Rubick: What am I missing here?

So I've recently started to play more and more of Rubick. He's grown quite a bit on me, and he's now my most used hero. But ever since I play him, I always feel that he is a bit lacking without that stolen spell.

* Poor stat growth. Tied with the Ogre Magi at 2.4 Int / level (so much for *Grand* Magus...), this certainly does not help with his mana-intensive spells, his own or stolen. Poor Str growth also make him very fragile (then again, this is the case with most caster heroes); I tried buying Bracer, but it seemed to help only marginally and as Support, buying tank items isn't always feasible.

* Telekinesis. 2.25 sec stun at max level, but deals no damage. I won't say Telekinesis is a bad disable; the fact that it instantly hits the target is something that should never be underestimated. Some says it's incredibly OP since it can potentially stun the entire enemy team, but the keyword here is 'potentially'. It takes 2.25 second for the lifted unit to drop, but often you need that aoe stun NOW. Its 625 cast range means you have to be close to the brawl to use it, exposing yourself further. That it deals no damage and recent nerf to it cooldown also hurt it further somewhat in my eyes.

* Fade Bolt. Again, some says 'the best nuke in the game'. 210 damage (assuming standard Hero magic res), infinite chaining with 4% reduction, -32 attack damage, instantly hits, at a 10 second cooldown. Feels a bit underwhelming for a 'nuke' for me; the damage feels perfunctory, and the damage reduction loses effectiveness mid-game. Still, I suppose this is a perfect pushing spell, as it ensures your creep wave to win against theirs.

* Null Field. Magic Resistance aura, and that's it. Plain. Boring, but practical. Yes, I admit it has saved me and my teammates' lives more than once. Doesn't change the fact that it's a bland skill.

* Spellsteal. Now this does not feel so underwhelming. The 16 second cooldown kinda make me sad (especially since his background implied he's capable at faster speed), but that can be rectified by proper timing. The recent Aghanim buff sounds great in theory, but since Rubick is mostly played as support, it's not always feasible to get one.


Overall, I feel Rubick to be a lame (like, literally, he's missing one skill) hero. In a game where each hero has a distinct playstyle, he is a jack of all trades if he has no spell stolen. On the other hand, with a stolen spell, he can be anything. So my questions:

1. Survivability issue. What should I do to make myself die less in team brawls? Buying Bracer seemed to help only until midgame, and hanging a bit too far back means I can't contribute all that much in a brawl.

2. Spell usage. Telekinesis is mighty good for ganking, but what about team brawls? Interrupting channeled spells aside, should I use it to initiate, or to stop them from escaping? What about Fade Bolt, nuke early in brawl to reduce their damage and everytime it's off cooldown?

3. When to Spellsteal? As I mentioned earlier, Rubick feels like a lame hero without that extra spell, so in a team brawl, should I steal a spell asap to fill the gap, or should I wait for the bigger initiation spell? For instance, I might be able to steal Lion/Nyx's linear stun (and they are GREAT disables in the first place), but if I know Omni's Guardian Angel or Earthshaker's Echo Slam is due, should I wait for these ults instead?

1. Get a bracer. Asap. I usually build it as a 1st item on rubick after bottle(tend to pick/random him the most). Always stay in the fight but dont overextend. If the situation calls for it even tank up a few hits(keep in mind you will still be squishy). Learn when to keep distance. After midgame you should be snowballing anyways. Most of my rubick games end up stomping at 35 min mark.

2. Tele-Use it to initiate or set up an initiation(split earth). If you think you are being baited try and hold on to it. In teamfights target the most damage dealing guy or the baddest disabler.
Fadebolt-Start spamming it in all teamfights.

3. Spell Steal- Always keep a spell stolen. Use your stolen disable and/or nuke and then steal the most logical option.
Dont steal Guardian Angel when facing mostly casters. Try going for Repel rather or Purification. If in a teamfight rather steal nyx's stun than mana burn as it is an aoe spell.

Hey man, I'm also a big fan of Rubick. I don't know about you, but I play him babysit support, partially because that's my favorite role and partially because I'm put in that role by my friends a lot. In this case, look at what you have. You can get a good first blood with tele, a good harass that also lowers creep health to assist your carry in farming, and an aura that helps him shrug off harass. This makes him a powerful ally for, say, a faceless void earlygame, and then by the time your skills become obsolete you can be become what you want. I often will locate the most valuable support skills and go for that one, like a heal buff etc, but you can also go for initiations, escapes, many things can help your team. The thing about a support is that you need to be the best for the team, and many times that means being alive, being in the right lane, being with your ally, so many different types of skills will work. So let's take a look at your concerns.

1. Earlygame, Fade Bolt lowers the attack of enemies while shaving off their health. If being pursued for an early on gank, this can scare them off (assuming you are not with your carry). If this does not, and there's only one, tele can help you. This makes him more gank-proof the the majority of supports in his little niche. You will always be squishy and probably focused, but no more so then if you were playing a different support like CM. It's balanced, it's fair, and sometimes it's better for the team. Bracer is a good item, I pick it up, because once it becomes useless at the teamfight phase it can be used for drum, which leads me to 2.

