All You Uchiha Fans Out There...

Introduction

Hello, welcome to my guide to Rubick. This is my second guide, my first one is this guide to AA.

Rubick is a multi-purpose support hero. He can be played as a solo mid or a babysitter, much like Shadow Shaman and Windrunner. For this purpose, I will write about each way to play him.

Here is a handy link to his skills and stats

Just looking at his first 3 spells, he already seems flexible. He has both a stun and a nuke, so he is capable of ganking.His fade bolt is a great nuke for counter-pushing, not just because of the damage but also because of the enfeeble. Telekinesis is one of the most versatile spells in the game on it's own and it can fill any role you need it to.

When to pick

Pick Rubick when

Any time the requirements of the list below are met

Do not pick Rubick when

-They have high burst damage
-They have many a-click carries
-Rubick is overshadowed by another hero when it comes to a certain role
(EX: Rhasta instead of Rubick for pushing)
-Their line-up consists of silences/orchid buyers
-Their line-up consists of BKB buyers
-You already have many level-dependent heroes
-You are on fifth pick and need a carry

The ones in red are often forgotten and you end up picking Rubick at the wrong time.

Also

Try to pick Rubick when the other team has 3 of these heroes:

For their big teamfight ults

As well as

Because all their spells are useful to Rubick.

Note: Lina, Lion, and Nerubian Assassin are not included on this list because even though all their spells are great for Rubick (besides Spiked Carapace), but those 3 can easily burst Rubick down.

Also, seek out these heroes for the lulz.

But, don't pick Rubick if the enemy has too many of these heroes because Rubick doesn't benefit at all from them.

Learn to love him

If ever, IF EVER YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON THAT MORPH, use it and morph everything to STR. Then wait for Morph to expire or get a new spell and sit on that 2k hp for the rest of the game.

Skills

Here is the skill's page again

Telekinesis

Telekinesis (Imma call it tele now) is a very curious stun. It lifts the target into the air and you can throw him somewhere 325 units away. The stun duration is actually insane, but the damage is also insanely terribad. No kidding, the damage it deals is 0.

Uses

-Just for a stun...to help..a gank...?
-Initiate a fight by throwing someone towards your team
-Escape by throwing someone away
-Throw someone onto impassable terrain :)
-Cancel tp/other channel spells
-Pick someone up to stop him from casting a spell so you can steal the one he just used

Fade Bolt

Fade Bolt is a nuke just like Zeus's Arc Lightning. At early levels, manacost is fairly high and so is cd. The damage is average. The great part about this spell is the enfeeble. In an early game teamfight, the damage reduction is pretty nice.

The uses is straightforward. It's a nuke that enfeebles. Not the different that all other nukes.

Note: the bounces won't hit units covered up by fog. So wait till u see the whole creep wave before you use it.

Null Field

Really, nothing much to say about this spell. Gives your whole team a Hood of Defiance. It's a passive, nothing much to say.

Spell Steal

Play Video
Rubick's bread-and-butter, cheese of the sandwich, whatever you ant to call it, it's what defines this hero. In a teamfight, the first thing you do is you select THE SINGLE SPELL THAT YOU WANT. Then you wait. As soon as you see that spell cast, immediately cast Spell Steal.

What comes next is really situational. To understand what to do, you have to know how to use the spell you just stole. Then use it accordingly.

Items

I divided all the items into tiers.

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier 6

All the items that I believe are viable on Rubick are classed in groups 1-5. Some items are not in the item builds because I don't recommend them. They work, just not the best. The tiers 1 through 5 are classified by item price/power whatever you call it. Tier 1 is the weakest/cheapest while tier 5 is the strongest/expensive. Tier 6 is the tier of situational items. For example, the enemy line-up is Enigma, Sand King, Puck, Queen of Pain, and Void. Of course you go. Even though you won't always have Black Hole/Epicenter/Dream Coil/Sonic Wave/Chronosphese, you should still have it in case you ever do get one of them.

