Rubick

Rubick

The Radiant

19 + 1.5 14 + 1.6 27 + 2.4

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 511 967 1575 Mana 351 845 1352 Damage 44-54 82-92 121-131 Armor 0.96 4.6 9.08 Attacks / Second 0.67 0.82 1.01

Movement Speed 290 Turn Rate 0.5 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range 600 Missile Speed 1125 Attack Duration 0.4+0.77 Cast Duration 0.1+1.17 Base Attack Time 1.7

Rubick the Grand Magus is the ranged Intelligence hero best known for his ability to copy the spells of his enemies and use them as his own. 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 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 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 allied heroes bonus magic resistance to shrug off magical assaults. Rubick's versatile skill-set and his infamous Spell Steal make the Grand Magus a flexible and powerful hero.

Bio

Rubick, the Grand Magus Play "No sorcery lies beyond my grasp." Role: Disabler / Pusher Lore: Any mage can cast a spell or two, and a few may even study long enough to become a wizard, but only the most talented are allowed to be recognized as a Magus. Yet as with any sorcerer’s circle, a sense of community has never guaranteed competitive courtesy. Already a renowned duelist and scholar of the grander world of sorcery, it had never occurred to Rubick that he might perhaps be Magus material until he was in the midst of his seventh assassination attempt. As he casually tossed the twelfth of a string of would-be killers from a high balcony, it dawned on him how utterly unimaginative the attempts on his life had become. Where once the interruption of a fingersnap or firehand might have put a cheerful spring in his step, it had all become so very predictable. He craved greater competition. Therefore, donning his combat mask, he did what any wizard seeking to ascend the ranks would do: he announced his intention to kill a Magus. Rubick quickly discovered that to threaten one Magus is to threaten them all, and they fell upon him in force. Each antagonist's spell was an unstoppable torrent of energy, and every attack a calculated killing blow. But very soon something occurred that Rubick's foes found unexpected: their arts appeared to turn against them. Inside the magic maelstrom, Rubick chuckled, subtly reading and replicating the powers of one in order to cast it against another, sowing chaos among those who had allied against him. Accusations of betrayal began to fly, and soon the sorcerers turned one upon another without suspecting who was behind their undoing. When the battle finally drew to a close, all were singed and frozen, soaked and cut and pierced. More than one lay dead by an ally’s craft. Rubick stood apart, sore but delighted in the week’s festivities. None had the strength to argue when he presented his petition of assumption to the Hidden Council, and the Insubstantial Eleven agreed as one to grant him the title of Grand Magus. Voice: Barry Dennen (Responses)

Abilities

Telekinesis Q Z Ability Affects Target Unit Enemies Rubick uses his telekinetic powers to lift the enemy into the air briefly and then hurls them back at the ground. The unit lands on the ground with such force that it stuns nearby enemies. Range: 550/575/600/625 Radius: 325 Lift duration: 1.5/1.75/2/2.25 Stun duration: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75 18 120 If Linken's holder is a secondary target, the stun will not be blocked. Even the Grandest Magus may use his powers for enjoyment.

Notes: While the target is in the air, Rubick may use a secondary ability to throw the enemy in a targeted direction. The landing happens only when the lift is over. The stun happening on landing doesn't affect the lifted unit. Specifying the target's landing location forces Rubick to turn and look at the target for less than a second. If you click more than 375 distance away from the unit being lifted, it will land 375 distance away. Any nearby trees will be destroyed upon landing.

Telekinesis Land Q Ability Target Point Chooses the location the target will land when Telekinesis finishes.

Fade Bolt W X Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemies Magical Rubick creates a powerful stream of arcane energy that travels between enemy units, dealing damage and reducing their attack damage. Each jump deals less damage. Range: 800 Jump Distance: 440 Duration: 10 Damage: 70/140/210/280 Jump damage reduction: 4% Attack damage decrease: 14/20/26/32 (7/10/13/16 for creeps) 16/14/12/10 150 If Linken's holder is a secondary target, the damage is blocked, but the damage reduction and the spell's bounce are not blocked. Rubick's favorite spell for dispatching would-be assassins is a rather simple conjuration.

Notes: There is no maximum limit to jumps; the Fade Bolt will continuously bounce until it can no longer seek any valid targets within range. Each non-ally unit can only be hit by Fade Bolt once per cast.

