Guide To Grand Magus, Rubick

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Table of contents: 1. Introduction 2. Pros and Cons 3. Skills and Build 4. Gameplay 5. Items and item builds 6. Abusing Spells 7. Might of Spell steal 8. Mind Tricking Enemies 9. Synergy and counters 10. Specific hero synergies / combos 11. Replays 12. Closing

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Introduction: Rubick is new hero of 6.72 version, and so far, my favorite. Unlike what most of players think so far, he is neither too strong, nor too weak. His powerfull spells are countered by his low health points and complexity. He is a great ganker, has more spells than invoker, and in team battles, he has great AoE presence, from protecting teammates of spells, to damaging and stunning enemies, so his items will naturally be focused there. I wanted to write this guide because i always thought about a hero who can steal other heroes spells. Icefrog created that hero! Also this is my first guide on DotA hero. Okay, lets move to Rubick:

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Pros / Cons

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- Excelent AoE Damage spell - Good AoE Disable - Excelent Ultimate - turns out into any spell - Nice Inteligence - Average Movement Speed - Big attack range / easy last hitting - Low Strenght = Low health - Low Agility = Low armor - Hard to master From here we can see that Rubick is one of best spellcasters, and can farm easily. Now i will explain spells. I will not post numbers in here, if you want to see what every spell does, check out this page.

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Skills: 1. Telekenesis: This spell basicaly lifts enemy up, then throws him somewhere within 375 range, stunning all around. It is a nice disable if you can group enemies up together. But most of the time, you wont be using this spell by lifting creeps and stunning all heroes around, instead it is much more powerfull if you lift hero up, then push/pull him. A great ganking tool... Also it makes you look like Darth Vader There are a lot of ways to use this, be creative. Maybe try to hurl enemy onto ward hill! (I don't know does it work, so far i did throw people in trees, but it just wont go over hills for me...). Or maybe push enemy away from your running ally! It has a lot of uses, it is difficult spell to master, but it is well worth it. Aiming it is something like Invokers Sunstrike / Kunkkas Torrent, but only within 375 range... 2. Fade bolt: One of the best AoE, non-ultimate spells in game. Why is it so good? First off it deals a lot of damage, then it reduces down damage enemy deals! And on top of it all, it has low cooldown, and low mana cost, making it spammable! It behaves much like Zeus's Chain Lightning, except it deals more damage, and enfebles enemy. Use it for harrasing enemy early game, ganking and in team battles. This spell is also great for farming creeps. Make sure you hit ranged units once to instantly kill them with spell. 3. Null Field: Huh, stupid spell, Magina has a lot stronger one... Well, not entierly true. This little spell comes in AoE, protecting entire team from enemy spells! It makes magina imune to magic, and in conjunction with pipe, others as well. Not much to say how to use this. Its a passive, duh? 4. Spell Steal: The one, original, beautifull spell steal! Makes this hero unique, and one of best spellcasters simply because he has large variety of spells, bigger than Invokers! Cast it on someone, and last spell target has used becomes yours! It is really powerfull if you can take Ravage, Chrono or spells like that. Ever wanted to hook Pudge? To leap over Mirana? To blow up Techies? To heal Omni? To toss Tiny? Well this is hero for you! This spell is very versale, so there is no point in describing what every single spell in game does!

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Skill Build: There is only one good build, and it goes: 1. Telekenesis 2. Fade Bolt 3. Fade Bolt 4. Telekenesis 5. Fade Bolt 6. Spell Steal 7. Fade Bolt 8. Telekenesis 9. Telekenesis 10. Null Field 11. Spell Steal 12. Null Field 13. Null Field 14. Null Field 15. Stats 16. Spell Steal 17-25. Stats Telekenesis is taken first to prevent FB atempts. Rubick isnt good for getting FB, so dont try it, you will only end up at half health or dead. Then we max Bolt, for damage purpose, it is spammable and more usefull than little prolonged stun. After that, Telekenesis, and Null field in end. Spell Steal is taken whenever possible, for obvious reasons. Stats are maxed last. There are few variations though, like taking stats instead of null field if enemy has physical DPS team, and no spellcasters. Also, you can consider taking Null field instead of Telekenesis at level 4 if you are laning with enemy like Zeus. But i do not recomend it, since you are ganker, not laner.

