Portal Keepers in the Shroud

[Bonulino]

I was in a Shroud run last night, and we failed on the first phase because a Portal Keeper appeared and no one went to kill him. So, Shavarath became co-terminus and we failed. I have never been in a run where this happened before, because it always seemed like people knew who was supposed to go kill the Portal Keeper. It occurs to me that I don't know whose job it is. Should some of the melees leave the portals and go after the Portal Keeper? Should it be the casters? Since I was leading the party, if I had known whose job it was I could have told specific people to kill the Portal Keeper.

[Algulcz]

It used to be casters job to clear trash in p1. After u14 and wail nerf this area is little fuzzy. It should still be casters job, but if you only have one caster in the group you should have someone as backup.

[dterror]

It has always been the job of the caster(s) to roam and kill the trash. Casters were able to handle killing the trash long before there was a wail in the game (level cap 16) so there should be no problem with them handling it despite the wail mega-nerf.

[Captain_Wizbang]

OP, I can't count the runs I have in there, and have never seen a fail pt 1.
I've always wanted to get a group, step in, and kill initial mobs, and then do nothing to let it implode on us.
As much as failure stinks, I think this is very cool.

[Galeria]

That is kind of awesome.

I haven't seen many "Shavarath became coterminious" Shroud fail threads lately. Nice work! It takes some doing to come up with something that fails a Shroud in part 1. At least you didn't invest too much time into it.

I agree with the others, casters should be killing portal keepers although I find on my artificer, I tend to range the portals from spots where I can see a good many spots and could easily stop and kill a portal keeper when they appear. A ranger or artificer makes a good backup for killing portal keepers.

[ZapperGhandi]

Casters.

Since they generally are better at instakills and, at least traditionally, were less good on portals than a melee.

That may have become a bit more diluted now with more classes able to burst/instakill and casters having more tools to damage portals.

But if I enter a shroud and nothing is said I assume the casters will take care of the mobs in p1.

[dterror]

If the arcane(s) and possibly divines are doing their jobs in part 1, a portal keeper should never have a chance to appear. Very little, if any, healing is required when portal beating except perhaps for some barbarians.

[Bonulino]

OP, I can't count the runs I have in there, and have never seen a fail pt 1.

I have been in the Shroud more than 50 times, and this is the first time I have ever seen this happen. People were shouting into the voice chat for someone to go kill the Portal Keeper, but no one moved. At least now I know who to order to kill him the next time this happens.

[Dhalgren]

I have been in the Shroud more than 50 times, and this is the first time I have ever seen this happen. People were shouting into the voice chat for someone to go kill the Portal Keeper, but no one moved. At least now I know who to order to kill him the next time this happens.

Why are people yelling about killing it, instead of just going and killing it? Would have been a lot more effective.

[bward76]

I was in this run and never knew this would cause the quest to fail. I still don't understand why this makes the quest fail. Why does not killing some trash in part 1 cause failure?

Whats the story behind the portal keepers, why are they important?

Also, I don't remember anyone asking to kill the portal keepers. All of a suddon the quest ended after everyone shrined at the end of part 1.


Why are people yelling about killing it, instead of just going and killing it? Would have been a lot more effective.

[Saravis]

Why are people yelling about killing it, instead of just going and killing it? Would have been a lot more effective.

I was thinking about that too, anybody who was throwing blames around only has themselves to blame.

Anyway, it is the arcanes' job, even if they don't have wail, AoEs work perfectly fine.

[Dhalgren]

I was thinking about that too, anybody who was throwing blames around only has themselves to blame.

Anyway, it is the arcanes' job, even if they don't have wail, AoEs work perfectly fine.

Clearing is typically the arcanes' job, but I've never seen anybody in there unwilling to help with cleanup if something spawns due to slow portal takedowns. If a portal keeper comes up and someone is refusing to help deal with it because it's "not their job", that person needs to give their head a shake. In a paint mixer.

[Bonulino]

I was in this run and never knew this would cause the quest to fail. I still don't understand why this makes the quest fail. Why does not killing some trash in part 1 cause failure?

Whats the story behind the portal keepers, why are they important?

Also, I don't remember anyone asking to kill the portal keepers. All of a sudden the quest ended after everyone shrined at the end of part 1.

The Portal Keeper makes the Plane of Shavarath, instead of the Plane of Lammania, become co-terminus with our plane during the eclipse. This is a bad thing, considering who lives in the Plane of Shavarath.

I myself said "Someone go and kill the Portal Keeper" at least 3 times. Since I now know who is expected to do the task, the next time this happens, I will say the names of specific people, instead of "someone".

[Dhalgren]

I was in this run and never knew this would cause the quest to fail. I still don't understand why this makes the quest fail. Why does not killing some trash in part 1 cause failure?

Whats the story behind the portal keepers, why are they important?

