Rubick

Rubick the Grand Magus is a ranged Intelligence hero best known for his ability to copy the spells of his enemies and use them as his own. Although he is mostly played as a support and is extremely fragile the entire length of the game, he can still prove to be one of the most influential heroes if he utilizes good positioning and well-timed usage of his ultimate, Spell Steal. Spell Steal allows Rubick to cast an enemy hero's most recently used spell, giving him supreme versatility throughout the game. By stealing the right abilities, the Grand Magus can aid himself and allies by casting crippling disables, applying curses, unleashing powerful nukes, disorienting the enemy team, supporting his allies with buffs, escaping from rough situations, or even enhancing his own physical attacks. His other abilities are just as worthy of a Magus: Telekinesis lets Rubick magically lift an enemy into the air, rendering the target helpless and vulnerable, before hurling the lifted enemy to the ground up to a short distance away and stunning nearby foes on impact. Fade Bolt blasts enemies with a stream of arcane energy which bounces to all enemies nearby, dealing damage and reducing their attack damage. Null Field is a passive aura, which grants himself and nearby allies bonus magic resistance to shrug off magical assaults. Rubick's versatile ability-set and his infamous Spell Steal make him a flexible and powerful hero that can work in any lineup although he does suffer from long cool-downs and the surfacing predictability of his ultimate.

Tips

 * Rubick is a very flexible caster who can be played as a support, roamer or core farmer. The role that he is selected for will drastically change his play style and item build.
 * As a support, Rubick generally performs lane harassment and creep pulling duties, getting low farming and experience priority. Telekinesis allows him to catch the enemy off-laner and pull them back, as well as making chain-disables by his tri-lane easier to execute due to Telekinesis's ability to reposition the enemy precisely.
 * As a roamer, Rubick aims to disable and disposition enemies with Telekinesis, setting up kills for his lanes to give them an early advantage. A roaming Rubick prioritizes in mobility, disable and nuking.
 * As a core, Rubick goes to the mid lane, using Fade Bolt to nuke and harass, and Telekinesis to set up kills if his supports and roamers rotate to mid for a gank. Due to being given farm and experience priority, mid Rubick's goal is to get level 6 as fast as possible and use his gold and level advantage to start moving around the map for ganks and kills. Gold should be spent on mobility items, particularly a fast Blink Dagger, as well as utility and disable items to turn teamfights to his team's advantage.
 * Early on, all of Rubick's spells cost an disproportionate amount of mana for less comparative benefit, so it is often wise to hold back on casting your spells unless you absolutely need to. Once a source of mana regen is secured, they can be used more frequently as needed.
 * Although a great disabler and potential initiator with the right items and stolen spells, Rubick is still very frail. Stay back as much as you can to avoid unnecessary damage, and invest in mobility items such as Blink Dagger as early as possible.
 * During the mid- and late-game, stealing key teamfight spells and keeping yourself alive should be your main goals. Spell Steal only has a 0.1 second cast time and high cast range, so quick fingers and fast reaction time will give your team a huge advantage.
 * is a short disable, but can be extremely powerful as it can displace the enemy upon landing, putting them in a very disadvantageous position. If playing as a support or roaming Rubick, at least one point should be placed in the ability.
 * Rubick is a very strong supporting disabler when placed in a side lane, since Telekinesis can disable a target for a disproportionate amount of time (lift time, as well as displacement upon landing). This allows him to greatly magnify the effects of chain disables by his team as he can prevent a target from dodging area-of-effect stuns and increase the length of their retreat path.
 * Remember that when choosing a location for, it is possible to place them on a different elevation than their lift point. You can use this to your advantage by placing the target over a cliff, forcing them to take the long way around, which can be useful for extending a fleeing enemy's escape path or preventing a chasing enemy from easily pursuing.
 * can be a powerful harassing tool during laning, as not only does it deal damage but reduces the enemy's attack damage. However, mind its mana cost, and remember that casting it will push your lane both due to the nuke damage on nearby creeps and the reduced damage that the creeps will deal.
 * Due to its nuking and pushing power, Fade Bolt is a useful tool for a mid-lane Rubick, as the damage can harass the enemy mid while reducing their last-hitting power. As well, pushing the creep wave into the enemy tower can keep them occupied when the runes spawn, and force them to last-hit against their tower, possibly reducing the amount of gold they get.
 * generally should not be picked during the laning stage as it does not scale well and reduces the damage of already weak magic nukes by small amounts. However, it should still be maxed out by level 14 as it can greatly improve teammates' survivability against magic nukes.
 * is one of the most powerful spells in the game, as used properly it can turn teamfights around completely. However, its use requires impeccable positioning, timing and judgment to ensure that the right spell is stolen and used at the right time. Keep in mind what abilities your enemies have, which of those you plan to steal, and in what situations the enemy will use those spells, so that you can be ready when an opportunity presents itself.
 * Spell Steal is one of the hardest spells in the game to use properly, as it requires extensive game knowledge to understand every aspect of the spells you are able to steal. As well, its long cooldown without Aghanim's Scepter means that there is no room for error if you intend on stealing a specific spell rather than taking what comes.
 * Virtually all spells stolen by Rubick will retain his 0.1 second cast animation. This means that spells such as, and  will cast almost immediately. Any spell that requires channel time or extended casting animations will still have extended durations.
 * Stolen spells can often fill in any deficiencies that Rubick has, allowing him to diversify greatly. For instance, stealing an area-of-effect magic nuke can allow Rubick to farm more easily as Fade Bolt is an inefficient magic nuke, stealing a stun can allow him to double up disable duration when combined with Telekinesis, and so on.
 * Remember that stolen spells have a memory duration based on the level of your ultimate, so you should keep in mind how you can best use that spell before you forget it. If you have stolen a powerful teamfight ultimate, it can be wise to try to force the enemy into a teamfight that is disadvantageous for them. If you have stolen a strong area of effect nuke, you can use it to farm during downtime or push out lanes. If you have stolen a strong stun, you should attempt to find a target to gank as you can greatly extend the duration of your disable by combining the stolen disable with Telekinesis.
 * While a stolen spell can be powerful by itself even factoring in the reduced cast times, Rubick's true strength comes from combining those spells with his innate ones. For instance, stealing can be extremely powerful as Rubick can lift a target at will and displace them in a location where a full-duration shackle can be lined up, stealing  can drastically neuter a target's attack power when stacked with Fade Bolt, and so on.
 * Aghanim's Scepter not only reduces Spell Steal's cooldown to 2 seconds and increases its cast range, it also (in most cases) grants Rubick the upgrade benefits of any spells he has stolen, regardless of whether the original caster has an Aghanim's Scepter or not. Therefore, a stolen will apply Enigma's current level of  to the area, a stolen  will fire up to 4 rockets, and so on.
 * Due to being able to be played as a support, roamer or mid, Rubick can benefit from building numerous other types of items.
 * A starting is greatly beneficial on a mid Rubick, as it gives him more last-hitting power to allow him to compete against the enemy mid. As well, it helps to shave down your starting build so that you can purchase a fast  to give yourself regen.
 * can be situationally useful as a mid. The passive HP regen helps Rubick to keep his HP up in the face of enemy harass, but its main use is consuming the mango for an instant 150 mana, which can greatly help in getting a kill on the enemy mid.
 * Played in a hard support role, be sure to purchase s regularly on top of Observer Wards, as denying the enemy map vision can give you leeway for initiating on them and stealing their spells.
 * can serve as a useful utility and survivability item when playing as a roamer. The extra strength gives you more HP while the mana regen bonus helps to maintain your mana pool. The item's active adds another damage nuke to the mix, or can be used to heal yourself or teammates after successful ganks.
 * are generally not very strong on Rubick, but can be situationally built as a support or roamer. The armor and passive HP regen help to give Rubick survivability, and the increased base movement speed allows him to position himself for casting his spells more easily.
 * is another unorthodox item to build on Rubick, but can be useful depending on the situation. While his base intelligence is respectable, his spells come on a fairly low cooldown, and his mana pool is often strained to the breaking point due to Spell Steal allowing him to utilize even more spells. A Soul Ring can give Rubick on-demand mana that allows him to cast one or two more spells in a teamfight, and can help mitigate the mana cost on his spells when using them to farm, making sure that he does not show up to fights with a half-depleted mana pool. As well, it can be used as a component for building a Bloodstone should the need arise.
 * is a situational item that mainly provides utility, but can be very strong if used properly. The active can allow Rubick to initiate by walking in invisibly instead of using his Blink Dagger, or can be used to shield himself or an ally from enemy magic nukes (or to help them escape). It can be particularly useful for utilizing stolen channeling spells, as it helps to prevent easy interruption.
 * is a useful item to purchase on any support, and is no exception for Rubick. Being able to become immune to physical damage can buy Rubick more time in the face of the enemy's carries to steal or cast stolen spells in order to change the course of a teamfight.
 * can be a useful upgrade if a Null Talisman was already purchased earlier. It provides all-around stats, additional armor, and the active ability can work alongside Null Field to create a space for magic damage to benefit your team over the enemy. It can also be useful depending on what types of spells can be stolen from the enemy, as well as if your team also has a plethora of magic nukes.
 * is a strong utility item that can benefit Rubick in any situation. By itself, the item grants scaling mana regen as well as survivability against enemy physical attacks due to a combination of armor and evasion, which can be useful as Null Field already protects him against magic nukes. However, the active is very strong since it can allow Rubick to transfer the armor and evasion to his carry, or can reduce the armor of a gank target during an initiation with Telekinesis.
 * is a very situational item to purchase, and should depend on if the enemy has a major teamfight ultimate that can benefit from it. However, as with a Refresher Orb purchased on any hero with a major teamfight ultimate, it can mean the difference between victory and defeat in the right situation.