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Gameplay: Lane: Rubick can go solo Mid, or dual lane. He doesnt have good escape mechanism (if enemy is smart, you can disable one at most, others will just get out of way of stun), so don't go into short lanes (lanes with secret shop near them). Early Game: OR You start your Early game with combination of mantles, branches and tango/salves/clarities. Either get Mantle, 3 branches, wand, tango; or 2 Mantles, 2 branches tango and 2 clarities. If there isnt ward bitch in your team, buy wards, although i highly disrecomend it, as you need some fast items before you start ganking. Do not atempt to make First Blood! Rubick has a stun, but just isnt hero for that. If enemy tries to, punish them. Do not spam Bolt till level 3. Just relax till you get level 6, then take over slow/stun and kill enemy.

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Mid Game: / When you reach level 6, you should have Arcane boots, wand and maybe Bottle ready. Get bottle ONLY if no other ganker in your team has it, since i dislike idea of racing your team for rune. "Why ganking with Rubick? He has medicore stun, and nice damage, but he doesnt look like ganker to me..." Rubick really benifits from ganking. He can get a nice selection at enemy spells, take one he benifits most from, then keep on ganking. Ganks consist of following: 1. Telekenesis weakest enemy / gank target, and throw it towards your mates. 2. Spell steal spell you need the most before he dies. 3. Use Bolt, and Dagon if you have it. 4. Leave kills to reliable carry. If none, take it for yourself. Gank continuosly. After each gank, destroy enemy tower. In proces you will farm some gold for items. During mid game, try to get Dagon before minute 20. If you cant, forget it, it loses effectivness later on. Do not bother to upgrade it, it is just useless later. Start getting some other supporting items - Shiva, Guinsoo, Veil of Discord, Eul, Pipe, etc. Do not take much time farming, just farm tower and few creeps after gank, then go ganking some more. Goal is to get money trough heroes, allowing your carry to farm while enemy respawns.

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Late Game: "Its over! Spells are useless now! I am useless now!" Not entierly... Rubick is one of few inteligence heroes that is still effective in late game. At this part, stick close to team, farm as many creeps as you can if no carry is near, and do not fight alone! Get high-tier items as soon as possible, to best support team. Few things make Rubick effective in this part of game: - he farms well, with good items, he is still usefull - he has nice AoE spell protection - most importantly - can take over spells like Chrono, Ravage, Overgrowth, Black hole, etc. etc.

Items:

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Core items: Arcane boots: Other boots are simply not good enough for Rubick. He is constantly ganking, and needs more mana. Later replace these with Boots of Travel. Bottle: If no ganker gets this, feel free to get one. It will improve ganking abilities, and gives cheap regeneration. However, dont start with this item, you need some stats via branches and mantles. Urn of Shadows: Gives some much needed health, and free salves. Get it if you dont have bottle, or noone else in team has Urn. Magic Wand: Instant heal is imba. In team battles, charges fill in like mad with all the spells flying around. Null Talismans: Some stats arent bad. Later can be turned into Dagon.

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Now that you know what to do, lets see what to get! Rubick farms well with his Bolt, allowing him to get some nice high-tier items. Guinsoo's Scytle of Vyse: Father of all dissables... This item is a must when playing versus good hard carry. However, if all enemies are low-damage dealers, no chaneling spells, etc. you may skip it for some more usefull items. Eul's Scepter of Divinity: Same as guinsoo, except its cheaper, and has cyclone instead of turn into sheep. Orchid Malevolence: This item comes in small, cheap components, and is useful against spellcasters, or heroes that have gamebreaking skills. It can also be used to counter Maginas blink. Shivas Guard: Rubick is AoE spellcaster, and this item improves him even more! Also grants nice slow. Dagon: Item great in ganking. It loses effectivness later in game, so if you fail to get it by minute 20, focus yourself on getting shiva instead. Never upgrade dagon. 100 extra damage (plus reduced by magic resistance) isn't worth 1350 gold! Veil of Discord: New item, and to tell you the truth, its great! Amplifies all magic damage, and thats where you specialise. Get it if your team has at least one more spellcaster, and you have Dagon already. Mekansm: You are ganker, so you shouldnt get this... but you can, if no other player in team has it. Khadgars Pipe of Insight: Worth the price! If you are fighting an all spellcaster team, get this. Your team will love you. Black King Bar: Falling easily onto disables? Get this! There are some spells they can use on you, but they wont deal damage. You steal those spells, and make them pay for their boldness! Vanguard: Rubick has low health, so this could be thing he just needs. I dont recomend it however, it only slows down your core. Get it at your own risk. Linken Sphere: Against single disabler it can work ok. Gives some nice stats and regen. Get it if you can aford it. Blademail: You are number 1 targer of enemies most of times, because you can wreak havoc! I suggest getting this if that is case. But remember, always stay back, you arent tank! Mobility is also an important factor. Both Dagger and Force staff are very useful. With dagger you can easily blink, evading stuns, chasing enemies, etc. Force Staff has little less uses (you can't evade stun with it, but you can push self even if you were hit within last 3 seconds), but gives stats, and comes in small pieces. Bloodstone and Heart are good survivability items. Get them if you are focused down in team battles. I think Heart is a better choice, since you have all the mana you need from Shiva and Arcane Boots, yet still lack health. Skadi is ultimate item Rybic can have. It gives him a lot of health, mana, and cold attack making killing enemies a lot easier. However, i advise you to get some items like Shiva and Guinsoo first.

