celestial Storms skill to speed the run to Shiro.
- 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.
Warrior-variant: 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 their 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.
Bodyblocking + Impossible Odds[edit]
Shiro's Impossible Odds skill can be turned against him by triggering "inverter-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 party members 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.
Other tips[edit]
- Remember to take the Celestial skill at the beginning of the mission.
- Celestial skills recharge whenever a bound foe is slain, so choose carefully when to use them.
- Shiro has no way to remove enchantments.
- Shiro's skills cannot be disabled; only Impossible Odds can be interrupted (the others lack an activation time).
- Bringing monks makes the mission more difficult: if they're banished, the Bound Monks that replace them are more durable than other bound foes.
- Mhenlo does a decent job of healing during the mission, so you could go without a dedicated healer.
- Alternatively, bring Restoration Magic and/or Communing ritualists with protective passive spirits (e.g. Union or Shelter).
- 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. Try to cast hexes on him immediately after he uses the skill.
- Create any non-attacking spirits before crossing into the courtyard (and triggering the cinematic); he will be unable to attack them since they are behind a closed gate.
- In Hard mode, Shiro brings Natural Resistance (or an equivalent passive skill); this makes it difficult to maintain hexes or conditions on him. However, this allows you to spam hexes with an end effect (e.g. Wastrel's Worry), which can also be used to help trigger the damage limit on Meditation of the Reaper (ending it more quickly means the party will take less damage).
- Shiro will not use Echoing Banishment if only a single player and heroes are within range.
Skill recommendations[edit]
- Generally ineffective
- Adrenaline and energy denial tactics are ineffective against Shiro, since they only affect Riposting Shadows.
- Hex removal skills are unnecessary.
- Shiro does not inflict conditions on his own; only bring condition-removal skills if you plan on inflicting conditions on him.
- Generally useful
- Melee counter hexes are generally useful.
- Echo and Arcane Echo allow you to use your Celestial skill multiple times in a row.
- Armor-ignoring damage skills are especially effective.
- Binding rituals do not deal enough damage for Battle Scars to become dangerous and a group of spirits can make a good meat shield.
- A bonder Monk can help mitigate damage if you can keep him out of Shiro's shout range. Alternatively, use a secondary monk to bring Protection Prayers skills, e.g. use a Necromancer to cast Shield of Deflection or Life Sheath.
- Stance removing skills, such as Wild Blow or Wild Throw, to end Battle Scars and Riposting Shadows.
- 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, or Sneak Attack.
- Shadowsong and 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 duration of that knock down was enhanced.
- Shield of Judgment will continually trigger, killing him quickly (especially once he activates Impossible Odds). Alternatively, bring that skill without Earthbind, which will cause it to trigger even more frequently.
- Earthbind can cause him to be vulnerable to knock down. Since he is frequently the only target, bringing Wanderlust almost ensures that he remains knock-locked for the mission's duration.
