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The Whispered One ranks amongst the most powerful Wizards in Dungeons & Dragons, with a nefarious spell for every situation. Agreeing to play by The Entity’s rules in Dead by Daylight nerfed Vecna, but that doesn’t mean survivors will have an easy time with him. The Lich has a complicated kit with four different spells: Fly, Flight of the Damned, Mage Hand, and Dispelling Sphere. He’s a jack-of-all-trades M1 killer, but unless you have the right perks and add-ons to accompany his power, Vile Darkness will feel anything but magical. Here are some of the best builds for Vecna (The Lich) in Dead by Daylight.
Meta Gen Stall Build
(Updated on November 4, 2024 – updated builds, links, and format)
- Corrupt Intervention (Plague) – blocks the three farthest generators at the start of the Trial
- Grim Embrace (Artist) – blocks generators after hooking a survivor
- No Way Out (Trickster) – temporarily prevents survivors from using the exit gates
- Agitation (Trapper) – increases your speed when carrying a survivor
Gen stall and meta builds always dominate the meta, so if you’re looking for the best Vecna builds in Dead by Daylight, that’s where you should start. With four cooldowns to juggle, Vecna benefits from holding survivors in the Trial as long as possible, maximizing his opportunities to use each spell. It’s no coincidence that these perks rank amongst the most picked in the game. Magical synergies are nothing new for the Lord of the Rotted Tower, even if they’re as predictable as these.
Corrupt blocks three generators at the start of the Trial, forcing survivors to venture far from spawn if they want to begin repairs immediately. Grim Embrace triggers when you hook a survivor, blocking the gens. Agitation greatly increases your speed when carrying a survivor, minimizing your downtime between chases. Last, No Way Out prevents the exit gates from opening and synergizes well with Grim Embrace, maximizing the time Vecna has to secure the last kills of the Trial.
End-Game Vecna Build
- No Way Out (Trickster) – temporarily prevents survivors from using the exit gates
- Hex: No One Escapes Death (General) – grants Haste and allows you to insta-down survivors after the last generator is powered
- Remember Me (Freddy) – causes the exit gates to take much longer to open
- Blood Warden (Freddy) – blocks the exit for 60 seconds when you hook a survivor during End Game Collapse
Vecna possesses two spells that can make him an end-game nightmare: Dispelling Sphere and Fly. The former can make sneaking around exit gates impossible, and the latter makes it easy for him to patrol both exits. There are plenty of fun end-game builds you can use with Vecna, but his reliance on M1s (and ability to deny pallets with Mage Hand) makes NOED and its synergies powerful. If you’re not a NOED fan, The Spirit’s Rancor is a fun and lethal substitute that can spice up any end-game build.
The combination of No Way Out and Remember Me ensures that the exit gates will take as long as possible to open. Although the latter doesn’t affect the Obsession, they’ll find it difficult to open the gate while exposed by Rancor. If the gates open despite your preparations, Blood Warden gives you one last chance to secure a clutch 4k by trapping everyone in the Trial with The Lich for 60 seconds. Pair this and other Vecna builds with the Ring of Spell Storing and Ring of Telekinesis for Mage Hand and cooldown buffs.
Hex / Pentimento
- Hex: Ruin (Hag) – unfinished generators automatically regress when survivors aren’t repairing them
- Hex: Devour Hope (Hag) – grants Haste, the ability to insta-down, and eventually the ability to Mori survivors after five hooks
- Hex: Undying (Blight) – acts as a second life for another Hex, disappearing in its place when a survivor attempts to dispel it
- Hex: Pentimento (Artist) – the killer can rekindle cleansed Totems to inflict a series of debuffs on survivors
Many players ignore Hex builds, considering them too unpredictable. There are other resources to defend, after all. Even so, some of the best Vecna builds in Dead by Daylight rely on these fiery Totems. Ruin and Devour can carry games by themselves, but this build assumes the survivors find and cleanse them. That’s when Pentimento kicks in with some of the best gen-stalling in the game. It doesn’t hurt that Fly and Dispelling Sphere make patrolling your Totems easy on many maps.
Ruin is a strong, passive regression perk that can carry the game if you keep pushing survivors off gens. Devour is a win condition by itself, but it doubles as further food for Pentimento. Undying, similarly, exists to keep your other Hexes standing longer and to give Pentimento as much strength and longevity as possible. Using Pentimento you can quickly rekindle Hexes across the map, slowing repairs, heals, and other actions to a crawl. That’s as nasty as anything in Vecna’s spellbook.