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REJECTED ITEMS: DPS items are useless on Rubick! He is ganker, spellcaster and support, not carry! Rubick doesn't need orbs to be effective, and they slow down his more important Luxury items. Diffusal blade can be used for ganking, however i do not recommend it. You got farming spell, and its enough for your needs! Also, you arent tanky enough to use Radiance! Aghanim may be Rubicks parent, but Aghanims scepter is useless on this hero still... Maybe it will be improved in next version? (I would like to see Rubick taking his allies spells with Aghanim ... 2 Dooms ftw! )

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Abusing your Spells: Spells are that what makes this hero who he is. Learn to abuse them. Let me give you some examples: You are ganking Mirana, who stepped onto your side of map. She sees the threat and leaps away. However, while leaping, you catch her in telekenesis, stopping her, then pulling her back. Desparately, she shoots arrow at you. You steal that spell, and shoot arrow back, stunning her. You get in, Bolt her, and telekenesis again. She is dead You are being chased by Lanaya. She uses refraction, trap, blinks in, melds and attacks for critical from meld. You are slowed and know that there is no way to get out alive by running. You grip her, throw her away, take her last spell (meld in this case), and start running. But no no no, she has dust for you, so you cant meld just yet. Go to the nearest juking spot, enter it and meld. Then type "haha juked!". She will search a little longer, but doesnt know where to use dust. You wait for her to go and tp home. You are soloing mid with Pudge on enemy team. Both of you are level 6. Thinking that you are easy prey, he tries to hook you away from tower. You evade hook, steal it, and hook him back. Now you have incredible advantage. Telekenesis him, throw him at your tower, and bolt. He is still weak at that level, so he can either run, and be killed by you, or use dismember on you, and be killed by tower. His choice. From all those above, you can see that you need to know other heroes well before you can master Rubick. But with EVERY hero, more or less, you need to use mind games, good juking skill, and think smart! I have read this somewhere on this forum, and will repeat it: most important item is the Brain. It is priceless, has passive "Common Thinking" and gives 9999 inteligence. Use it. There are countless more situations, use your own imagination, think outside of box! And most important thing in any game, even DotA is - Have Fun!

