The Secrets of Rubick

The Grand Magus does not steal, he merely borrows. Be it Black Hole, Ravage or Primal Roar, nothing lies beyond his grasp. But just how well do you know him?

You can support the author by following him on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or via Steam Guides.

Recent Changes (Patch 6.79):

Telekinesis cooldown increased from 18 to 22.
Rubick can no longer steal the Aghanim upgrade of the enemy if they have Aghanim and he doesn't.
Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: reduces cooldown from 20/18/16 to 5, increases cast range from 1000 to 1400 and makes all stolen spells be considered to have their Aghanim's upgrade.

Q: Telekinesis

Can target all non magic-immune enemy unit (including creeps & summoned units) and catapults.
The target is stunned while in the air (can't use items or spells). Lift acts like a stun, so it will interrupt all channeling spells and TPs.
Linken Sphere blocks Lift. Magic immune units can't be lifted. Going magic immune while in the air (with Repel for instance) will not stop Lift.
Lift can't be purged by regular means. Apothic Shield, Press the Attack and Dark Pact remove stuns which means they also instantly stop Lift.
The target can go invisible while lifted (fade time) and will not be revealed by Telekinesis alone.

Q: Telekinesis Land

Telekinesis icon (Q) becomes Telekinesis Land icon after lifting a target.
All enemy units in the landing zone (325 AoE) are stunned when the target lands. The original target is not affected by the landing stun.
Using Land will not prematurely end Lift, the target will always land after the full Lift duration (unless Lift is cancelled).
If Telekinesis ends prematurely - Lift is cancelled or the target dies while in the air - the landing stun is applied immediately.
Land can target anywhere on the map, but the target can only land at most 375 units away from his original Lift location. Rubick has to face the targeted area when casting Land.
Rubick can use Land as many times as he likes during the Lift duration, only the last Land command will be registered.
Trees are destroyed in the landing zone.
Land will not stun magic immune units, but Linken Sphere does not block the landing stun if you're in the area.

Cancelling Telekinesis

Any displacement spell will instantly stop Telekinesis and apply the landing stun to enemy units at the target's original location (before being moved). The original target can move as soon as his position is changed (Lift stun is cancelled). Displacement spells are skills like Vacuum, Nether Swap, Geomagnetic Grip but also Tornado, Toss and even Chronosphere (Z-axis movement).

Did you read that well? Good, because that means you can save allies from Telekinesis with Force Staff now. The more you know!

W: Fade Bolt

Remember that Fade Bolt decreases the attack damage of all enemy units hit. This is extremely important in the early game where it will help Rubick win harass trades.
Every bounce deals 4% less damage than the previous one. At max level Fade Bolt will deal 280 / 269 / 258 / 248 / 238 / 228... So each bounce reduces the damage by ~10.
Fade Bolt bounces to the closest valid target. Valid targets are visible, non magic-immune units in a 440 AoE around the last unit hit by Fade Bolt. Fade Bolt will not bounce on units in the Fog of War or invisible units. Fade Bolt can't hit the same unit twice. No bounce limit.
Linken Sphere only blocks Fade Bolt if you are the primary target. Fade Bolt can't target or bounce on magic-immune units.
If Tide's Anchor Smash & Rubick's Fade Bolt both affect the same target, the unit's damage will first be reduced by 40% (Tide) and then further reduced by 32 (Rubick), regardless of which hero used their skill first.
Fade Bolt's damage reduction can be purged.

E: Null Field

900 AoE around Rubick.
Only affects allied heroes and hero units like Spirit Bear or Brewlings. Creeps are not affected by Null Field.
Magic resistance stacks in a multiplicative manner.

R: Spell Steal

Spell Steal basics:

Spell Steal can only target enemy heroes.
Rubick forgets the spell he stole if he dies.
The level of the stolen spell isn't linked at all with the level of Spell Steal. A level 1 Spell Steal can steal a level 4 spell or a level 3 ultimate, just like a level 3 Spell Steal can steal a level 1 spell.
Rubick can't steal Aghanim upgrade without having an Aghanim of his own anymore.
Spells that create illusions (like Dopplewalk) or effigies (like Static Remnant) will create illusions & effigies of Rubick instead.
If Rubick cast Spell Steal on an illusion, he won't steal anything but Spell Steal will go on cooldown and mana will be expended.
If for some reason the targeted hero never used any spell (Sniper before level 6), Spell Steal will not be used (cooldown / mana) and an red error message "Cannot steal this spell" will be displayed.

Spell Steal advanced information:

Rubick uses his own cast animation (instant) when using a stolen spell, but spells with extended animation will not be shortened.

Example: Rubick can cast Fissure immediately (0.1 sec) while Earthshaker has a very long animation (0.69 sec). However, spells like Furion Teleport or Sniper's Assassinate will take the same amount of time when cast by Rubick.

