There are so many champions that instantly come to mind when we’re trying to build our best Hydra Clan Boss teams. Crazy legendaries like Krisk, Nekmo Thaar, Duchess, Siphi, and Acrizia are obvious go-to choices.

There are also a lot of very strong epics that can be found in most team comps like Uugo, Geomancer, Husk and more.

But what are we missing? Who are you probably not thinking of when looking at your roster? Let’s discuss some champions that can excel vs Hydra but seem to be underrated by the community.

Shamrock is someone no one ever seems excited to pull from shards. However, he’s got a strong kit for hydra specifically and deserves to come out of the vaults. His A1 can can remove or steal a buff. His A2 places Increase DEF on all allies plus has conditional placement of buffs for either Increase SPD and Increase C.RATE or Revive on Death and Continuous Heal (depending on how much HP the target ally has. His A3 also places Decrease SPD on all enemies and fills turn meter of allies. Overall a great kit!

Visix the Unbowed is undeservingly underrated in the game overall. For the sake of hydra, she can be the champion that brings AoE Decrease SPD with her A2 plus she places Ally Protection on all allies with the same skill. That allows her to pair well with a champion that only does Increase SPD (not both like Krisk or Nekmo). She also has an AoE Provoke with her A3. That, however, is on a 3 turn cool down, but it still can help be supplemental Provoke for your team, especially if you put her in Reflex or Relentless gear. Stop feeding her into your Lydia for a +1, it’s not worth it! (unless you’ve got lots of Visix to spare).

Thylessia is an epic that barely seems to get used by most but can be the MVP of your team. Her A1 has a 50% chance of applying a Debuff Spread effect, taking 1 random debuff from the target and placing it on all enemies under Hex debuffs. This can help make sure all the important debuffs are on all heads. (Except avoid spreading burns placed by Geomancer as those will not count for his Passive). Her A2 is an AoE that extends all debuffs by 1 turn, again, another skill that is massive for keeping up everything you need in a hydra fight. Her A3 is an AoE that attacks and places Decrease DEF, another necessary debuff vs hydra. Her Passive also brings Hex to the mix with a 50% chance of placing it if the enemy is under Decrease DEF. Luckily, this can also place at the same time you use the A3 kill.

Ruel the Huntsmaster is a top tier damage dealer in all of the game but still seems to get vaulted by most. In lower difficulties of hydra, raw damage can do even better than Enemy Max HP. Pairing Ruel with another Hex champion when possible will even further improve his damage thanks to his A2 which places an extra hit on enemies under Hex plus will ignore 25% of defense if 4 or more enemies are under Hex as well. His A1 can also place Decrease DEF and transfer a debuff from him to the target. His A3 places Increase ACC on all allies then Hex Debuff on enemies. He also places Perfect Veil on himself and fills his turn meter by 50%.

Jizoh is a great “budget” option as both a that you’ve probably vaulted long ago. He can be used well as a Mischief target + if built in a Reflex or Relentless set, he can keep up Provoke on the Head of Decay pretty well. It might be recommended to have a secondary provoker as backup, however like Husk as your damage dealer. But his ability to choose targeting for his buffs makes the Mischief Targeting also flexible.

Master Butcher might be the most “budget” option out there as a Provoker vs the Head of Decay.. He’s only a rare, so very easy to max out with books and potions. He has a 2-turn Provoke on his A2 and a 1-turn Provoke on the A1. He works very well in Reflex gear to be able to come back to the A2 skill frequently as he doesn’t have an A3 to use.

Final Thoughts:

There’s so many other under-utilized champions that deserve a chance in hydra. Kantra, for example, was first mentioned in this linked video, but we do give her lots of love on this site in the other Hydra articles so decided not to include her here. Overall, just look at skills, cooldowns and see if you can get creative with team synergies to check all the boxes you need for a strong fight vs Hydra Clan boss.