2. Rubick's usefulness in team fights is high. If you can fade bolt, use tele on powerful people to delay their nukes (Lion and Lina ult, Skywrath, etc) even that small time they are out of the fight can help. Plus, your aura helps a lot. So it's okay to stay near the edge if your spells are on cd or if it's not safe for you. But I see your concern, and to remedy I usually pick up aura items like drum, Mek, maybe even Vlad's, and other support items like urn and medallion (most of those are situational picks remember, but drum mek and urn are my most common choices) to contribute and help without having to get it into nitty gritty. Because you're right, a lot of supports have big aoe spells that help more then Rubick, like Treant, Lina, CM, Lion, lots and lots of them. So fix that with the item build! SO: overall with the two actives, I would say initiate with them both, then spam Fade but save tele to help allies who need to stop taking damage or get away, to push back escaping heroes, etc. because tele is a very flexible spell and should be used that way.

3. Spell steal (not sure if you are aware) got buffed in the newest update, with agh's. Normally it's a pretty bad pickup unless they have good ults that are good with agh's but at the same time are not usually pickups. Now, you only the upgrade if you have aghanim's but it also makes the cooldown FIVE and the range FOUR HUNDRED HIGHER. So I would always recommend getting spell steal. With a good mana pool, you can potentially steal every spell they use and use it back, including stuns, aoe, etc. etc. etc., so you can take their initate spell, then take their nuke, and before you know it you won.

Now let's say you don't have agh's. Obviously it's a late mid game pickup so you'll face the majority of teamfights without it. It has 20/18/16 cooldown, so you can take about 2 or 3 spells in a teamfight still. This means, you could very possibly take a stun then a nuke, which I would advice. An initiation is great but I usually find it more useful to take a nuke, because your team probably has an initator (if not then go wild) but you can never EVER have too many nukes. Use spell steal when it is off CD always (unless there is no better spell but that's probably not true given that most good spells have long cool downs).

So I hope I helped, I don't talk on here much but I'm crazy about support rubick and despite the fact that a lot of people probably replied before me while I was typing this I hope I help you as well c:

Rubick is indeed fairly squishy and to me one of the heroes in most need of good positioning, a bracer helps but it doesn't save you if they lock you down, I consider Force Staff core and blink if you pick him for that RP / Ravage / Black Hole steal. Urn gives you a decent chunk of health and is great if you plan to use him more as a ganker, drums are always great however it's hard to pinpoint what to buy outside of a game, I'm sure you can make out what fits what situation, if not it just takes time and practice :-)
Telekinesis is indeed a fairly mediocre disable however to me it's the relocation that's great, it sets up things like Split Earth or can put people on the wrong (right?) side of a fissure.
Fade Bolt is an unimpressive nuke to begin with and at that point you have NO mana to spam it with, unless you're mid and go for the bottle. To me its prime is at lvl 5-6-7 as at 6 you can combo it with stolen spells and fairly easily get kills.
Null Field could be a reason you pick rubick, if they run a lot of high magical nukes like lina / lion / invoker / skywrath you help your team like crazy and even better is it stacks with hood and pipe!
Spell Steal can be used a lot of ways, usually you pick rubick to steal that game-turning ultimate like black hole, ravage and reverse polarity however lesser spells shouldn't be frowned upon either, if you can get off a storm hammer, telekinesis, fade bolt and another spell in a teamfight, you've done a lot. Adjusting playstyle to the role you intend to fill is absolutely necessary, sit back and keep those eyes peeled for the ulti OR spam those spells!
(omg it's beginning to look a lot like yet another wall of text, sorry!)
Now about the aghs, I've tried several builds where I rushed for it and it just doesn't work out. [Brown Boots -> Urn -> Aghs -> Eul's -> Luxury] was the most effective I came up with however unless you get those early kills and snowball you end up with low mobility, low mana regen and as a result end up being squishy and fairly useless :( As an end-game item it's definitely useful if you somehow get the farm!
Hope you learned something from some of us, don't give up on Rubick, he's so much fun <3

Im just gonna say one thing, if no one has one, build an urn, NOT A BRACER!

Rubick is :
- A great baby-sitter. Even at level one, Telekinesis can fairly easily save your carry. With this, he needs little items to be effective, so he can simply soak up exp in the lane or farm on the pulls.
- A great initiatior, especially with a Force Staff or a Blink Dagger. The delay on Telekineses allows for you to jump forward, lift a straggler, and have your team run in for a great initiation.

Fade Bolt is super useful because it has an instant cast, and has a deceptively long range. Obviously it is the most useful early game, as the damage and attack decrease falls off as the game progresses.

Urn is a situational item. If you are the roaming support (not babysitter), its a great pickup, but when in lane, Bracer into Drums is sometimes better if nobody else is building it.

