Curse

Kaida the Heartless · Nov 20, 2006, 07:36 AM // 07:36

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Don't read if you don't want any of the storyline exposed!

Okay, I've seen many people place posts in this section about troubles they have had with the mission Gates of Madness. So, I've thrown together a quick little guide on how to beat this mission the easy, legit way!

There are no requirements for your player class. This mission can be beat with heroes and henchmen by anyone! Just follow the tips here and you can get on with beating the game!

So read up and roll out!

The REQUIRED Aspects:
You will need 1 Melee class in your party with a warrior primary or secondary. It can be an Assassin, Dervish, Warrior, whatever. High Armor characters work best for this task, such as a Warrior or Buffed Dervish. Also, make sure that this is a Human or Hero. You need to be able to control their skills! This is important! Have that Human/Hero bring wild blow. That is all you need from the Warrior secondary.

Beating the Boss:
Alrighty, you've got your Wild Blow Melee character and you finally made it to the End. Shiro and the Lich should be down in the arena below, taunting you. Run forwards and confront them. Train your heroes onto the Lich. Shiro's damage at this point should be pathetic enough to the point when you can ignore him momentarily. Kill the Lich, he is easy work. There are no special tricks to beating him, just beat on him long enough and he falls, piece of cake.
Now turn to Shiro, who is probably beating on one of your monks. Wave to him and run to the center of the arena. Proceed to capture the various shrines around the arena. Again, ignore Shiro while you are doing this. Once all the shrines have been captured, and all the enemies have been cleared out, you must now kill Shiro.
Make sure you are centered in the arena. This will give you enough space to maneuver your team for the challenging part of this fight. Begin to wear Shiro's health down until he is at approximately half. Make sure he is trained onto one of your melee characters before beginning this next step. Have everyone else move away, out of Shiro's "Nearby" bubble. Shiro's skill, Impossible Odds, will make his attacks double strike and hit every in his Nearby radius. For this reason, your party is safest, and it is easier on the monks, when they are all outside of this (except the melee characters of course). Begin to wear Shiro's health down again.
There is a specific purpose of the melee class (mentioned above) at this point. That person needs to watch out for Shiro's skill "Battle Scars".

Battle Scars:
For 7 seconds, Shiro gains Life Stealing equal to the highest damage he takes while in this stance.

Whenever Shiro uses this skill, have your melee character use Wild Blow. This will remove this stance from him, eliminating his healing and much of his damage. He will reuse this skill approximately every 10 seconds (?), so make sure to Wild Blow accordingly. If you Hero is doing this, make sure to disable it and activate it on your own, as thier judgement sometimes isn't the best.
Shiro should die in no time. Easy!

Suggestions and Tips:
If you still can't seem to beat the mission, here are several additional tips to consider.
- Only bring a single melee character into this mission, especially if you are running with Heroes and Henchmen. This will make healing at Shiro much easier for your monks.
- Use as many high-armored characters as possible. Paragons make great choices. If you like to use casters, use Conviction from the Dervish line to bring their armor up. This will help to offset the AI's targeting, preventing the "ganging-up" of monsters onto one caster. Also, consider equipping your monks with shields and swords/axes "of Defense". This will help alot!
- Ranger's work excellent in this mission. Distracting Shot and Savage shot will save you many times. If monks are giving you problems, bring Broad Head Arrow. Yes, this skill works here!
- Motivation Paragons help alot with this mission. They have high armor and provide full party heals. General Morgahn is the man!
- Watch patrols and take your time. Mobs can be easily pulled apart; make sure to take advantage of this.

Here is the general outline of the build I ran to beat this mission. I had no deaths, portals or Shiro.
- Necromancer/Dervish (Me!): Mark of Pain, Barbs, Conviction
- Warrior/Paragon (Koss): Watch Yourself, Triple Chop (e), Distracting Blow, Disrupting Chop. Wild Blow
- Paragon/Warrior (General Morgahn): Song of Restoration (e), Ballad of Restoration, Signet of Synergy, Mending Refrain
- Monk/Dervish (Dunkoro): Zealous Benediction, Conviction, RoF, Mend Condition, Shield of Absorbtion
- Motivation Henchman
- Ranger Henchman
- Monk Henchman
- Monk Henchman

There ya have it. Plenty of helpful info to help you get through this mission and on with your life! Post here or whisper me ingame if you need any pointers. If ya really need help, I'll come along with ya if I have time! This should be proof, once and for all, that this mission is far from bugged. Stop giving it so much credit!

Suggestions/Comments/Questions all welcome. Hopefully, this will get stickied so people can stop asking.