Best HP Burn Champions for Hydra in RAID: Shadow Legends
Discover the best HP Burn champions for Hydra in RAID: Shadow Legends. Learn which champions deal consistent damage against Hydra heads.
Why HP Burn Is Strong Against Hydra
How HP Burn Works Against Hydra Heads
HP Burn deals 3% of an enemy’s MAX HP to them at the start of their turn, then hits all other characters on their team with that damage as well.
There are 4 Heads in this fight, ensuring that HP Burn will regularly do strong splash damage.
Also, since the Hydra heads have fairly high SPD stats for PvE enemies, they will regularly take turns and the HP Burn damage will quickly add up over time.
Why HP Burn Is Effective in Hydra Battles
Hp Burn is very effective against Hydra for several reasons:
- There are always 4 Heads in the Hydra fight to Burn and to splash Burn damage onto.
- The Hydra has high MAX HP, making Burns do strong damage.
- No particular gear is needed to do good damage, you just need enough ACC to place it.
- The Head of Blight (the Poison head) takes double damage from HP Burn.
- It will deal consistent damage to the Head of Mischief (who is difficult to damage if you lack the Hex debuff).
Understanding Hydra Mechanics
Poison Cloud
The Head of Blight places the rarely seen Poison Cloud buff on all Heads every few turns. This buff makes every hit against a Head a weak hit, radically reducing your damage and preventing you from landing debuffs or effects which rely on a hit.
HP Burn has the unique effect of disabling Poison Cloud while it is active, giving you a strong counter to this buff. Note that you will either have to have HP Burn active before the Poison Cloud is placed, or have a champion who can land HP Burn debuffs without requiring a hit (a weak hit will prevent the debuff being placed).
Managing Hydra Heads
Good control is generally the most important thing in Hydra, particularly against the Head of Decay who can Remove Debuffs from all of the Heads. This, of course, includes removing Burns–potentially re-enabling the full effect of Poison Cloud.
To prevent the Head of Decay from removing your debuffs, you will need a consistent Provoke champion (e.g. Seeker or Krisk) to maintain Provoke on him at all times. Decrease SPD debuffs and Increase SPD buffs can help you with taking enough turns to maintain this debuff (and to maintain HP Burn on all Heads as well!).
Best HP Burn Champions for Hydra
Here we’ve listed 10 of the most important HP Burn champions in the game for Hydra: note that this list is not exhaustive, but it should steer you in the right direction for knowing what makes these types of champions so powerful! Check out our Champion Tier List for more info.
SELINIA NIGHTCLOAK
Mordecai
Mordecai is a big step up over the rares, bringing very consistent AoE HP Burn on his A3. Due to this not being an attack, it is affinity-friendly and can bypass the Poison Cloud debuff (thereby disabling it). He brings Increase ATK and Turn Meter boosting as well, bringing decent extra utility to your Hydra teams.
Skraank
Skraank is essentially a mini-Ninja, bringing an AoE HP Burn alongside some very strong crit-damage. Build him with strong damage gear, and focus on his crit-damage output for maximum value. With the right gear, Skraank is one of the best epic damage dealers for Hydra!
GEOMANCER
Geomancer is arguably the best epic in the game, bringing a single-target HP Burn with Weaken on a 3-turn cooldown and 3-turn duration. The true secret to his power, however, is his passive, which enables him to deal tons of small Enemy MAX HP damage hits to enemies who attack your team while affected by his Burn. Due to the amount of AoE attacks that the Hydra Heads use, this adds up very quickly.
Also note that his HP Burn can bypass Poison Cloud and even bypasses the Head of Mischief redirection passive, letting you get consistant damage on Mischief!
Sicia Flametongue
Sicia brings a powerful kit for Hydra, combining a 3-turn HP Burn with HP Burn Activation (instantly dealing damage from the Burns), alongside Decrease DEF and Weaken–two crucial offensive debuffs. She is very squishy and is Force affinity, making her a weaker choice on weeks where there are dangerous Spirit affinity Heads, however.
Supreme Galek
SULFURYION
Sulfuryion is perhaps the ultimate “apply and activate” HP Burn champion: he does it both in the same ability, and it’s affinity friendly! This will add a huge amount of reliable damage to your Hydra team. On top of this, he brings a full team revive and substantial shielding and turn meter boosting, making him an absolute top pick for progressing accounts.
NINJA
The OG king of Hydra, Ninja was a limited-time promotional champion and is not currently available in the shard pool. The reason he is so strong against Hydra is twofold: firstly, he can deal strong damage for beginners due to placing and activating HP Burn with his A2; secondly, he can deal absolutely insane crit-damage thanks to his damage boosting passive, powerful hits, Perfect Veil to avoid being Feared by the Head of Torment, and his amazing synergy with Lady Mikage (she provides him with Increase ATK and Increase C.DMG, and let’s him constantly Ally Attack with her A1 and A3).
Aphidus the Hivelord
Aphidus is a damage machine in his Base Form thanks to his passive which ramps up his power over the course of the fight. He can both apply and activate Burns, self-buffs with Increase ATK, and even provides himself with Perfect Veil to protect from the Head of Torment’s Fear passive. He works much like Ninja, without the Mikage combo and without being a currently unavailable champion–though as a Mythical, he’s extremely hard to pull!
ASH’NAR DRAGONSOUL
Ash’nar is fantastic against Hydra in both of his Forms: in his Base Form he applies Burns and provides a huge damage boost to the team with his passive; in his Alternate Form he deals huge damage against Burning enemies and lands consistent Provoke debuffs. Note that he does not apply Burn in his Alternate Form, so you should bring another Burn champion alongside him if you’re planning to use him that way.
How to Build HP Burn Champions
ACC Requirements
The most important thing for HP Burn champions is to have enough ACC to land your Burns. To land debuffs consistently, you should aim to have about 25 ACC more than the enemy’s RES stat. Use our Raid Stages Tool to check any enemy in any area of the game. Dragon 20, for example, has 200 RES, so you should aim for 225 ACC.
SPD Requirements
The more turns you take, the more Burns you can apply or activate!
Against high-SPD bosses like Hydra or Chimera, you will need good SPD on your Burner to maintain HP Burns consistently. If you are using HP Burn Activation, the SPD requirements will go even higher, since you will be using up the debuffs at a much faster rate.
Recommended Artifact Sets
Any gear sets which give ACC or SPD are fantastic, such as Speed, Perception, or Feral sets.
Special mention can be made of Reflex and Regeneration sets: Reflex reduces your cooldowns, allowing you to place your HP Burns more often; Regeneration gives you some healing every turn, which often plays a key role in solo teams using HP Burn champions.
Blessings and Relics
Brimstone or Cruelty are common choices for support-style HP Burn champions. Nature’s Wrath is the most common choice for hybrid burn/crit damage dealers, with Crushing Rend being the best choice at 6-stars only.
Golden Elixir (Epic Standard), Perched Shadow (Epic Faction Wars) or the Hoarder’s Cauldron (Rare Grim Forest) are good Relic options for support-style Burners, giving self-healing, extra turns, or bonus ACC respectively.
Irethi Coronet (Epic Chimera) is the most common choice for burn/crit damage dealers, with Ignore DEF options like The Cat’s Gaze (Legendary Event) or Lens of Intangibility (Mythic Grim Forest) being more premium options.