DbD Vecna Build Guide: How to Play and Counter the Killer

Vecna, also called The Lich, is the 36th Killer in Dead by Daylight, released by Behaviour Interactive during Chapter 32: Dungeons & Dragons. His Power is a spell book that gives him access to four spells that let him find, chase, and down survivors.

However, knowing how to play him correctly to make him effective can be challenging. Here’s our DbD Vecna build guide on how to play and counter the Killer to make him highly effective against Survivors.

The Best Add-ons and Perks for Vecna in Dead by Daylight

The Vecna build below is perfect for players of any skill level to learn to play him while still dominating a match. This build also considers the buff he got at launch, making it as fresh a build as possible.

Add-ons

When playing Vecna, you must spam his abilities as much as possible to be effective. Because of this, you will want to use the two power add-ons below for Vecna, which will help lower his spell cooldowns, meaning you can cast more spells very quickly.

• Ring of Spell Storing: This add-on decreases the cooldown of all spells by 5 seconds.
• Pearl of Power: This add-on reduces the remaining cooldown for all spells by 5 seconds every time you land a basic attack.

Perks

The below perks work with how you want to play Vecna by spamming his abilities and using the power add-ons discussed above. In addition, you will punish Survivors when you hit them with basic attacks by slowing their ability to complete generators.

Here are the best perks for Vecna in Dead by Daylight:

• Friends ‘Til The End (The Good Guy): This is an excellent perk as it constantly rotates who your Obsession is while providing the Exposed status effect on your Obsession and revealing the location of a random non-Obsession survivor when you hook survivors.
• Surge (The Demogorgon): The Surge perk works excellent with your basic attacks as it will cause all Generators within a 32-meter range to explode and start regressing if you put a Survivor into a dying state with a basic attack. You will reduce your spell cooldowns with a basic attack and interfere with other nearby Survivor’s ability to complete generators.
• Hex: Plaything (Cenobite): This Hex perk further punishes Survivors for being hooked and makes it easier to find and hunt them, which helps to feed your other perks and benefits from landing basic attacks.
• Grim Embrace (The Artist): Grim Embrace furthers your ability to stop Survivors from completing generators as it blocks all generators for a specific amount of time based on the tokens you earned by hooking survivors for the first time. It also reveals the aura of the Obsession after reaching four tokens.

How to Play Vecna in Dead by Daylight

Vecna is different because he has multiple spells that you can use based on the situation you find yourself in during a match. For instance, you can use his Mage hand and Fly abilities to traverse the map quickly while sending out your Dispelling Sphere to locate survivors. Vecna’s Mage hand ability can be a game-changer when in pursuit of survivors. Use it to lift dropped pallets or block Survivors’ ability to use standing ones, giving you the upper hand in the chase.

Outside of those valuable skills, you’ll want to continue to play off of your add-ons and perks to slow down the speed at which Survivors can complete objectives like repairing generators while punishing them for getting caught and hooked. I got a bunch of hooks with five generators left on multiple matches due to how oppressing this build can be.

How to Counter Vecna in Dead by Daylight

There are a few ways that you can counter Vecna in Dead by Daylight if you are a Survivor or things to be aware of if you are playing as Vecna to minimize them from happening. Remember that as a Survivor, you can always tell that you will be facing Vecna during a match, as the Survivor HUD displays the magical items a Survivor has equipped.

Here is how to counter Vecna’s spells in Dead by Daylight:

• Fly: At first, Vecna won’t have a collision, so you will need to go behind him to dodge it. Then, when the spell is about to wear off, he does gain collision, meaning you can body block him against the terrain and environmental objects to prevent him from getting in front of you.
• Flight of the Damned: The easiest way to counter this spell is to crouch or go in between the skulls as they spread out the further they go. However, the only time you can’t crouch when countering this spell is when the killer equipped the Book of Vile Darkness iridescent add-on. Instead, the Survivor would have to dodge between the skulls.
• Dispelling Sphere: The range of this spell isn’t that great, so don’t worry about trying to dodge it. Instead, just run away from it while staying out of Vecna’s line of sight.
• Mage Hand: There are a couple of different ways to counter this spell based on how you are looping Vecna, the distance between you, and how well you can predict how the killer will use it. For instance, if you can bait him into using Mage Hand, then you can drop the pallet right before it is used, causing the spell to pick up the pallet instead of blocking it, which will give you free use of the pallet.

You will also want to pick up the Magic Items from in the chests on the map. These will allow you to see the Aura of Vecna’s spells, making it easier to counter him.

Here are the Magic Items ranked in the order you should use them:

1. Nightwatch: You’ll see the aura of the skulls when Vecna uses Flight of the Damned.
2. Interloper: You’ll see the aura of the pallet that Vecna is using Mage Hand on.
3. Skyguard: You’ll see Vecna’s aura when he is using Fly.
4. Archivist: You’ll see the aura of Dispelling Sphere.

Now that you know you’ve used our DbD Vecna build guide on how to play and counter the Killer, you’ll be able to complete objectives and escape the match with little difficulty. Check out our Dead by Daylight hub for more guides like our DbD Aestri Yazar Build and Counter Guide so you know how his counterpart works!