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The Might of Spell Steal: Stealing the right spell isn't as easy as it looks... If you try to fight enemy fire with fire, he will win, simply because he will attack first. To use Doom for example, you or your mates need to be doomed. I think you understand what i mean. "OMG OMG CHRONO STEAL IMBA OMG WTF!!!11!eleven!" - well not really. Well fed Void blinks in, Chronos, kills 3 of your mates and even if you survive, how will that chrono be useful in 2v5 when only you can move inside of it? Or for another example - Pudge hooks, then instantly turns on the rot, making it very hard to steal hook from him - if you try, you get Rot instead... So for those public players who got killed by this hero - he is not imba. Now, lets look on the bright side. You are roamer, stealing useful spells as you pass by. Here are most useful spells you can get: Ganking: Ultimates are not included since you start ganking at level 6, while others are level 3-5. (Pudge is common mid, so i guess dismember is an option. Same with Bloodseeker. Also Track is a must for invis-heroes) Pushing: Along with your Bolt, you are great pusher. Scouting: Escaping: IMBA AoE Spells: Mind Tricking: Denying self: Well... Its better to get out alive, but if everything else fails, kill yourself instead of feeding the enemies. Have battlegroups on shops (ctrl+5, etc) to buy items quickly, and waste no gold when you know you'll die. You get the point. Those are only few of spells in each class. I can't list them all, because there are so many spells in each of those categories, so be creative! Spells that can't be stolen: - Useless abilities (for instance, subabilities, or Quas/Wex/Exort/Invoke) - Transformation abilities (Chemical Rage, Firefly, Flak Cannon, ...) - Arrow abilities (Poison Attack, Glaives of Wisdom, ...) Items Abilities with hotkey conflicts: Q: None! X: - X Marks the Spot - Shadowraze X - Tornado - Exorcism - Z: - Shadowraze Z - Freezing Field - Alacrity Abilities with technical issues: - Morph Agility/Strength - Summon Spirit Bear - Spin Web - War Club - Soul Assumption - Refraction - Borrowed Time - Overcharge - Spirits - Insatiable Hunger - Devour - Telekinesis - Fade Bolt - Spell Steal (!)

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Mind Tricking enemies: As Rubick, you have great potential to play mind games with enemies. Sometimes, when you cast spells that you stole from their team, they won't even notice, thinking that their team used it. Let me try to explain: In team battle. Teams fight with even strenghts. Noone knows who will win. Now you use that Chaos Meteor you stole from Invoker earlier. Enemy team thinks "OMG OUR INVOKER IS HERE!! WE WIN!!!111!!!!!1!one!111!". By the time they realize meteor is damaging them, its too late. Same thing with Rhastas wards. Seeing wards in team fight, enemy team will think of it as a hope of winning if fight goes on equally. By the time they realize its your wards, its too late. Lets think out of team fights. You stole EarthShaker's fissure. When you go ganking, use fissure, enemies will think its their ally shaker for few seconds if you use it from fog. Yeah, you can see stun above yourself if this happens, so its not that hard at all to guess it. But still, this works wonders in pubs. Or lets think of TerroBlade. His current spells make you have no choice but to ignore spell steal until he uses ultimate. When he swaps your health, you swap it back and finish him! As i said a lot of times before - think outside of box! There are countless examples, and these here are only some of them.

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Synergies and Counters: Quote: Heroes Rubick benefits from: Gankers: They help you gank, ensuring kills, allowing carries to farm up. Enemy IMBA SPELL heroes: You can turn their own weapon against them, turning the tide of battles! Enemy Techies: You steal his barrel. Enemies will never be expecting you to blow them up during push! Quote: Heroes that benefit from Rubick: Gankers: You help them gank, ensuring kills, allowing carries to farm up. Hardcore carries: You gank enemies, let them farm safely, and buying them time to farm up. If laning with them, you harass opponents with Bolts, helping them a lot by controling lane. Quote: Counters to Rubick: Doom: Counter to every hero in game with his ultimate. He will doom you, and you can just pray that he wont cast any spell in the next 14 seconds so you can steal it. How to counter: To counter him, stay out of range, and let someone else get doomed, steal spell, and doom the most important enemy: 1. Mega Disablers (Atropos, Earth Shaker, Lion,...) 2. Disablers (Vengeful Spirit, Lina,...) 3. Carries (ones who rely on non-passive spells) 4. Others If you are playing 1v1 with him, you must win lane with supreme harassing. Get hood fast, and try to finish game before he farms up. Magina: This is probably your worst counter... You can steal blink, but wherever you blink, he blinks next to you. You can steal his ultimate, but he doesnt waste a lot of mana (blinking lol?). Even if you use spells against him, you cant harm him. Alone, you are food... How to counter: Get Guinsoo, disable him and let carry do the job. Veil of Discord can help by reducing his Magic armor for few seconds. If you are going 1v1, then you have no chances, because you can never win dps fight with him, and spells dont work! Invoker: You steal one of his spells. He has 9 more. Guess who wins... How to counter: For this battle, you need to learn to play Invoker extremely good. You will know when he is about to cast what, thus evading those moves. However, if he heads DPS way, a humble ganker and support like you stands no chance. Guinsoo at the best, and let carry finish job. Balanar: You steal Darknes, cast it, and Bala is strong again? Wut? Really annoying opponent... He also belongs to silencer group who counter this hero. Silencers make you useless. Hopefully you can steal global silence or something, and turn it back at them. Their spells are close to useless on you, give you nothing you need, so they are counters as well. One on one, they will basically rape you. As for items that counter you: Good to have, but awful on enemies. Three seconds of pure whacking is enough to kill you with your miserable health. Once someone silences you, you are a creep that can use items. Avatar is awful counter to you, like to any other support. Pipe is counter to every AoE spell damage hero, you arent exeption.