Null Field E N Ability Affects Passive Allied Heroes Rubick's mastery of the arcane protects his allies against weaker magics, granting them magic resistance. Bonus magic resistance: 5%/10%/15%/20% Not every magus can be a Grand Magus...

Notes: This effect stacks with magic resistance abilities and items. The aura has a radius of 900 and only affects heroes.

Spell Steal R Q Ability Affects Target Unit Enemy Heroes Rubick studies the trace magical essence of one enemy hero, learning the secrets of the last spell the hero cast. Rubick can use this spell as his own for several minutes or until he dies. Range: 1000 Duration: 3/4/5 minutes 20/18/16 25 Stolen spell receives Aghanim's Scepter upgrade. ...but even their lesser magics can be a source of much utility.

Notes: Cannot steal passive abilities, item abilities, or creep abilities. (However Rubick can steal creep abilities cast by Doom via Devour.) Can steal toggle abilities (such as Rot). If a spell has an associated scaling effect (like the souls for Requiem of Souls), Rubick steals a static copy of that scaling effect. Cannot steal Quas, Wex, Exort, or Invoke. Cannot steal auto-cast abilities (such as Frost Arrows) even if they were manually cast. If a spell with a long cooldown is stolen then used, you can reset the cooldown by first stealing a different spell then re-stealing the original spell. If done in this manner, the spell will have a reset cooldown. Re-stealing the spell directly will not reset the cooldown, only refresh the duration of your Spell Steal. Example: Steal Elder Dragon Form, use it, then steal another spell like Fissure. If you then steal Elder Dragon Form again, it will be instantly usable without having to wait the 115 seconds since you last used it. Every spell stolen by Rubick has a cast time of 0.1s, regardless of its owner's animation. This allows Rubick to cast certain spells faster than their original owners, like with Pudge's Meat Hook, or Leshrac's Split Earth. Spells with extended cast times such as Sniper's Assassinate and Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls keep their additional cast times. If the target enemy Hero has Aghanim's Scepter, Rubick will steal the upgraded version of the spell. An Aghanim's Scepter held by Rubick will also upgrade a stolen spell. If Rubick is stealing spells from Death Prophet, then the ability stolen will be modified by the effects of her Witchcraft according to its level when the spell was stolen. When stealing Shadowraze, Rubick only acquires the Shadowraze that was used, not the other two. A full list of unique interactions with spell steal can be found under Spell Steal Interaction

Recommended items

Explanation: Starting Items: Fill in your item slots with Iron Branches and health and mana consumables for the early stages of the game. You can also choose to purchase Gauntlets of Strength to work up to Bracer to an eventual Drum of Endurance or even an Urn of Shadows if the need comes for it. Early Game Items: If you are soloing middle lane, a Bottle will be expected for you to control runes and gank. For boots, you can choose to go Arcane Boots to cover his and his team's mana pool or Phase Boots for positioning purposes. You will also need to purchase something to cover your mana problems, especially if you Spell Steal a spell with a relatively high mana cost. An early Void Stone will be enough to do the trick, which can be turned into either a Eul's Scepter of Divinity or a Scythe of Vyse in the near or far future. Core Items/Situational Items: Bloodstone could be looked at if you are able to snowball and gain a lot of charges with it, but his lack of mobility and low strength makes this item very difficult to manage without other items to cover these weaknesses. Rubick also has trouble using the mana regeneration that Bloodstone provides unless he can steal a very mana draining spell. Eul's Scepter of Divinity will give you great mana regen, as well as a cheap disable. Force Staff and its amazing utility is great in almost any game with Rubick. Boots of Travel along with Fade Bolt will give amazing lane pushing potential. Blink Dagger can also be great for Rubick's lack of mobility, and initiation purposes, since Telekinesis Land can potentially stun an entire team. It is also great if you Spell Steal an initiation spell such as Enigma's Black Hole, Tidehunter's Ravage, or even Pudge's Meat Hook. Shiva's Guard will add punch to your disabling role or initiation role. Aghanim's Scepter can be picked up by Rubick so that if he Spell Steals an enemy hero's ultimate, he will gain the upgrade benefits from it. But it's typically ignored since he will still gain the Scepter Upgrade benefits if the hero already has a Scepter and he does not. Drum of Endurance displayed as a core item due to making up for his poor move speed and utility in teamfights

