The Funniest Thing Ever...

First let me say that the skill, Impossible Odds is my favorite skill in the game. I will admit that "Unreasonable Odds" may be a better qualifying name for the utter uber l33tness of the skill. But I love it despite how absurd it is. And here's why...

I beat the second to last Nightfall mission on my ele the first time with henchmen and heroes... but just barely. And I didn't use any of the normally suggested skills.

However, on my warrior I have tried it over 20 times with just heroes and henchmen and never beaten Shiro... er impossible odds rather (because beating him is easy, but beating his skill is... impossible [bad joke I know]).

I've split the heroes up so that impossible odds can't hit them all at once. And still, I end up with 60% DP by the end, even when I go into the Shiro fight with none.

I have tried Wild Blow, Throw Dirt, henchmen with blinds, SS and many other things I don't recall any more. But that's not what's important.

Now, my warrior is maxed. Made him about a month after Prophecies was released... He's got greens, golds, perfect gear... It seems to me that there should be a way for my warrior and his group of henchmen/heroes to do this mission.

As far as I see it, I now have the following choices...

a) Spend eight years getting a masters in GuildWarsology so that I can easily beat the mission blindfolded, hanging upside down above a tank of blood-thirsty sharks.

No thanks. I'm a bit more casual a gamer than that.

b) Resign myself to the idea that I will never beat Shiro just using some henchmen, heroes and my own wits and wait a hundred years for someone to develop a cybernetic brain that will allow me to issue orders to my hencmen by thought alone.

No. Ever since I watched Johny Pneumonic, I really haven't been a fan of cyborg brains.

c) Hope that someday someone at A.Net will get around to nerfing "impossible odds".

No. I don't think that's very likely to happen; impossible even. (If I had a lisp I might call it inconceivable but then I'd probably fall over dead a moment later and Fred Savage would be there with Columbo and then I'd have to kill myself... again.)

d) Play the mission until I get really, really, really lucky.

That's most likely, the only choice I have. At least I'll have something to do with all of that free time I've been wasting at the food bank handing out groceries.


But that's not the reason I'm posting. I just wanted to write all of this up to make this one almost completely unrelated point...

In all of Guild Wars, through all of the missions through all three campaigns, this is the first time that my elementalist has solo'd (with hench) any mission better than my warrior. And though I feel that it was most likely purely luck, and that feeling robs me of any real pleasure I might have ever derived from that knowldge, thank you anyway A.Net.

Due to the implimentation of this unreasonable skill, my elementalist (sometimes called a lemmingist) is finally better at something than my warrior is. (Excluding the ever prestigious duty of carrying flags around and spamming group heals of course.)

I know you probably didn't mean for any of this to happen A.Net, but it really makes me laugh. The irony of this is truly amazing. Seriously, I'm having a good time with this. I can't think about it and not start cracking up. My side hurts now.



P.S. This post is not about game balance, skills, builds or anything else along those lines. So please don't misconstrue it as such. And please, if you post in this thread, don't tell me how to beat "impossible odds" with my warrior. I would like to bask in utter uberness of my elementalist for a while longer.

-EDIT-

I invite others to share any similar humorous (or ironic) experieces that they may have encountered.

Maybe if they Nurf it to Impossible Frogs?? Shiro meditates and Frogs with Santa Hats fall from the sky causing 8million damage per hit and interupt the entire game

Think Meteor Shower with a bit more green and an error code 7 at the end.....


Anyways..... Have beaten Shiro with my Warrior but only solo - my Guildies and I struggle with the mission - so you aren't the only one that has trouble with him. You'd think there was a way to strip the enchantment off him!

I have noticed more with Nightfall (and since a few changes in Factions) that the general purpose solo party build that got me through Prophicies and Factions no longer works and you do have to jig the Heroes / Henchmen around a bit - which is excellent (i tend to solo the missions first then go back and do masters / bonuses with the Guildies)

Ok, I didn't find it too hard when I took Weasel Chops through second-last NF mission so I'll see if I can add a few tips.

- Make sure there is only one warrior in party, a couple of tanks splits your healing and plays to the advantage of Impossible Frogs.

- Shiro has a maximum radius (see Eddie Izzard and his Achilles sketch ), the distance he'll run to before heading back towards centre of hall, use this to make sure that your tank is the only one getting whaled on. (Thanks GWiki). Riposting Shadow can mess this up a bit but generally if he shadowsteps out of his radius he'll start heading back, ignoring your casters.

