Enemy Max HP Damage Dealers vs. Hydra

When it comes to damage, Enemy Max HP based damage dealers are some of the best for PvE content; hydra clan boss is no different. When hydra first came out, it seemed like they were trying to make it seem like it wouldn’t be effective. Damage from skills that scale based on enemy MAX HP cannot exceed 10% of the Head’s MAX HP when attacking the head. At first that sounds like a massive nerf to the champions being viable in this part of the game. However, when you take a look at how much HP the heads actually have, it still is strong. Refer to our Stages Tool for the HP and other stat levels of the boss you’re fighting.

To build an Enemy MAX HP based damage dealer successfully, you want to focus on getting 100% crit rate then try to boost crit damage as much as possible. However, when it comes to hydra, the damage is capped at 10% means you might be wasting stats. It’s best to do some testing of your own to see how much your Max HP smashes do before and after adjusting crit damage. You might be able to get some extra survivability out of them instead of capping at low crit damage. 

So… who are the best Enemy MAX HP based damage dealers for hydra?

Acrizia – This newer champion instantly took the top spot as the best damage dealer for hydra. She makes it so easy it feels like you’re cheating. Unlike the others, she has Enemy MAX HP damage skills on all of her hits. Her A1 brings Decrease DEF plus adds extra damage every time the skill is used (Stacking up to 100% extra damage). Her A2 attacks all enemies 2 times and places a Shield buff on herself. Her A3 also hits 2 times. She even has a damage mitigation Passive, decreasing damage from AoE attacks by 50%.

Royal Guard – He’s always been solid for PVE content, bringing a hard-hitting A2 as an AOE. He also brings great utility to the fight with Decrease DEF on his A1 and Decrease SPD on his A3.

Husk – Husk’s damage is a little lower than the other two previously mentioned but besides bringing his AoE A2 skill, he also brings Provoke on the A1. This makes him a great damage dealer option to plug in to help control the Head of Decay. It should be noted it’s probably best to build him planning to not use his A3 for the sake of hydra. If you don’t have a provoker that can keep it up 100% of the time, Husk would likely be your option over Royal Guard.

Seer – You can’t forget Seer when it comes to Enemy MAX HP champions. She provides her unique skill of a buff strip and then damages based on the number of buffs removed + Enemy MAX HP. She’s typically not needed for a well-tuned Hydra team as there shouldn’t be too many buffs on enemies and the buffs you put on yourself you often need. However, If you are more early/mid-game and haven’t been able to tune specific champions for hydra, putting Seer in what would normally be a “messy” run full of Mischief buff steals & spreads can really come in handy! You can strip buffs and then do strong damage hits. She makes it easier to auto lower tiers of hydra for this reason.

It should be mentioned you can bring in the single-target Enemy MAX HP champs for hydra as well like Septimus and Coldheart as long as you try to target whichever currently up has the most HP (Suffering > Decay > Wrath > Blight > Torment > Mischief) but it’s less preferred over other damage like strong AOE hitters or HP Burn.