All right, Diablo players — Season 9 is here, and with it comes one of the most exciting builds we've seen in a long time: the new Hydra build. This setup is centered around a brand-new amulet introduced in the Season 9 PTR, and it's already proving to be a game-changer. Everyone is trying it out right now, and for good reason.

Let's break it down.

The Core Mechanic: More Hydra Heads, More Power

At the heart of this build is a new amulet that uniquely boosts your Hydra skills. The amulet's implicit bonus gives your Hydra +2 extra heads, and for every head above 3, your Hydra deals up to 100x increased damage. That's not a typo. Each head past the third gives you insane bonus damage, and when you start stacking that, the numbers go wild.

On top of that, the hydras themselves are larger, deal AOE damage, and can be further enhanced with Season 9's new jewels — one of the key ones being Tyrant Bane.

Tyrant Bane: Infinite DOT Damage

Tyrant Bane is a new Harri jewel introduced in Season 9. Here's what it does: every time you apply a damage-over-time effect, the target starts taking 33% more DOT damage permanently. This ramps up as long as you keep applying more burn effects. It doesn't hit instantly like burst damage, but over time, it creates an unstoppable snowball effect — especially effective against high HP enemies like pit bosses and bosses in the new Escalation Dungeons.

Escalation Dungeons: Where the Build Shines

Season 9 introduces Escalation Dungeons, which get harder and harder the deeper you go. This build wrecks them. With large, powerful hydras dropping constant DOTs and Tyrant Bane stacking, you'll find that enemies just melt away, even as the difficulty increases.

And as you progress through floors, maintaining Ice Armor uptime and rotating your cooldowns allows you to survive nearly everything the game throws at you.

Key Stats and Setup

One of the central ideas behind this build is stacking mana. A goal of 300+ mana is ideal because of how the Serpentine Aspect now works. In Season 9, the Serpentine Aspect no longer gives you an extra hydra by default. Instead, after you cast Hydra, it consumes all your mana and boosts damage based on mana spent — 2.5% per mana, or 5% if using a two-handed weapon.

So what does that mean? Stack as much mana as possible, blow it all when you summon a Hydra, and then instantly regenerate it using your gear and skill setup.

Skills Setup

Here's a basic rundown of the skill loadout:

· Hydra – Main damage dealer.

· Ice Blades – Grants extra attack speed and helps with cooldown reduction.

· Inferno – Used for damage amplification.

· Familiar – Adds more summons, boosts mana regen, and gives movement speed.

· Ice Armor – Defensive option that can have near 100% uptime.

· Teleport – Mobility and defensive buff (damage reduction).

Enchantments

This build is flexible with enchantments. Some options include:

· Hydra – Adds an auto-cast Hydra that has five heads but less power.

· Firebolt – Was previously considered, but not consistent enough.

· Frost Nova – Applies vulnerability. Your spellcraft powers can do that too.

· Incinerate – Could summon a burning serpent to keep burn effects going.

There's room to experiment here. You're not locked into a single path.

Gear Breakdown

Let's go over the key gear you want to use.

· Helmet: Harlequin Crest (Shako) – Look for max resource and cooldown.

· Chest: Shroud of False Death – Resource generation, all stats, or max life are helpful. The stealth stat is not important.

· Gloves: City Bindings – Gives +2 to Primordial skills (movement speed, mana regen, extra Hydra damage). Ignore the familiar duration stat.

· Pants: Axial Conduit – Mostly used for insane resource generation. Stack resource gen and maximum mana here.

· Boots: Flexible Slot

 · Options include:

   · Yen's Blessing – Triggers effects like Ice Armor or summons.

   · Flickerstep – For cooldown resets and speed.

   · Orange Herald – Reduces cooldowns and works with teleport builds.

You don't need Lucky Hit for Hydra with this build — it's not effective. Focus on stacking Hydra bonuses like:

· Extra heads

· Hydra damage

· Fire damage

· Damage over time

The Amulet: The Star of Season 9

This new amulet is the defining Diablo IV items of the Hydra build. It's guaranteed +2 Hydra heads and the bonus damage per head above 3 is what allows this build to scale so hard. Every additional head adds 100x more potential. Stack other sources of head count, and your Hydra becomes monstrous in both size and damage.

You won't see this amulet in planner tools yet — it's still new — but you'll want to hunt this down ASAP when Season 9 goes live.

Damage Rotation and Playstyle

Here's how you play the build:

1. Wait until your mana is full (takes about 2 seconds).

2. Cast Hydra. All your mana is consumed to boost its damage.

3. Ice Armor keeps you safe during the downtime.

4. As you wait for your mana to refill, you rotate utility spells — teleport, familiar, inferno, and reapply buffs.

5. Repeat the Hydra cast when mana is back.

You don't want to spam Hydra. You want to time it with max mana so you get the most out of each cast. With high enough generation, this becomes smooth and rhythmic.

DOT vs. Crit Version

Currently, the focus is on the DOT variant, especially because of Tyrant Bane's infinite scaling potential. There's also a crit-based version of the Hydra build in testing. It's more burst-oriented, and might be better for different types of content, but when a build has infinite DOT scaling, it's hard to beat.

Even though it's technically DOT-based, it doesn't feel slow. The ticks hit so hard and so fast that most enemies die quickly. Against bosses, you'll notice the ramp-up, but it's still incredibly powerful.

Final Thoughts

Season 9 is shaping up to be one of the best yet for Diablo 4, thanks to how creative and powerful this Hydra build is. With new mechanics like Hydra head scaling, the Tyrant Bane jewel, and Escalation Dungeons, it's the perfect time to jump back in.

Whether you're pushing deep dungeon tiers, speed-running nightmare content, or melting world bosses, this Hydra build has the damage, survivability, and flexibility to handle it all.

So get ready to hunt for that amulet, stack your mana, and unleash fire-spewing serpents that tear through everything in their path. Diablo 4 Season 9 is officially Hydra season.