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Specific hero synergies / Combos Rubick can work well with many heroes. Actually, he situationaly works well with ALL heroes. But asside from hero types (gankers, carries etc), i will list some of bettert synergies. Kunkka - You can telekenesis enemies onto his Torrent and Ship, ensuring they hit. In laning phase, two of you work extremely well with imbalanced harassment (tidebringer, bolt). Let him take kills, he can carry well later on. Earth Shaker - whats so great about this is that you can telekenesis people over his fisures. That means you can kill enemies even if they blinked over fissure. Also with his great AoE and perma-stun, your AoE and imba stolen spell, you two are great allies! Tiny - Toss and telekenesis is great combo. Since toss is situational, and its hard to pick target, Rubick does that for you! He separates enemy from creeps, allowing you to toss them back at allies / tower for early kills (before tiny gets dagger). Juggernaunt - Spin + telekenesis does wonders. Ensures FB better than lets say... veno. It gives Jugger a few extra seconds for damage. Most of time, jugger is imune to spells (ulti, spin) but he is exposed to physical DPS. Oh wait... your bolt reduces enemy damage! Mirana - Telekenesis makes her arrow a whole lot easier to aim! Also her starfall + bolt wipes out creeps fast, giving Mirana farm she needs, and pushing nicely. Ezalor - This combo is deadly early game. He channels Illuminate, you telekenesis them at it, and afterwards bolt. Kills weaker enemies outright. Half a minute later, both of you have full mana to repeat it thanks to Chakra magic! Rhasta - Nice thing here is that you can Telekenesis enemies on some spot, then Rhasta ulties it the same moment enemy falls down. Ensures 100% trap without Eul. You both have great harassing tools, and if enemies try to run away, they fail due to the telekenesis + shackles + hex (repeat) perma disable. Pudge - Telekenesis makes Hook 100% chance to hit. Afterwards enemy has no chance - he cant run away with Rot slow, he cant fight with telekenesis damage reduction, he cant do either of these because of dismember. This ganking couple is maybe the worst nightmare of all squishy heroes. Even blinky Magina gets easily owned. Terrorblade - Awesome DPS, but problem is, enemies usually run away thus he can't show his true power (even with reflection slow). Rubick fixes that. Three seconds of pure whacking is a surely dead opponent. ( with Aghanim) Meepo attack squad - Poof has casting time, so un-enshared enemies can run away. Fixed. Just telekenessis enemy onto poofing grounds. Bane Elemental - With enfeble + bolt, enemy TOTAL damage is negative 0.o. Also, imba dissablind with sleep-telekenesis-fiends grip-sleep-telekenesis. Invoker - Two heroes with insane amount of spells work awesome together. A lot of his spells require placements that you acheive trough telekenesis, your AoE damage, complied with his is amazing, your null field protects him from magic that can quickly take him out, your spell steal just mind fucks enemies. They just don't know what to expect. A meteor? A rupture? A sunstrike? An Ice blast? Goblin Techies - Ensured FB with telekenesis-em-onto-my-mines combo, ensured ownage with telekenesis-em-onto-my-omgwtfggwp1337barelsofdoom combo, and he certainly works awesome with stun-em-so-i-can-get-a-statis-in combo. Lets not mention telekenesis-em-onto-my-boom-boom-spell combo. With this guy, you just can't fail. He will feed you with exp and gold like Santa Claus! Well that would be it. These are heroes that work out best with Rubick, but as i said, he works well with ALL heroes, since his spell amount is almost unlimited. Telekenesis has big role in this, because it is the ONLY reliable place changing spell. I mean - dark seer can change place of enemy, but it also afects creeps, making some spells hard to aim (mines, arrows, hooks...). Venge can swap them, but she can die in proces, and needs at least level 11 to be trully efective. That isn't reliable. Telekenesis on the other hand is perfectly safe level 1 spell.