Trivia

 * In both DotA and Dota 2, he is the son of Aghanim. He also possesses an imitation of Aghanim's scepter as one of his cosmetic items.
 * Before was changed to an attack modifier, Rubick was able to steal it. Upon using it, he would launch a projectile of himself, spinning and with head ahead, towards the target. When his target was Tusk, the overhead text on the target read "Sucker Punch!" in green colors. The text read "Stolen Punch! on other targets.
 * Rubick is named after Ernő Rubik, the Hungarian inventor who designed the "Magic Cube" (most commonly called "Rubik's Cube"), a popular combination puzzle. His response, Rubick purch 04.mp3 "Now, where's my cube?" is also a reference to Rubik's Cube.
 * In DotA, Rubick couldn't steal several spells due to several reasons:
 * Transformation spells caused various issues, so they all could not be stolen. The following abilities are transformation spells and thus unstealable in DotA:
 * ,, , , , , , , , , , and
 * Besides transformation spells, several other spells could also not be stolen due to either engine errors or other coding conflicts:
 * Morph (Agility Gain) icon.pngMorph (Strength Gain) icon.png Morph,, , , , , , , , , , , and
 * Since DotA only uses legacy hotkeys, he could not steal any spell which uses the hotkey X, Z and Q. The following abilities could not be stolen due to hotkey conflicts:
 * Abilities with hotkey X:, , ,
 * Abilities with hotkey Z: ,
 * Abilities with hotkey Q: None