- The warrior (be that you or Koss) who is tanking should be kitted out with ripostes, a stance or 2 and wild blow, maybe even Auspicious Parry to charge Riposte fast and counter Wild Blow's adrenline drain. A paragon with Wild Throw is handy too but not needed I think.

- Kill Lich first, then run round shrines getting Masters and ignoring Shiro, so long as his health is quite high he won't use any uber skills.

Ok, alot of that is prolly on Wiki but if you do all of that then you should find he's not so tough.

I suggest another option: just read up on the topics that already suggest tons of strategies to take Shiro.

For a warrior player, with Hero/Hench, I can confirm that it is possible - made it twice, once myself, once helping a guildie.

Try the following:

-only have one melee character - you. Make yourself into a tank and carry wild blow. My suggestion would be grabbing Dolyak Signet to allow survival.

-Shiro's impossible odds on their own are not very troublesome (Shiro's attacks, even doublestriking, do healable damage) - they only become a real killer with Battle scars. Battle scars are a stance, so you break the stance with Wild blow. The tank here doesn't even attack in the final Shiro duel - all the tank does is refresh survival skills and hit wild blow whenever Battle scars come up.

-Go for the bonus - you can easily survive Shiro at high health and focus on the Margonites, and the bonuses from the activated altars make Shiro easier - and every single bit counts.

-Take extra healers, so the tank doesn't go down too quickly. Consider a protection monk.

-Consider a Curse necromancer (SS makes both fighting Shiro and fighting the demons on the way easier) or an anti-melee Mesmer. Remember, you get a useful one in the form of one of your henches.

Ironically, I've always found GW PVE to be easier with my Elementalist than with my Warrior. This is especially true now that we have Heroes and I can have them bring skills that complement my Ele's.

Maybe I should take a GWUni course on Melee Synergies so I can do the same with my warrior's heroes...

PvP is much much more fun with my warrior, though. Nothing can quite beat the visceral thrill of whacking someone around with a big hammer.

Heh, paralell typing

I killed shiro as a tanking sin so I guess its even easier with a warrior.
Iuris gave you all the good tips.

I sum them up.

-Flag your henches an agro radius away from the door to the last room.
-Pull shiro alone, head back and retry if both shiro and the lich are pulled (the hardest thing in the mission)
-tank shiro by the door of the last room, he should not attack the backline.
-Impossible odds is not the problem, all you have to do is to use wild blow when he uses "Battle Scars"

About team set up : good anti melee dmg dealers : Odura (empathy) and a necro hero with Spoil Victor or Spiteful Spirit (unlock these if needed). And bring a prot monk such as Khim, even though bots do terrible proters.

Anything works against Shiro. Just dont melee him with io on. Got that?

Summed up:

1: Kill lich
2: Activate all shrines wile your tank distracts Shiro
3: Pound Shiro until he gets hurt enough to use IO
4:Pull away the melee characters.Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee until he's dead and you get a master score.

Works every time. Case closed. GG.

Yeah, spotted that. Always nice to have a second opinion I guess

I've beaten Shiro with my Paragon, using henchies...

I think what is most important is taking BOTH necro heroes (if you have both, if not take Norgu or Zhed instead), having SS on one, Spoil Victor on the other one. Take either 3 monks or 2 monks and a defensive paragon ("incoming!", "never give up", "never surrender" and stuff like that).

I think it was pretty easy with this setup only my paragon died once while obtaining dwayna's shrine i think.

On a related note, Impossible Odds is my favorite skill in the entire game--I even registered on another forum with that name, and if I weren't already so established by this name, I'd change it here too.

Plus, it's just a great skill. Where do I cap it?

In a hacked version of Guild wars? All of Shiro's skills are "monster skills", and you can't get those in any way at all. You can't even steal them for a limited time...

And, do not - Impossible odds is not much of a problem on its own. Neither is Battle scars, on its own. But the two put together... That hurts...

Spoil Victor > Shiro.

I still think Gwen's skill was better.

One more thing, don't try to blind him when he's using Impossible Odds. He spreads the conditions to everyone he hits and cleanses himself, so it's kinda useless. Use hexes that cause a miss chance (SV necro speccing some points in curses for reckless haste and other such hexes).

Roflmfto, that certainly put a smile on my face - you could always make Shiro "morph" into Gaile Gray when it happens too

And Zonzai, let your poor wee ele bask in her/his uberness. They need a break from all that flag running

OK, I have to ask... how is he hitting people if he's blinded?