My Opinion on Soul Ring

I don't like Soul Ring. It gives you massive mana (great since you're low on it), but you have little hp as well. I think of Soul Ring as an iten for manaa-dependent Strength heroes like Shaker and Sven. Get it if you feel safe running on low hp. I rather invest into Perseverance.

WTF???!!!!11111!!one! SANGE????????????????????/////

Yes. Sange. Why, you might ask. Simply because Rubick is ranged. In terms of sheer hp, it gives more than a Vanguard (304 to Vanguard's 250). Sure, Vanguard has A NERFED damage block and some very nice hp regen, but Sange offers 10 damage (not bad actually) and a decent maim. Not to mention, it is upgradable into Heaven's Halberd, a very good late game item. It counters carries pretty well, not only with disarm but also with evasion. But anyway, Vanguard is the more defensive item with a nerfed damage block and some nice regen, while Sange is the better offensive-survivability tool since it gives a load of hp as well as damage and maim. But since Rubick is an aggressive ganking hero, you should get Sange over Vanguard.

Farming Utility

Pros and Cons

Pros

-Early items to fuel your ganking
-Great candidate for mekansm
-Doesn't scale terribly into late game (nice stun enfeeble, null field)
-Great mid-laner
-Controls runes fairly well thanks to nice creep-clearing
-Many items go great with him

Cons

-Requires quite a bit of levels to gank efficiently
-Needs items to scale into the late
-DPS build no viable (unlike common mid heroes such as Windrunner, Invoker)
-Out-leveling other heroes doesn't have as much of an impact as an Invoker out-leveling, etc simply because his ult steals the spells and it's level. So if you steal Tidehunter's Gush and he's still level 5 with lvl 3 gush, you'll get a lvl 3 gush, not 4.

Skills

You want to go Bolt first as it will help you rune-wh0re and farm. The rest of the skill build is fairly obvious. Note: Taking stats instead of Null Field is viable, I just rather give my whole team survivability.

Items

As the farmer, I recommend you skip Tier 1 completely (referring back to my 6 tiers) and get at most 2 items from tier 2. In Tier 3, go for phase boots if you can. The extra mobility is really necessary. Let your supports get the Arcane Boots for you. If you got a Bracer from Tier2, upgrade to Drums.

If you're mid-laning,always get the bottle. I'm sure you guys know how to use it.

If there are many teamfight, I tend to always get Perseverance. It's really good if you're planning for a Tier 5 Bloodstone/Linkin Sphere. Another option is to disassemble the Perseverance and go into hex. I usually get the Hex with it. Thing is, Rubick is so mana hungry. In a teamfight, you want to stay back and cast spells. You're gonna want that hp/mp regen so you can back out, heal, go back in. I put it as core, but that's just my point of view. If you're really good at controlling hp/ mana, skip it.

Or, if you feel like the hp regen is wasted, you can go for Eul. Eul gives a disable, nice mana regen, and mmost forgotten, nice ms bonus. It's nice if you need mana regen as well as an additional disable.

Get at most 2 items in the Tier 4 or you can even skip it completely. After I get a couple of Tier 5s, I tend to go back to the Tier 4 and purchase Boots of Travel. My recommended build is at the top of the guide.

In my recommended build, the starting items option 1 says 1 set of tangoes and 3 branches. The point of that build is to rush a bottle. If you're good at last hitting, you can get up that bottle really fast. If you do, you will out-regen the opponent so then you can harass so much better.

Remember to always have a tp scroll.

Play

This will help your game.

Early game, just farm until you hit your first Tier 3 item. Then go gank. Your first gank target is the one with the biggest prize for your ult. Grab your prize and go find that nasty Morphling/Dusa. Remember to turn every gank into pressure on a tower. When you finish up building your Tier 4s, I recommend Roshan---> Push rax. You can't go late.

In a teamfight, stay you have to be in the middle. Yes, don't ***** out. As a farming utility that is most likely playing the 2 or 3 role on team, the others are sacrificing gold for you. Use those items and go tank for your supports. Phase Boots as well as Force Staff/Euls allows you to move around your enemies really easily. Use your mobility and grab stuns and try to create a distraction for your 1 and 2 roles as well as pulling the enemies away from your 4 and 5 roles.

