~Ehero's guide to Rubick~

Thanks, I love playing Rubick and I decided to share my playstyle.

It's taking a lot longer than I expected due to the fact that I had midterms soon after I intended to finish and I'm having a lot less free-time in class to type up the guide than I did before. However, I promise it will be done sooner or later... ^_^'
I won't be making any promises in terms of a date this time because I hate to disappoint.

nice rubick guide helps get some new rubick players in a good spot and also help some rubick normal players get higher +1 from Me looking forward to see the guide get completed keep it up

As I mentioned in the guide, Rubick in general is a situational hero and isn't the kind of hero who can be thrown into any game and be expected to do well.

I plan to put in a section as to which heroes you do/don't want to face up against and why, but I haven't put any details in place yet.

As for AC and BM, I put them in Situational items, not typical items you will regularly get (or at least I intended to, new to guide-writing so the sectioning/grouping may be off)
The main reason I would even remotely suggest AC/BM to any Rubick player is if you're paired up against a team that tends to want to pound your face in regardless of the circumstances.
So, extra armor +/- will help your team save you and you save yourself, and Blademail will help you fight back against that pesky right-clicker who keeps trying to poke you, and Blademail isn't as expensive as AC, whilst giving you needed Armor (Rubick is squishy, derp.) and a decent enough Int gain to give you some kind of breathing room for casting.
Typically I go for Force Staff, Arcane Boots, and normal support items like wards and courier and upgrade- but that's a pretty generic thing for a support to do, it's transitioning into the mid-late game where your item choices become prevalent (unless your team gets a shizzton of kills early and you can afford whatever your heart desires) and can often make/break you.

If you can't really get a substantial amount of gold and you're getting hit alot, an inexpensive Urn of Shadows or Blademail, or you can save up your gold and hit up a Assault Cuirass or Ghost Scepter (imo, Ghost Scepter > AC, but I don't like to say you have to go this or build that and right-click-to-win, because that's not how the game works XD)

If you get the gold for it then I would suggest a Aghs, but honestly it's a lot of money to pool together for one item and because you're a support, farming is not quite your role.
Often it can be tricky, but where's there's a will, there's a way.

Rubick is my best hero, this is a nice guide, but have to disagree with some of these comments.

Rubick can mid, very effectively, the Aghanim's Scepter buff giving it a 5 second cooldowns and massive range has made him more viable and have the ability to grab those spells at late game whilst being out of the way of getting jumped on. But it has to be against certain lineups and it isn't a good idea for beginners to the hero as you must make the most of your ultimate to make it work.

The issues with Rubick mid is that: 1) He is squishy
2) He lacks enough damage to be successful in ganks

1) This is a great problem. You will have to solve this by positioning mostly, but choosing the right item to counter the enemy is a great thing, such as a Eul's Scepter of Divinity to avoid projectile stuns, or a Force Staff to avoid those delayed stuns.

2) This is one of the trickier things to solve, as you don't want to have to put damage items on Rubick as that is just stupid! Rubick has good int gain, and as you are mid you will have a bottle. This means you don't have as many mana issues so Arcane Boots aren't essential. Phase Boots are actually a nice choice for him mid, it gives him that extra speed boost to kite his enemy, chase them down, and get that extra bit of damage.

Another issue is that you can pick another hero that is better for quite a lot of the time. Against enemy ganking lineups, he is useless, he is just too squishy and they are too good at getting up close and smashing your face in. He excels against teamfight enemies, rather obviously due to his ultimate :p

It isn't easy to pull off, so if you're trying him out for the first few times I wouldn't recommend it. But if you're experienced with him it can work very well, just don't go against Lifestealer of Juggernaut!!!


Back to the guide, Assault Cuirass and Blademail, you really think they suit Rubick?

Ahh...yeah...just checked and you do ._l.

Oh well, Use some other Spell then steal Black Hole ftw <}3

After noting the changes (I wasn't made aware of it), I agree it is well worth it, however, don't you have to steal a different spell first before cooldowns are refreshed?