Also, I don't remember anyone asking to kill the portal keepers. All of a suddon the quest ended after everyone shrined at the end of part 1.

Just for the record, I've actually seen a Shroud fail this way as well. And I was on my main (a wizard). At the time I had no idea about it either--or rather, I did, but it's so rarely an issue that all 12 of us apparently just spaced out on it. Until, as you say, we're all at the shrine, all for some reason ignoring the messages about the portal keeper, and then all of us facepalming.

The upside is that you only ever really fail a Shroud this way once. :)

[Dhalgren]

The Portal Keeper makes the Plane of Shavarath, instead of the Plane of Lammania, become co-terminus with our plane during the eclipse. This is a bad thing, considering who lives in the Plane of Shavarath.

I myself said "Someone go and kill the Portal Keeper" at least 3 times. Since I now know who is expected to do the task, the next time this happens, I will say the names of specific people, instead of "someone".

While you're at it, consider saying "Self, go kill that thing."

It's not guaranteed that anybody else will.

[Wipey]

That's amazing, never seen part 1 fail in 400 ish Shrouds. Stoned Shroud pugs are at all-time worst though so you might see Keeper sometimes.

Anyway if your arcane don't have 60+ kills in Shrouds he is either a newbie, piking or melees are padding their important killcounts (still) swinging their lolTerrors instead of beating portals with nice smiters speeding the raid completion.

I assume divine on trash duty if there's no arcane.

[Auralana7214]

Usually the casters will take care of Portal Keepers. Although, if you are the leader of the party, you probably should be ensuring that it's done by going after it yourself if you don't have good communication with your casters or just like to micro-manage like me.

+1 for failing in Part 1 and being willing to talk about it!

[Saravis]

Clearing is typically the arcanes' job, but I've never seen anybody in there unwilling to help with cleanup if something spawns due to slow portal takedowns. If a portal keeper comes up and someone is refusing to help deal with it because it's "not their job", that person needs to give their head a shake. In a paint mixer.

Yep same, I've seen melee go straight for the trash as opposed to the portals if no arcane is in the vicinity. Also cleaves work nicely too, if you have some trash close by a portal.

[Rawel_San]

Last time I saw a failure on portal keepers was back in lvl cap 16 days. Was a low portal dps group (many rogues
without banes and no fort bypass back then either), many characters lvl 13-14,and the caster wasn't paying
attention. These days I haven't seen a portal keeper spawn even on elite runs much less hard or normal but I
haven't run at level group in ages.

That said yeah it's the casters job to kill portal keepers. It was possible with lvl cap 16 and no PRE's with one
caster in the groups (no one would really take two back then) so it's definitely possible now with all the new
toys.

[Galeria]

I was in this run and never knew this would cause the quest to fail. I still don't understand why this makes the quest fail. Why does not killing some trash in part 1 cause failure?

Whats the story behind the portal keepers, why are they important?


In part 1, if you look at the quest objectives, it says "Prevent Shavarath from becoming coterminious".

We are in there destroying the portals as they are spawned. A portal keeper is casting spells on the portal to make it permanent, allowing Shavarath to become coterminious (Having the same boundaries or extent in space, time, or meaning.)

If you do not kill the portal keeper before he finishes his ritual, the portal becomes permanent and you fail. It's why you can't ignore them until the party makes it to his portal. like you do the trogs.

[Cyndrome]

If your caster(s) are doing their jobs clearing and prepping the portals, portal keepers will not spawn. I had forgotten that they even existed, but I have run it on casters or high dps groups for the past couple years. Anyway, if you do not know the folks in a pug, I do not think you can assume that the portal keeper will be taken care of. If one spawns get whoever you can to take it down.

[Bonulino]

While you're at it, consider saying "Self, go kill that thing."

Okay. Mea culpa. Now please let that theme drop.

[SiliconScout]

Holy Moly.

I have done well over 100 Shrouds (from Norm to Elite) and didn't even know a "Portal Keeper" even existed.

What's it look like?

[madmaxhunter]

OP, I can't count the runs I have in there, and have never seen a fail pt 1.
I've always wanted to get a group, step in, and kill initial mobs, and then do nothing to let it implode on us.
As much as failure stinks, I think this is very cool.

Poor ferd, never had the fun of a failed part 1!

My first guild run, I had run Shroud a "few" times. But just as a portal hacker. We went in, even the casters were new at it. They didn't know the sequence of portals. We were split into two to three groups whacking portals. The ominous message came up. We figuratively looked at each other and shrugged. Moments later we were in Meridia. Oh, we laughed for days over that one.

[madmaxhunter]

Holy Moly.

I have done well over 100 Shrouds (from Norm to Elite) and didn't even know a "Portal Keeper" even existed.

What's it look like?

He's a caster dude (white robe, human or tiefling maybe?), the few times he's appeared was at the top portal furthest right from the entrance. Anyone can take him down in few swings. Just got to get to him before he makes it to another portal.