Tips

• Both his Telekinesis and his Fade Bolt have a high mana cost. Try to be conservative of your mana early on until you can grab some items such as a Void Stone or a Bottle to accommodate his somewhat high mana costs for the early stages of the game.
• Fade Bolt harassment makes you a powerful midlane hero, since the attack damage reduction secondary effect also makes it more difficult for your opponent to lasthit properly.
• Against heavy magic damage teams, you may have to invest an early point on Null Field since its percentage reduction will scale into later stages of the game.
• Although a great disabler and potential initiator with the right items, Rubick is still frail with the proper focus on him. Stay back as much as you can to avoid unnecessary damage and keep casting and stealing spells!
• Almost all of his spells, including the spells he steals, have no casting time. So spells such as Earthshaker's Fissure and Leshrac's Split Earth will cast immediately. Use this knowledge to your advantage. (Although any spell that require him to channel such as Enigma's Black Hole or Sand King's Epicenter will still require Rubick to channel).
• If you are in a side lane, try laning with partners that have powerful nukes, attacks or stuns even in the early game. Heroes such as Juggernaut, Bane, Zeus, Skeleton King, Chaos Knight, Luna and Ogre Magi are perfect, as target-point abilities can be used on enemy heroes Rubick is holding in mid-air.
• Rubick is also a good partner for Heroes with a difficult to land stun/nuke. Kunkka, Alchemist, Lina, Jakiro, Leshrac, Ancient Apparition or even Invoker with his Sun Strike will greatly benefit from your Telekinesis.
• Morph Strength Gain is a good spell to steal as it allows you to morph all Agility into Strength permanently, even if you lose the ability.
• Stolen Psionic Traps do not get destroyed when you lose the spell, and can be very useful to set up permanent vision of rune spots, Roshan, ancient camps and other key spots on the map. If you lose this spell and steal it again, you may still set 5/8/11 traps (depending on the level of the stolen spell) without destroying the other traps. This can give your team a great vision advantage since the number of traps you can set is virtually limitless.
• Anti Mage's Blink is a great spell to steal since it gives Rubick the mobility he needs, and has lower cooldown and manacost compared to Blink Dagger. Having both will give Rubick a tremendous escape/initiation mechanism!
• A stolen Meat Hook can be extremely useful to initiate teamfights. Most enemy heroes won't expect to be hooked, which causes them to be less careful about their positioning. The same goes for Mirana's Sacred Arrow.
• Rubick benefits from Meat Hook and Nether Swap combining it with Blink Dagger, which is forbidden for Pudge and Vengeful Spirit but not for Rubick!
• Spell Steal cannot steal passive abilities, but stealing Slark's Shadow Dance will give Rubick the passive regeneration and movespeed.
• Be careful when stealing spells from Keeper of the Light. If you steal a spell used with Spirit Form right after its duration ends, the spell will be inactive!
• You can convert creeps using Chen's Holy Persuasion, but all converted creeps die once you lose the spell. The same goes for Lone Druid's Spirit Bear.
• Storm Spirit's Ball Lightning, when stolen by Rubick, has its manacost adjusted for Rubick's mana pool.
• A stolen Broodmother's Spin Web will give Rubick the invisibility and everything else. It does not interact with Broodmother at all.

Trivia

• In both DotA and Dota 2, he is the son of Aghanim.
• If Rubick acquires Tusk's Walrus Punch skill, he will cast it as a projectile on the target by throwing a spinning, projectile form of himself toward them. When targeted on Tusk himself, the text "Sucker Punch!" will be displayed, in green colors. The caption will be changed to "Stolen Punch!" when hitting creeps and other heroes.
• If Rubick steals Lycanthrope's Shapeshift, he will transform into the same wolf model, though slightly smaller in scale compared to Lycan. He still retains his ranged attack, able to use the critical passive that comes with the skill.
• His response "Now, where's my cube" is a reference to Rubik's Cube, a popular combination puzzle. [1]
• In DotA, Rubick couldn't steal several spells due to technical limitations. The complete list can be found here.
• If Rubick activates a stolen True Form ( Lone Druid's transformation spell) while in the process of stealing another spell, he will permanently remain in True Form mode, earning the additional buffs and melee range, all while keeping his default skills. He will only revert back to his default self upon deactivating the skill, or dying. [2]

Update history

February 28, 2013 Patch

• Fixed two ledges (below the two rune spots) where you could get units stuck with Telekinesis and Vacuum.

November 15, 2012 Patch

• Zombies no longer spawn other zombies from a stolen Tombstone.

October 18, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Telekinesis Land sub ability proccing magic stick.

