Dota 2 Rubick Guide: Items Build | Game Plan

Dota 2 Rubick is one of the best Support heroes that you can pick. He’s usually played when the enemy has powerful ultimate abilities, such as Enigma’s Black Hole or Magnus’ Reverse Polarity.

Rubick is also a great choice when facing enemies that are weak against magical damage or have spells that can be greatly enhanced by his abilities. Zeus would be a perfect example. If Rubick steals any of his spells, he becomes a dangerous monster.

If you’re interested in mastering this hero, our Dota 2 Rubick guide will give you an overview of this great spell stealer.

Rubick’s Pros and Cons

These are the pros and cons of playing as Rubick in Dota 2.

Pros:

He can steal a wide array of spells and surprise his enemies
His mana pool is great
Provides excellent crowd control for his team
Needs very little farm to be effective
Can make the enemy team play scared

Cons:

He’s very squishy
His natural damage output is low
He relies heavily on winning big team fights
He is highly situational and cannot be played in every game
He is hard to master

Lore

Rubick discovered his potential during his 7^th assassination attempt. In the place where he lives, mages can cast a few spells, wizards can cast more of them, and very few individuals can be regarded as magus.

Rubick is one of those few, and he craves a challenge. The attempts on his life have become very dull in his eyes, and without a proper adversary, he might squander his potential. This made him declare his intention to kill a Magus. This led to a fight between Rubick and not just one Magus but all of them.

However, as the powerful foes cast their spells, they realized Rubick knew how to turn their magic against them. He won the battle using his enemies’ powers and was then granted the title of Grand Magus.

Attributes and Stats

These are Rubick’s general stats:

Win Rate	45.5%
Level	1 – 30
Health	578 (at level 1)
Health regeneration	0.25
Mana	450 (at level 1)
Mana regeneration	0.5
DMG	52 – 58
Armor	4.7
DMG Block	none
Magic Resistance	25%
Status Resistance	0%
Attack Rate	1.7
Movement Speed	290
Attack Animation	0.4 + 0.77
Projectile Speed	1125
Attack Range	550
Turn Rate	0.7
Attack Speed	100
Collision Size	24
Vision Range	1800 / 800
Gib Type	–

Ability Upgrades:

Rubick’s abilities are upgraded by his 8 talents.

Level 10 talents: +10% Fade Bolt damage reduction / +175 Telekinesis Land damage
Level 15 talents: -25% stolen spell cooldown / +0.6s Telekinesis lift duration
Level 20 talents: +240 Telekinesis land distance / -4s Fade Bolt cooldown
Level 25 talents: +40% spell amplification for Spell Steal / -12s Telekinesis cooldown

All of these talents are really powerful and make Rubick an excellent spellcaster. Unfortunately, you will rarely get to level 25 and even level 20 is unattainable in most games. But the first two talents are still pretty useful.

Roles Rubick Can Take On

Rubick is a natural Support hero. He can also be played Mid but it’s difficult to make your strategy work if you go down that road. Rubick’s ability to farm the jungle is limited and it’s a much better idea to think of him as the Support who can afford to always be with his cores because he needs no farm to be effective.

Rubick Item Builds

These are the most critical items that you should consider buying when picking Rubick. Your build may vary a little bit from game to game but in most cases, these items are the ones that help you the most.

Early Game

For the early game, consider buying these items:

Magic Wand
Mangoes
Arcane Boots
Wind Lace

Mid Game

During the mid game, you will usually purchase several of these items:

Blink Dagger
Aether Lens
Force Staff
Ghost Scepter
Glimmer Cape
Veil of Discord

Late Game

In the late game, this hero thrives if you have one of these items:

Aghanim’s Scepter
Black King Bar
Pipe of Insight

Abilities

Rubick has 4 abilities that can be further upgraded by his talents and the items you buy. These skills are presented below:

Telekinesis

This is Rubick’s crowd-control ability, and it usually works well in team fights when the enemy heroes tend to stay close to each other. What’s great about it is that the stun duration is up to 4.5s if you use its associated level 15 talent and hit an enemy hero when you land the primary target.

The duration of the lift is 1.2s – 2.1s. The duration of the stun is 1.2s – 1.8s. However, it will only stun if you hit the secondary target using the lifted one.

If you buy an Aghanim’s Shard, you can also use this ability on yourself or your allies. In such cases, the throw range is increased by 85% but the throw delay is 0.5s instead of instant. Most Rubick players choose not to spend the gold on this item.

The main deficiency of this ability is its damage. Most stuns in Dota 2 deal a significant amount of damage but Telekinesis does none unless you choose its associated level 10 talent. But even in that case, it still only does 175 and affects the secondary target.

Mana cost: 110

Cooldown: 28s – 22s

Fade Bolt

This AoE ability allows Rubick to damage enemies and greatly reduce their base damage. The initial damage of the spell is 100 – 325. This damage decreases by 6% per jump and affects all targets in a 440 radius. This is very similar to Zeus’ Arc Lightning.

The targets hit by Fade Bolt have their base damage reduced by 14% – 35%. The reduction becomes 26% – 47% with the level 10 talent, and most players will agree that it’s a good idea to skill that talent.

Because the debuff duration is 10s, Rubick will greatly reduce the enemy team’s base damage for almost the entire duration of any early-game team fight. And that’s exactly the cooldown of the ability. This means that by the time you’re level 7, you can give your side a huge advantage in fights.

However, keep in mind that this advantage tends to fade as the game progresses and the enemy side buys powerful damage items.

Mana cost: 120 – 150

Cooldown: 16s – 10s

Arcane Supremacy

This ability passively gives Rubick increased spell damage (14% – 26%) and cast range (100 – 250). If you also buy an Aether Lens, a Veil of Discord, and a Blink Dagger, you become an terrifying spell sniper.

Spell Steal

This is Rubick’s ultimate ability, allowing him to steal the last spell used by any enemy hero. Once a spell is stolen, Rubick will have it until he dies or until it expires (3 – 5 minutes). The stolen spell deals amplified damage (10% – 30%).

If you buy an Aghanim’s Scepter, you can steal 2 spells instead of 1, and the cast range is increased from 1000 to 1400 units. Add Arcane Supremacy and an Aether Lens, and you can steal anything from a mile away. An Aghs will also give Rubick the upgraded version of the spell.

This ability becomes increasingly powerful throughout the game. At level 3, its cooldown is only 4s, which means that Rubick can wreck an entire enemy team during fights if he’s not properly dealt with.

Mana cost: 25

Cooldown: 20s – 4s

Ability Build Guide

When you play Rubick in Dota 2, you should try to follow this ability build order:

Telekinesis: levels 2, 11, 13, 14
Fade Bolt: levels 1, 3, 5, 7
Arcane Supremacy: levels 4, 8, 9, 10
Spell Steal: levels 6, 12, 18

Against certain heroes, maximizing Telekinesis right after Fade Bolt might be a better idea than maximizing Arcane Supremacy. Always pay attention to the enemy composition and ask yourself: do I need more control or better damage and cast range?

Combo

When playing Rubick, your combos can very complex. And that’s because you can steal anything that the enemy team uses and then utilize it yourself. This creates the perfect opportunity to catch your opponents off-guard.

Dota 2 players usually make most of the important calculations ahead of the fight. But as a Rubick, you can completely ruin their tactics by stealing the right spell and then casting it in the right way. If the fight goes on for long enough, you can do this several times and create a bit advantage for your side.

Your basic combo is Fade Bolt into Telekinesis (or the other way around) into Spell Steal, followed by the utilization of the spell you’ve just stolen.