My Take on Rubick, The Grand Magus

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 sorcerers 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 allys craft. Rubick stood apart, sore but delighted in the weeks 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.

Introduction

Hello there viewer. This is my first ever guide- first of many I hope-and since this is my first guide, I'm covering my favourite hero. He's an extremely fun hero to play as with a bit of practice. He's a common pick in the pro scene because of his strong spells and versatile ultimate. Though he's usually played as a hard support and in my small viewing of pro games, I've never seen him played mid (maybe in Asia?) Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Let's begin then.

Item Explanation (Hard Support)

Now I hope you can understand my starting items on each build, they're reasonably easy to understand. But in this paragraph I'm going to go through each build and show how to use the items. ONLY READ THIS IF YOU'RE NEW TO DOTA Let's start with the hard support build. So you want to start by buying a Flying Courier, then buy Boots of Speed to increase mobility and then buy a Bracer this a good item for any hard support because it increases health and mana and can be upgraded into a Drum of Endurance if needs be. When it turns to mid game you want to buy Arcane Boots they allow to give you and your team mana, which is good. Buy a Force Staff or a Mekansm these are very expensive items and make sure your team has at least one of each. With a Mekansm I think it has to purposes: To just top everyone's health up and to keep others alive. You should try and use the Mekansm for the second one, the reason for this being it has a long cooldown and it's better being safe when sorry when it comes to cooldowns. If you get a Force Staff it can be only be used for one purpose: getting your team mates out of trouble. This a really good countering item to any hero that has a "trapping mechanism" most noticeably Pudge and clockwork. If the game gets to the late game (which it shouldn't) buy one of these items. Most of time I'll buy a ghost sceptre because this means that the other team cannot instantly melt me, increasing my survivability. I'd only buy Boots of Travel if your team is playing rat dota. Scythe of Vyse is also a good choice because it allows you to take one of their team out of the fight for 3.5 seconds which is really good if you catch out their hard carry. eul's sceptre of divinity also allows you to take either yourself or an enemy out of the fight for a short duration, again a solid item choice.

Item Explanation (Mid)

This is where I will explain the mid build. My first starting item build is known as a "bottle rush" which allows you to get a bottle much faster than normal. The alternative one is if you're expecting a lot of harass, I'd get the alternative against heroes like: Sniper and Puck. Remember that buying the alternative will give you a slight edge over someone who has done a bottle rush. So buy a Bottle first because gives you health and mana regen, remember that if you get a rune it store the rune for later use while also refilling your Bottle, this is known as rune control. Then you want to buy Boots of Speed, follow that with a Bracer to increase health and then buy a Magic Wand this gives you a little health and gives you a stored 15 health and mana which can be used later. Later on you want to buy Arcane Boots. Then buy a Blink Dagger this allows you to escape and also initiate definitely a must uy on Rubick semi-carry. Also buy a Force Staff so you can help yourself and your team out, by forcing them out when they get into a spot of bother. Then you want to buy Aghanim's Scepter the reason for this being that it gives health, mana and armour but mainly because it increases the power of Spell Steal. Finally the late game. You may wish to buy a Bloodstone, this increases your health and mana and health and mana regen. Or maybe Boots of Travel, this allows you to easily move around the map while also increasing movement speed by a LOT. Finally Shiva's Guard this turns you into a initiator when combined with a Blink Dagger, because you blink into the other team whilst also using shiva's this decreases their movement speed and decreases their attack speed.

Item Explanation (Offlane)

These starting items are pretty common for an offlaner. Plenty of regen and some stats to help with last hitting. The early game items are also pretty standard no explanation required. Now which upgraded boots is totally your choice. I like Phase Boots but Power Treads and Arcane Boots are also ok, just choose which one suits your situation. Then you'll want to buy a Blink Dagger this increase your versatility buy a lot. You can now initiate and escape extremely well. Then you'll want to buy an Aghanim's Scepter the reason for this being that it gives health, mana and armour but mainly because it increases the power of Spell Steal. This is where it gets interesting the late game. You'll want to buy a: Dagon, Etheral Blade and Refresher Orb the reason for this being an awesome combo. First you use the Ethereal Blade on a enemy, use dagon, use a stolen spell then refresh and do it all again. Remember that in this combo you have a maximum of 3 stolen spells. Then buy Boots of Travel to allow you to use all of your item slots.

Item Explanation (Support Build #2)

This an explanation for the second support build, you do this if someone is taking the role of hard support (buying courier, wards etc). You buy standard starting items, the only one that needs explaining is maybe the Smoke of Deceit, this allows you (and maybe another support) to go and gank mid without being spotted by the other teams wards. Then just standard support early items, buy wards and upgrade the courier if you have to. Then you want to buy Arcane Boots again for the mana, then a Medallion of Courage for the new players this is a strong item that decreases the target's (and your own) buy six, this can also be used to make doing Roshan much easier, because it works on Roshan as well. Then buy a Blink Dagger to increase your initiation power and give you a reliable escape. And if you've somehow got your hands on a lot of money buy a pipe, however if the team has a good counter push hero (for example Tinker) buy pipe before Medallion of Courage. If the game is somehow still on, buy aghanim's sceptre but the game shouldn't be going on this long anyways.

