head-of-torment
Published On: September 1, 2022
Start your Raid Journey Today!

Hydra Guide: The Head of Torment

[mepr-hide rules="18139"]
[/mepr-hide]
Spacer
Head-of-Torment

Since introduced, Hydra Clan Boss has been one of the toughest forms of content added to Raid Shadow Legends. However, with a little understanding and practice, you may find it’s easier than you think. Each head brings a unique challenge to the battle and finding the balance to counteract each of them is the real challenge. Let’s break it down one head at a time starting with the Head of Torment.

Understanding Each Skill

For the A1, you cannot block or resist the Fear so high Resistance or a Block Debuffs buff do not help. To deal with this, you can:

  1. Have a cleanser in your team. You can try to avoid hitting this head with your cleanser so you are able to remove the Fear debuffs after they are placed or use champions with passive cleansing.
  2. Use a champion that prevents the Fear/True Fear from being placed. As of now, Inquisitor Shamael is best suited for this job. His passive instantly removes any Fear or True Fear debuffs and fills the turn meter by 15% of the ally in the lead spot. Please note that it’s supposed to be of the ally the debuff was removed from but the way it works in hydra is that it ends up boosting the leader (so choose a lead wisely). He also attacks using his A1 every time an enemy places a debuff on an ally (or attempts to).

After you decapitate the head, however, it does remove Fear & True Fear debuffs. So if you time that well, you don’t need to waste your cleansing skill just before you’re about to take that head out.

Curse-Storm

The A2 is an AoE attack and does more damage based on the number of debuffs you have on your champions. Try to have any debuffs removed before this skill hits to receive less damage. You can also mitigate damage from AoE’s numerous ways including:

  1. Using a champion with a passive skill that decreases the damage taken by all allies from AoE attacks (ex. Duchess Lilitu)
  2. Consider your gear. Guardian is a great set to put on a champion with high HP as it transfers damage to allies to the wearer instead. This is great if you have “squishy” champions in your team. Stalwart also provides damage mitigation; though is not necessarily the best set for most champions to use against Hydra due to other sets having more utility. However, it does provide 30% decrease damage taken from incoming AoE damage. Consider this if you’re struggling with specific champions dying during AoE hits.
  3. If you’re going down the Defense mastery tree, try to get Blastproof which decreases damage from AoE attacks by 5%.
Almighty-Torment

The passive is probably what makes this head the most annoying. Every time you attack the head of torment, if you’re not under Perfect Veil, the head places True Fear on you. The easiest way to deal with this is, of course, using a champion that places Perfect Veil on allies and only attacking the Head of Torment when you’re under it. As previously noted with the A1 fears, you can also deal with the debuffs by having a cleanser on your team or using Inquisitor Shamael.

This head takes less damage from Poisons, but you can still poison it which is why many people use Shamael in a Toxic set due to his frequent attacks on this head. You also can use someone like Lydia with Poison Sensitivity to increase the damage those poisons will do.

While this head is up, it decreases the damage all hydra heads take from AoE hits. This does not mean avoiding using them entirely. The same goes for Enemy Max HP champions. Even though damage is limited due to the passive, they still do great damage overall (so use those Royal Guards & Husks anyway)! Lastly, as the skill states, it is immune to many debuffs, turn meter manipulation, etc. so please keep those abilities in mind before you head into your hydra battle.

MVP’s to Counter the Head of Torment

Inquisitor Shamael – He’s an amazing counter for this head. With him on your team, you don’t need to worry about having your champions under Perfect Veil while attacking and you can’t get debuffed by the head’s A1. You can build him in full damage or give him more utility. Toxic set is a great option for this given this head can be poisoned. Taunting set is also a great option to give him extra utility to help provoke the Head of Decay as well as rack up hits and damage against the Head of Torment. Please keep in mind the value of Shamael falls off for Nightmare Hydra as the heads rarely pop up the same and his strong suit is for dealing with the Head of Torment specifically.

Duchess Lilitu – Duchess is a hydra MVP for many reasons, a big part being her Perfect Veil buff for all allies. She also provides a speed aura, revive, and many helpful buffs. Her passive also mitigates damage versus AoE attacks.

Rector Drath – Like Duchess, she places Perfect Veil and can revive your fallen allies. She also provides passive healing, passive increased resistance, and has a Decrease ATK debuff on her A1.

Tatura Rimehide – Don’t forget about Tatura when talking Perfect Veil to counter this head!  Not only does he provide that important buff but he also Block Debuffs, Increased Defense, and reflects damage he takes. He also has Decrease ACC on his A1

Truath – This champion provides a lot of utility in Hydra. He attacks all enemies before placing Perfect Veil and Strengthen buffs on all allies. He also provides a ton of healing, making him a great support champion.

*If you don’t have these champions and have to go the cleansing route, some of the best cleansers for hydra include: Tuhanarak, Uugo, Cardiel, Brogni, Mithrala and Doompriest.

Spacer
Spacer
[mepr-hide rules="18139"]
[/mepr-hide]
0 0 votes
Community Rating
guest
6 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
SS2020user
SS2020user
1 year ago

This head is why Rector is my second most wanted epic.

ivyleegaming
ivyleegaming
1 year ago
Reply to  SS2020user

Did you miss the Tatura fusion? He can do it as well. Rector is a solid champion for a lot of content as well though, especially being only Epic.

SS2020user
SS2020user
1 year ago
Reply to  ivyleegaming

It’s one massive regret I have. I pulled 2 epics during the fusion, but didn’t go for it so I failed. I really regret it.

Iscran
Iscran
1 year ago

High HP and Reistance Truath can also do the work here, ideally in Frenzy set with no defence to proc his passive and then A3

ivyleegaming
ivyleegaming
1 year ago
Reply to  Iscran

Yup! We have him noted on the MVP list. Seems like an interesting champion. I never got to test him.

Dimitry Ledin
Dimitry Ledin
10 months ago

Duedan should be on this list. His cleanse is amazing and much more frequent than say Doompriest.

He can also be the buff tank with proper resistance, buff extender and shielder.