Remember... everything's easier with a mesmer along.

echo wild blow?

I maxed out Zhed's energy with runes, gave him a +30 offhand+wand, and use him as a power bonder... I survive everything xD

That being said, It was really funny that my assassin kills Shiro more efficently than a warrior. Just have wild blow handy and spam the **** out of it. Not to mention the "Black" line is super useful

impossible odds effect even shiro is blind, cuz it transfer all negative conditions to the adjencet foes, all of em.

Shiro is cake, take an Spoil Victor(make sure blood is at 12) necro with curses and br. Take an SF ele, and your tank should have wild blow and use it on Battle Scars. I personally don't even take a tank build just quivering blade with plague touch and damage.

Here's what we did and it worked very well. First, you need a ranger with poison arrow and a long bow. After you've killed everything but Shiro, run out of the temple or what ever it's called and let him reset to the center. Have the ranger stand just out of aggro range (and he can with a long bow) and just keep hitting him with poison arrow and what ever damage skills the ranger has. Just make sure he stays poisoned. Because he's not aggro'd, he just stands there and takes it. It make a bit of time, but it's way easier then anything else.

I tanked him with my Dervish just fine. I just kept up all of my survival enchants and made sure I hit him with Wild Blow as soon as Battle Scars went up. You gotta knock him out of that stance ASAP, and if you do you should be fine.

You don't need to use wild blow, its far easier to have him just attack the warrior then cycle through bonnets and glads defence. 75% block rate all the time which means 1 healer can easily cope with the small amount of damage shiro will cause you.

Armed tanks with guns... now you can beat any missions blind-folded!

Well, so much for not wanting help.

Anyhow, i found it easiest on my warrior than any other character. Take a.. actually, i'd better not, you did ask for us not to help.

Nice post Zonzai.

Honestly the most annoying thing about shiro is that you cant knock him down in nightfall (at least for me).
Before nightfall, I would take my hammer to imperial sanctum to gank shiro just for fun. Counter blow, dev hammer, etc... was hilarious.

Also I would consider Unwaking water to be the worst mission for melee classes. At least you can hit shiro unlike kuunavang.

Couldn't have said it any better myself.

Boy am I glad that I somehow bugged shiro into a spot where he wouldn't attack as I pounded him in. Nothing to worry about, masters, gg.

1) I'm 90% certain that Impossible Odds transfers conditions regardless of whether he hits or not, meaning that blind will prevent his first attack, get transferred, then he'll be able to attack at will while your melee guys are useless.
2) Even if it only transfers the conditions on hit, blind is only 90% miss chance. He's hitting everything in the area, twice, every second or so. There's a very good chance of him passing off the blind even in this circumstance.

I like how the OP asked that no one post how to beat him or offer help - yay for reading and comprehending much?

So instead maybe they should have just heckled him for not being able to beat Shiro?

qft but as overkill...

spoil victor + spiteful spirit > shiro

...now that was "the funniest thing ever", I've seen pre-searing skales last longer than him!

You mush be quite bad at playing elementalist. my ele is better at everything than my warrior. tanking, damaging, soloing, moving really fast....

but on a different note, one very funny thing in GW is how like 3 B/P rangers understand why you cant rez a 1 hp bip with rebirth. the rest of them just cast it like 14 times then go "WTF" and ragequit. its pretty funny

Wild Blow isn't needed for Shrio at all, it only drags on the battle to constantly have to end Battle Scars.

Spoil Victor + Spiteful Spirit + Empathy + Reckless Haste

I don't see how nullifying Shiro's primary source of healing drags on the battle.

What's really funny is that unpopular classes, like the mesmer, have an easier time in certain missions than any other class....yet they aren't popular classes.
It's really funny. I wonder why the game would be developed like this.

I'm sorry about the sarcasm. I couldn't figure out what was funny about an elementalist having an easier time in a particular mission than a warrior. I assumed that it was the devs intention to make certain professions and skills more useful than others in certain parts of the game.

Bring a Curses/Prot Necro. Keep Shiro under Enfeeble while you get all the blessings. Kill everything but Shiro.

Then unleash said Necro on Shiro.

Spoil Victor
Insideous Parasite
Enfeeble
Faintheartedness/SoF
Reckless Haste
Prot Spirit
Spirit Bond


gg Shiro

EDIT: I said Weakness, I meant Enfeeble, which causes Weakness.

If your going that route you might as well bring insidious parasite (steal 39 health).