I mean 10 second CD is still helluva lot better than a large one, but I think I understand how the ult works for the most part :S
lol

This is the old Spell Steal, now you need an Aghanim's Scepter to get the upgraded version, that alone isn't worth too much unless you're against Heroes with good upgrades, e.g. Gyrocopter, Luna, Earthshaker, etc. but a 5 second Cooldown is pretty powerful. You don't always have to steal an Ultimate, and with long Disables ( Sacred Arrow, Fiend's Grip, Song of the Siren, etc.), it becomes possible to Steal an Ulti and use it twice in one go. Also don't forget, when you steal a Spell, it's ready, off of Cooldown

Imagine that an Enigma uses Black Hole on your Team, suddenly, your Naga goes in and Interrupts with Song of the Siren, meanwhile you steal Black Hole. Once the Song is done you use Black Hole on Enigma and some other Heroes but keep Enigma just barely alive, immediately after it ends, you steal Black Hole again and finish Enigma off. You just used Black Hole, but can use it again as though you had just used a Refresher Orb.

There's quite a lot of possibilities with Aghanim's Scepter

I don't like Aghs, too much money, and the listed items, I think, are better. That, and if you spellsteal from someone who DOES have aghs, you get the Agh's level spell (so I've heard, never done it myself personally).
The cooldown isn't that long, and typically you only need the couple of spells (given you don't screw up and pick up rot/etc).

However, I will go ahead and list it as a situational item. Getting Agh's is relying on the enemy team not picking up Aghs and you being able to pick up their ultimates almost regularly.
And late-game, overall, you want two things on Rubick: Survivability, and mana. You take those, the rest of the game is ALL about how you use Telekinesis/Spellsteal. I simply listed some items you CAN pick up, I've never picked up AC on Rubick either, but the +/- armor would work well enough, since Rubick is a teamfight oriented hero.

Playing Rubick mid is extremely fun early to mid game. You get squashed late game unfortunately.

Pretty normal build, good guide so far. I also do agree that Aghs Scepter should be added into the late game items. Regarding your situational items, I've personally never seen a Rubick carrying an AC. Would love to see one though :P

I really think aghanims should be in the super late game item pickups as it is AMAZING for rubick, i mean you can steal like 3 or 4 spells in a fight and thats amazing.

I agree with you there but imo you should mention that Rubick is like a last resort mid hero because there is almost always a better option.
And spell steal is amazing because who doesn't like a convenient Pudge hook?

thanks, I was wondering how people did it- had high hopes I'd get the answer out of sheer luck.

I'm doing this mostly as something to keep me busy during college classes, so I'll have another update by, at the latest, Tuesday. Hoping to be finished next Thursday, but I'm really lazy so idk.

and Rubick is a pretty viable mid, having a nuke and a disable handy, and his disable being able to manually alter positioning (unlike any other spell in the game, closest thing to it is really Force Staff/Glimpse).

I PERSONALLY don't like playing Rubick mid, as his squishyness tends to muck things up if he's caught out or silenced/stun locked, and albeit Rubick transitions extremely well into the late-game, I feel he is more a utility spellcaster rather than the nuker that he is early-mid game with Fade Bolt, and the damage reduction kinda falls off (situational, given that if you steal some really sick spells and combine them with great items like Orchid, you can become extremely effective).

My favorite position for him is safe lane babysitter, because that's what he does best- nuking mid game, feeding carries by chucking heroes to them, and chucking chasing heroes away from weakened carries. Spellsteal is hands-down the best and worst spell in the game- it leaves so much room for utility, but a lot of room for error. If you don't steal the perfect spell at the perfect time (if there wasn't a good spell to steal you wouldn't be playing Rubick), your squishyness will get the best of you and enemy heroes LOVE bashing down an out-of-position Rubick (sometimes they don't even wait for you to be out of position, hence my placing Ghost Scepter as a situational item.)