Force Staff is absolutely core on Rubick. It gives him utility in so many levels.

About Spell Steal. I find that stealing in teamfights is usually more effective. Going for disables is always the best. Take note that when your opponent has a large initiating ultimate, its a good idea to stay back when your team is pushing or defending, so that you can steal that ultimate when its thrown without being caught in it. ( Black Hole, Reverse Polarity, Ravage.

This is what I do. When a teamfight begins unexpectedly, and you have no spell, steal from the most likely target for a disable (like AoE stuns from Nyx, Lion, Leshrac, etc). Almost always you will have the opportunity to steal another one before the end, allowing you to choose which one will be the most useful.
If you have a spell, use it after initiation from either team, then steal another one, use that one, and you might even get one more for some Invoker-esque fun. :D

tl;dr
Yes, Rubick is squishy, but he's one of those heroes that with one core (Force Staff, Blink Dagger) he can escape fairly easily. He does die often, but usually you can get all your spells off and have one stolen disable on the enemy before you do. This sadly happens with a lot of the small supports, like CM, Lina, etc. Always remember that Rubick has no cast time animation. So all spells cast instantly. Remember this when stealing from Leshrac, ES, Lina, etc.

Sorry for yet another wall.

Simply, Rubick has a poor stat gain (including the mana) and little to no single target damage because his Spell Steal is one of the best skills in the game: if he was as durable as Jakiro or had as much mana as Skywrath Mage he would seriously be overpowered. His lack of an escape mechanism isn't a problem as soon as you can get a Blink Dagger that also works as an initiation tool (be careful not to get hit, though).


Bottle Rubick? What is this, TI2? :D Now seriously, playing him mid is a waste even after the Agh's buff: you can go Magic Wand into Arcane Boots and Blink Dagger in ~25 minutes and be a real threat when stealing the right spells and with the correct positioning; many other Heroes overclass him as a mid and give more early advantage.

Greetings all. Not intending to necro this thread (although that's what I'm practically doing right now), but I figured I'd continue this discussion from before.

So I've been playing Rubick most of the time since the last time I made this post (to the point my friend said 'Damn you crazy guy, are you not bored with Rubick?'). I've gotten better with him and gained even more appreciation about his skills. But still, that raise some more questions...

1. Telekinesis. I've been using this to drop people on ledges because I'm such a douche towards my enemies (but then again, if my enemies got that close to a ledge while facing Rubick, they kinda had it coming). But my question is, what's the best time to use Telekinesis? Especially in teamfights, with its 22-second cooldown, you want to make it count. Initiate? Or lock down their carry? Or interrupt their big channeled spell? Or to catch their Initiator and steal their spell? (I'm looking at you, Magnus)

2. Again, Spell Steal. 16 second cooldown makes timing and stealing the right spell ridiculously crucial, to the point it can make or break a teamfight. That said, its cooldown is also its biggest weakness (unless you have Agh; see point #3). In most of my experience, teamfights rarely last more than 15 seconds, so the most I usually can pull off is Fade Bolt - cast a previously-stolen spell (if I had any) - Telekinesis - Spell Steal an initiation spell and cast it - Fade Bolt / Autoattack. Even the Fade Bolt itself won't be as spammable, given its 10 second cooldown and 150 mana cost. What do you think of this?

3. Item choice. I've gotten pretty used at surviving with minimum items (as all Supports are). My core build consist of Wand, Urn, Arc Boots, TP and Wards. My last choice is either Dagger/ Force Staff or Aghanim. Dagger and Force Staff allows Rubick to blink and catch an enemy with practically 100% success rate, but post 6.79 Aghanim allows Rubick to remain active during teamfights (thus nullifying point #2, and increasing his utility by that much). What is your suggestion, and can Aghanim be considered core item for Rubick post 6.79?

Probably you're right. And also wanna say this is not the 6.72 Rubick semi-carry hero. They changed him, as well as Fade Bolt damage was reduced from 75/150/225/300 to 70/140/210/280

I find it best to go Bracer->Mana Boots->Force Staff, as it gives him necessary stats, mana, and the utility he needs to survive, save, and function within the fights and game in general.

Generally late-game I like to go items like Euls or if I'm bossing around the game and evading deaths like crazy, (I find it acceptable) I like to go Bloodstone, however that is RARELY picked up as it requires veeery deep pockets- requiring a large pool of money on top of throwing money into wards/courier(/upgrade).

In most cases, however, you will be delegated to babysitter. I rarely pick up Blink just because it takes a lot of time to pool the money for it, but it is a great item and useful in a lot of circumstances.
I always personally vouch for the Force Staff over the Blink because the Force is usually an almost guaranteed escape if you're playing it correctly.

Oh, and you can use the spell you stole while stealing another one (Spellsteal's animation seems to be based on the distance, but there is still a small gap in time in which you can use the spell you previously stole)