Support

Pros and Cons

Pros

-Item independent for the most part of early-mid game
-Getting cheap Tier 2 items already gives a huge boost
-Good survivability compared to other supports
-Being under-leveled isn't that bad (compared to Veno, Sand King,Leshrac,etc)
-Can keep the carry alive very well
-600 range harass

Cons

-Only 1 nuke
-Even though under-leveled isn't horrible, you still want those levels
-Very mana-hungry if you can't farm Arcane Boots
-A-click harass damage is fairly low

Skills

Since you're not farming, get Tele first as it will help you set up ganks and keep your carry safe. In this build, always go Null Field over stats as it doesn't matter if you keep yourself alive, you need to keep the carry alive.

Items

You're gonna be pretty poor. Focus on getting all the Tier 1 items as well as tp scrolls. If you have money left over, I actually recommend rushing Arcane Boots and then going back to Tier 2 items because you are so mana hungry.

If you're unable to get money off ganks or just dieing too much and you can't reach that Arcane, go for a few Nulls or Bracers. Go Bracers if you are simply aiming to go straight into Arcane after the Bracers. The reason is because the Bracers will keep you alive better than the Nulls and so you will die and lose gold less often. The Bracers won't do much besides keeping you alive though. But if you feel that Arcane is still far and you want immediate impact, go Nulls. The extra mana is nice. Not only that, you get decent right-click damage from them. Not to mention that is also bumps your hp a little. If I'm having trouble reaching Arcane, I'd usually go double-Nulls unless I'm really having trouble staying alive.

I would get 3-4 Tier 2 items and then upgrading what I can into Tier 3
(Bracer

---

>Drums, etc). If you ever manage to get a Tier 5 item, you're doing it wrong. You shouldn't have that much farm, it should of went to the carry. My recommended build is at the top.

Play

Must read for all support players

The goal for a support is straightforward. Keep your carry alive and stacked, keep your opposing carry dead and poor. Don't be afraid to suicide to get your carry a kill, or to save him. Buy wards to scout out ganks. Don't forget to get Sentries as well to counter the Smoke of Deceits. And don't forget to buy Smoke of Deceit yourself to gank their carry.

In the laning stage, harass as much as you can. Stand in between their range creep and the opposing hero and a-click. Push him further away from the creeps as possible. If he is pushed away and you feel he won't be coming back, go stack pull creeps. Here is this link again.

After the laning stage is over, try to always be near your carry. The one notable exception is when you are ganking the opposing carry. Just never be alone, even when you're off warding. You shouldn't be in a lane farming at any time. If your carry in farming the bottom lane as Radiant, sure, go ahead and farm jungle. But be ready to support him at all times and if he comes to jungle, you better leave.

Replays

If anybody has some good replays of Rubick (must be pro games, dota1 or dota 2), please send them in. In the meantime, I'll update my own list as I find replays. The replays are either epic Rubick games or epic games with a Rubick in it.

Note that win/loss doesn't matter, the replays are about the quality of the Rubick player.

MINESKI VS ORANGE GEST May
mouz vs iG Beyond the Summet World Tour
LGD vs iG Beyond the Summet World Tour

Credits

I'd like to thank Lycan cause I borrowed his guides without his consent (lol).
I'd like to thank IceFrog for being awesome.
I'd like to thank Luminous and DotaCommentaries.com for being awesome.
I'd like to thank everyone who helps me make my guide better.
I'd like to thank Alan (gamingholddota2) for using his vid on Rubick. Like and Subscribe!

Changelog

08/02/2012 Updated Farming Utility build

06/27/2012 Third update (Null talisman, Bracer in depth)

06/25/2012 Second update (Eul, Sange)

06/23/2012 First update (perseverance, soul ring discussions)

06/14/2012 First comment

06/11/2012 Started writing the guide