Stealing the same spell twice will not update the level of the spell nor refresh the cooldown. It will however refresh Spell Steal's duration.

Example: Rubick currently has level 2 Black Hole on cooldown and one minute left before he forgets his spell. Enigma pops level 16, gets level 3 Black Hole and uses it. Rubick steals it, but his spell remains a level 2 Black Hole and is still on cooldown. However, he now has 5 minutes again before forgetting his spell.

Stealing and using a spell, then stealing another spell, then stealing the original spell again will refresh its cooldown. In fact, forgetting a spell will refresh the cooldown (steal another spell / forget through death / forget through time).

Example: Rubick casts level 2 Black Hole, then steals Malefice. Enigma pops level 16, gets level 3 Black Hole and uses it. Rubick steals it again and has a level 3 Black Hole ready to cast again, even if he used level 2 Black Hole seconds before.

Summoned & dominated units will not die when Rubick steals another spell if they have limited duration / will die when Rubick steals another spell if they have infinite duration. Same rule applies for transformation spells.

Example: Spirit Bear and Familiars both have infinite duration and will die when Rubick steals another spell. Treants and Eidolons both have limited duration and will not die when Rubick steals another spell. Rubick will immediately turn normal again if he forgets True Form, but will stay as a demon for the remaining duration if he forgets Metamorphosis.

Toggled spells can be stolen, but only toggling on counts as casting it. If toggled on when Rubick steals another spell, it will automatically be toggled off. Spells with multiple components (on/off) do not follow this rule and both components act as the main spell.

Example: If Pudge activates Rot, hooks someone, deactivates Rot and Rubick uses Spell Steal, he will steal Hook. If Rubick is using Rot and steals something else, Rot will automatically turn off (so Rubick won't kill himself like a 'tard). If Naga uses Song of the Siren, Mirror Image and then Song Cancel, Rubick will steal Song of the Siren.

Rubick can stack different Transformation spells and benefits from all the advantages. He will have the visual aspect of the last transformation he used.

Example: If Rubick steals Lycan's Shapeshift and then steals Terrorblade's Metamorphosis, he will turn into a mini-demon with +80 base damage (Metamorphosis), max movespeed, 1.5 BAT, 30% crit (x1.7) and 1800 night vision (Shapeshift). Once Shapeshift ends he will remain a mini-demon with +80 base damage only.

Spells that interact with other spells usually have their passive attached to them.

Requiem of Souls will use the number of Souls Nevermore had when Rubick stole the spell.
Eclipse will use the level of Lucent Beams Luna she had.
Any spells stolen from Death Prophet will use the level of Witchcraft she had.
Toss damage will depend on the level of Tiny's Grow.
Stealing Plague Wards will also steal the current level of Poison Sting. Rubick's Plague Wards and Rubick's auto-attack will benefit from Poison Sting.
Spirit Bear will not have Synergy.
Ogre Magi's spells are affected by the passive bonus from Multicast (mana cost / AoE / CD) but they can't Multicast.

Spells Rubick can't steal:

Passive spells, even if they cost mana (Reincarnation for instance).
Orb effects, even if manually cast (Frost Arrow for instance).
Invoker's Quas, Wex, Exort & Invoke
Earth Spirit's Stone Remnant.
Items ability (Force Staff, Scythe of Vyse, Eul's Scepter...)
Rubick's spells (if you somehow play against another Rubick)

Spells with special interaction with Spell Steal:

Some spells like Firefly, Assassinate, Walrus Punch have flavor text / custom animation.
Spin Webs disappear when Rubick steals another spell
Devour does not allow Rubick to gain spells from creeps. However, Rubick can steal creep spells' from Doom directly just like any other spell.
Astral Spirit will disappear with no further effect if Rubick steals another spell while the Spirit is out.
Morph changes will be permanent. Don't go full agility. Stealing Morph will grant you both versions of the spell.
Darkness does not increase Rubick's night vision, so even with an Aghanim Scepter Rubick will only have 800 flying vision instead of Night Stalker's 1800 flying vision.
Rubick will only steal the most recently used version of Shadowraze, not all the three Shadowrazes.
Rubick can steal the spells other Rubicks used via Spell Steal.
Psionic Trap will not die when Rubick steals another spell.
Spirit Bear can carry items, but will drop them on the ground and die when Rubick steals another spell.
Rubick's Chronosphere does not stop Void. However, Void does not gain +1000 MS / Phase inside Rubick's Chronosphere (most likely a bug). You've been warned.

The Secrets of Rubick can be found in video format on the author's Youtube channel, however the video itself is slightly outdated (patch 6.77). The previous Secrets of... are also available: