Hydra: Head of Suffering — guide

In short

Hydra: Head of Suffering is one of the heads of the Hydra, the clan boss your clan attacks with Hydra Keys every week. Clearing it pays out Hydra Chests with gear and materials plus clan score. It is worth farming even on low difficulties: a steady gear stream and a solid test of your cleanses and buff removal.

Mechanics

• The AoE slam — hits the whole team and puts 25% Weaken on everyone for 2 turns. That Weaken cannot be resisted with RES, so only Block Debuffs, Immunity and cleanses save you.
• Its buff cycle — places a 50% Ally Protect buff on every other head and a 30% Reflect Damage buff on itself, then provokes your champion with the highest C.DMG for 1 turn. Your main nuker swings straight into the reflect.
• Its single-target hit — damages one champion, applies Pain Link for 3 turns and immediately grants the head an Extra Turn. You have to survive the link: keep cleanses, shields and damage reduction ready.
• Passive — +50 RES to all heads, −30% damage from AoE attacks, −90% damage from poisons. Damage caps: MAX HP-scaling skills cannot exceed 10% of the head's MAX HP, one HP Burn tick cannot exceed 20,000, Reflect Damage / Warmaster / Giant Slayer cannot exceed 50,000 per attack.
• Immunities — Stun, Freeze, Sleep, Provoke, Block Active Skills, Block Passive Skills, Fear, True Fear, Petrification, HP exchange and HP balance, cooldown increase and Turn Meter reduction. Controlling heads is a wasted slot.
• Decapitation — killing a head gives the remaining heads a Shield of roughly 30% of their MAX HP. Decapitated heads grow back, so pure survivability will not win the fight — you need damage.

What your team needs

• ACC: 150–200 on low difficulties, 250+ on high ones — heads have high RES plus the passive bonus.
• SPD: 200–250 for supports, 170–200 for damage dealers. Cleanse and buff removal must go between the head's AoE hits.
• Survivability: 30–35k HP and 2,500–3,000 DEF on everyone, 40–50k HP on the tank.
• Key effects: Block Debuffs or a cleanse (Weaken cannot be resisted), Decrease DEF and Weaken on the heads, Block Buffs and buff removal (Ally Protect and Reflect Damage), HP Burn as your main damage source, Decrease ATK, shields and healing.
• Poison and control are out: poison damage is cut by 90% and heads are immune to control debuffs.

Teams

• Budget: Uugo (lead), Geomancer, Whisper, Rector Drath, Vogoth. Uugo strips and applies Block Buffs with Decrease DEF, Geomancer brings HP Burn and passive chip damage, Whisper bursts a single head, Rector Drath heals, revives and lowers ATK, Vogoth heals passively while he is being hit.
• Mid-game: Uugo, Demytha, Geomancer, Husk, Athel. Demytha keeps the team alive with Block Damage, Husk adds debuffs and MAX HP damage, Athel brings Weaken and extra damage, Uugo and Geomancer cover cleanse and HP Burn.
• Endgame: Firrol The Barkhorn (lead), Mithrala Lifebane, Underpriest Brogni, Geomancer, Acrizia. Firrol and Brogni provide shields and defence, Mithrala cleanses and buffs, Geomancer burns, Acrizia finishes heads with single-target damage. No Acrizia? Whisper or any strong single-target nuker works.

Common mistakes

• Building damage around poison and Warmaster: poison is cut by 90% and mastery procs are capped.
• Pounding the head through its Reflect Damage buff with an AoE nuker and losing half the team in one turn.
• Running no cleanse or Block Debuffs: the unresistable Weaken stacks and the AoE wipes you.
• Spreading damage over three heads instead of decapitating one.

Tips

• In auto-battle set priorities: cleanse and buff removal first, and switch off AoE skills while the head has reflect up — play those turns manually if you can.
• Gear sets: Lifesteal or Immortal on damage dealers, Speed + Perception on supports, Relentless on your cleanser for extra turns. Toxic and Stun are nearly useless here.
• Masteries: Warmaster still adds damage but hits the cap, so do not build the whole plan around it.
• Decapitate a head right before its AoE turn — removing one damage source for a few turns makes the fight much safer.
• Put ACC on supports too: Decrease DEF and Block Buffs must land or your damage collapses.