Mid

This is where I will talk about mid Rubick. Rubick mid is very situational. He is countered by quite a few mids ( Pudge, Huskar etc). But he does also counter a few ( Zeus, Sniper etc) if you get a few levels of null you should do fine against Zeus and Sniper. You can use the fade bolt to push the wave and also telekinesis not to mention if you get spell off Rubick's ultimate. So it's not ideal going mid but it does work. But it's vital that you have experience with him before you try mid. His animation is not good and takes a bit of getting used too. So if you are playing mid Rubick it's best to play very passive and avoid confrontations if possible.

Pros and Cons

Pros:
-Brilliant Spells
-Fun to play as
-His ultimate is scary to your opponents
-Decent team fight
-Very good at support

Cons:
-Low mana (and high spell cost)
-Low base health
-Low base movement speed
-Low base armor
-If played as semi carry, falls off a bit late game

Laning and Beyond (Hard Support)

If you're playing hard support do the usual. Buy wards and upgrade the courier if no-one else has. Try to keep your carry alive. Stack and pull to get a little gold and allow your carry all the xp, if you don't know how to do this go to this site:

http://game8review.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/dota-2-guide-to-stacking-and-pulling.html.

As the game progresses buy Arcane Boots, Force Staff and a Mekansm, only buy Mekansm if your team hasn't already got one. If you get rich buy any of the following: Boots of Travel, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Ghost Scepter , Scythe of Vyse or Shiva's Guard. Choose depending on the games' situation, and choose wisely.

Support Build #2

Now this is a part for more advanced players. So do you know the usual team layout, 1-5? This build is more if you're playing the 4th role in a team. I'd only use this build if you're: A)In a decent level game or B)You play for a decent team. This build only works if you're communicating with your team. It allows your team do an easier Roshan and increases your team's team fight ability drastically. While also allowing taking a huge amount of pressure off your team's hard support. Though I definitely don't recommend doing this build, because there are definitely better 4th support's in the game/current meta.

Offlane

Before I begin I'll tell how I came up with this idea. I was watching the Ti SEA qualifiers-Scythe vs Zephyr (hate me I'm a Zephyr fan) and I was confused when Bamboe chose Rubick. For those who don't know Bamboe is normally the offlaner. I'm a specialist offlaner so after the game I played Rubick offlane and I was surprised when it actually worked. I'd do this build if you want to try something new and whacky, these are the items (after about 10 games) I thought were good. Personally I like buying Phase Boots though all three are viable, depending on your style choose one. Now how you want to play it. you want to block the wave as much as possible, ward their pulling jungle and gank mid with your other supports, if none of these then try and get as much xp from the wave, make sure to play cautious because if you get stun stacked you're dead. Make sure you constantly have at least one Town Portal Scroll and roam round once you hit lv six, securing kills and not stealing them!

Just for a break from this wall of text:

Now I hate to be "that guy" but I need to talk about why not to pick Rubick offlane. This requires a lot of skill to pull off because he has: low movement speed, no escape mechanism, low armour and low hp. So ONLY pick Rubick offlane if you're: A) A specialist offlaner or B) Actually good at Dota. So if you do attempt this I wish you the best of luck.

Team Fights

This is where Rubick excels. His teamfight ability is extremely versatile due to Spell Steal. So you just want to spam your spells remember that Telekinesis also has a really good aoe stun where it lands. This is where it gets interesting Spell Steal. You want to push? Steal a good pushing spell like Exorcism. Want to defend? Steal a good defensive spell like Ice Wall. Want to wipe their team? Steal a teamfight spell like Black Hole. Also it depends on what items you bought and what role you have. Say you bought a Mekansm and a Force Staff your role is to sit at the back keep your team alive. And if you bought a Blink Dagger and Aghanim's Scepter you want to blink in and cause havoc, great spells for this include: Black Hole, Song of the Siren and Echo Slam creating a good opportunity for your team to come in and wipe the other team.

Friends and Foes

Friends:
Pudge, Lifestealer, Shadow Fiend, Anti-Mage, Mirana, Clinkz or Legion Commander.

Foes (when playing mid):
Pudge, Huskar, Bloodseeker, Shadow Fiend anyone who has large damage output or a lack of spells (or both).

Foes (when playing support):
Again anyone with high damage output or lack of spells is a pain for Rubick.

Who Does Rubick Counter and Who Counters Rubick

Rubick is a good pick against anyone who is dependent on spells or has a really good ultimate, the best example being: Invoker, Enigma, Shadow Shaman, Luna and Beastmaster. This ISN'T a definitive list.

However Rubick is countered by people that have ULTRA HIGH damage output and 0 spells Drow Ranger. Anyone with an annoying silences Riki. Anyone who has a large damage spell nuke Sniper.

Though really I wouldn't worry about being counter picked when playing support, as long as the cores aren't. Though pay more attention if you're playing in the solo offlane/mid role.

Want to Learn More?

Watch purgegamers play him
Play Video /dota-2/hero/rubick-102

Conclusion

So thanks for reading my first ever guide, I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. So good luck with your future with this character and I hope you will enjoy as much as I do. Finally any comments on my guide and how to improve it will be greatly appreciated. Want any particular hero next? Comment below let me know.

A rivalry...
...for the ages.
I wonder who will win?

Perhaps we will never know.