August 02, 2012 Patch

• Fixed duration of spellsteal not refreshing when stealing an ability you already have.
• [Undocumented] Added the following stolen spell animations for Rubick:
  • Crystal Nova
  • Frostbite
  • Freezing Field
  • Shadowraze
  • Requiem of Souls
  • Purification
  • Repel
  • Guardian Angel
  • Shackleshot
  • Powershot
  • Windrun
  • Venomous Gale
  • Plague Ward
  • Poison Nova

July 26, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Wild Axes being left around when another ability is stolen.
• Fixed Rubick retaining incorrect skins from stolen abilities when returning to his normal model.

July 19, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Warlock's Shadow Word refreshing its debuff version when stolen and cast as a buff.
• Fixed Dazzle's Weave refreshing its debuff version when stolen and cast as a buff.
• Fixed restealing an ability (stealing another ability in-between) not restting its cooldown.

July 12, 2012 Patch

• Fixed being able to steal spells from their being toggled off.
• Fixed getting stuck in Flesh Golem form when respawning with the buff.
• Fixed some abilities being broken when re-stealing them, now re-stealing an ability will have no effect on your currently stolen ability.
• [Undocumented] Added the following stolen spell animations for Rubick:
  • Black Hole
  • Life Drain

July 05, 2012 Patch

• Enabled Rubick, Wisp, and Luna in Captain's Mode.
• Fixed stolen Persuasion not killing stolen creeps when lost.
• Fixed stolen Relocate not teleporting teammates who are linked with a stolen Tether.
• Fixed Toggleable spells not being stealable.
• Fixed not getting flying vision or flying height when stealing Firefly.
• Fixed Fade Bolt stopping when Rubick dies.
• Fixed stealing Morph Replicate and Replicate not working correctly.
• Fixed Invoker's Spell Stolen abilities having broken hotkeys sometimes when using Legacy Mode.
• Fixed Telekinesis land AoE triggering Linken's Sphere.
• Added 'Telekinesis Land' effect marker for Rubick.
• [Undocumented] Added the following stolen spell animations for Rubick:
  • Blink
  • Mana Void
  • Shadow Strike
  • Blink
  • Scream of Pain
  • Sonic Wave
  • Viper Strike
  • Void
  • Crippling Fear
  • Darkness
  • Culling Blade
  • Dismember
  • Brain Sap
  • Fiend's Grip
  • Earth Spike
  • Mana Drain
  • Finger of Death

June 28, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a rare case where Rubick could get permanently stuck with Telekinesis Land.
• Fixed a bug where Rubick would gain permanent Spectral Dagger buffs until he died.
• Fixed a bug with Poison Release that would cause you to steal the wrong ability from Shadow Demon.
• More Rubick spell animations
• Various Rubick visual effect improvements and fixes
• [Undocumented] Added the following stolen spell animations for Rubick:
  • Charge of Darkness
  • Nether Strike
  • Fissure
  • Enchant Totem
  • Echo Slam
  • Dragon Slave
  • Light Strike Array
  • Laguna Blade
  • Death Ward
  • Static Remnant
  • Electric Vortex
  • Ball Lightning
  • Shrapnel
  • Assassinate
  • Sprout
  • Teleportation
  • Nature's Call
  • Wrath of Nature
  • Earthshock
  • Overpower
  • Enrage

June 22, 2012 Patch

• Fixed some crashes with Rubick.
• Fixed Spell Steal interaction with attack modifiers.
• Fixed a stolen Assassinate, Teleportation or Requiem of Souls not having cast time.

June 20, 2012 Patch

• Added Rubick!
• Added the following stolen spell animations for Rubick:
  • Warcry
  • Storm Hammer
  • Wild Axes
  • Primal Roar

Balance changelog

6.76

• Fade Bolt damage decreased from 75/150/225/300 to 70/140/210/280.

6.75

• Movement speed decreased from 300 to 290.
• Fade Bolt bounce AoE decreased from 500 to 440.

6.73

• Telekinesis manacost decreased from 160 to 120.
• Fade Bolt
  • Manacost increased from 90/95/100/105 to 150.
  • Cooldown rescaled from 10 to 16/14/12/10.

6.72c

• Fade Bolt bounce AoE reduced from 600 to 500.

6.72

• Added a new hero: Rubick.

Gallery

• 

  Splash artwork

• 

  Rubick Ingame

See also

• Rubick responses