* Smoke Cloud prevents Storm Spirit from using any of his offensive and defensive spells, rendering him unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
Additional:
* Smoke Screen prevents Storm Spirit from using his abilities once inside the radius. Riki can utilize this ability to allow his team to fight around
Smoke Screen so that Storm Spirit cannot spam his spells to proc
Overload.
* Riki has high damage and invisibility, meaning he can easily gank Rubick and kill him before Rubick has the chance to react.
* Cloak and Dagger renders Riki invisible, which makes his spells hard to steal if not being initiated.
* Similar to Clinkz, Rubick has to buy a large amount of Sentry Wards to keep track of Riki due to Cloak and Dagger, preventing Rubick from getting better items.
* Because of the high mana cost of Ball Lightning, Storm Spirit is often vulnerable to Mana Void.
* Mana Break diminishes Storm Spirit's mobility with Ball Lightning, and Anti-Mage can catch him with Blink over short distances.
* Almost all of Storm Spirit's damage is magical, which is severely reduced by Counterspell.
* Storm Spirit has a very large mana pool which means Anti-Mage can do large amounts of damage to him with Mana Break and Mana Void.
Additional:
* Mana Break can quickly burn Storm Spirit's mana, preventing him from escaping.
* Blink allows Anti-Mage to catch up to Storm Spirit when he tries to use his
Ball Lightning to escape.
* Mana Void deals massive damage to Storm Spirit as well as his teammates, as Storm Spirit depletes his mana pool by using
Ball Lightning.
* Counterspell's passive magic resistance reduces much of Storm Spirit's magical damage dealt to Anti-Mage, and the active aspect may even make Storm Spirit disable himself.
* Mana Break quickly eats away at Rubick's low mana pool, preventing Spell Steal abilities from triggering.
* Rubick's complete lack of mobility makes him very easy for Anti-Mage to chase down with Blink.
* Anti-Mage can dispel Fade Bolt damage reduction debuff with
Manta Style or reduce it by Counterspell.
* Anti-Mage also has no useful abilities for Rubick to steal with Spell Steal.
Additional:
* Fade Bolt does little damage to Anti-Mage due to
Counterspell's magic resistance.
* Most of Rubick's spells are single targets and can be reflected by Counterspell.
* The only spell that provides some utility for Rubick is Blink.
* Blink does little on its own to counter Anti-Mage when coming from behind except allowing Rubick to escape.
* Rubick can easily run out of mana to cast the spell due to Mana Break, if not dying to Anti-Mage's physical damage already.
* Time Dilation while Static Remnant and
Electric Vortex are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, reducing Storm Spirit's potential.
* Faceless Void can catch Storm Spirit during Ball Lightning with a well-timed Chronosphere or Time Walk.
* Time Dilation, while Spell Steal with
Aghanim's Scepter is on cooldown will make it unusable for a long time, reducing Rubick's potential.
* Rubick's own Chronosphere stolen with Spell Steal cannot stun Faceless Void.
* Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* Song of the Siren is very difficult for Rubick to Spell Steal when he is affected by sleep.
* Ensnare and Rip Tide together with some attacks can take Rubick down quickly, due to his low health pool and armor.
* Naga Siren usually buys Diffusal Blade, which may prevent Rubick from using his abilities.
* Mirror Image allows Naga Siren to dodge the incoming stun from Telekinesis (when she is not a target), and it can also dispel
Fade Bolt's damage reduction debuff.
* Oracle's high magic damage output can easily take down Rubick's low health pool.
* Because Oracle can combo spells in rapid succession (due to low cooldowns), it may be difficult for Rubick to Spell Steal False Promise. This scenario can even be avoided by shift queueing Fortune's End and casting it immediately, as it has no cast point, or by staying in the back line of fights if out of mana.
* As a position based hero, Rubick will have a very hard time against Fortune's End due to its absurd range and very long root duration.
* True Form gives Lone Druid a huge amount of health that no amount of Ball Lightning will chip through.
* Entangling Claws can mean a very quick end to the Storm Spirit as it prevents him from using
Ball Lightning all together.
* Storm Spirit is a single target nuker, with the Shard Lone Druid can always fear him away from himself or the bear, defending the target he does not go on. This is assuming he cannot try and proc his entangle or a potential Skull Basher.
* Earthbind, like any root, inhibits usage of Ball Lightning, eliminating Storm Spirit's mobility.
* A well-timed Gust will prevent Rubick from casting abilities from Spell Steal, and his lack of capabilities and low health pool usually dies very quickly.
* Drow Ranger can dispel Fade Bolt's reduction debuff with
Manta Style.
* Considering Rubick's abysmal armor, Rubick is a squishy target for Clinkz to gank on his own.
* None of his spells are useful except for Skeleton Walk.
* Clinkz usually builds Orchid Malevolence, which disables Rubick's ability to retaliate.
* Vast numbers of Sentry Wards are needed to deal with Clinkz because of
Skeleton Walk, making it harder for Rubick to buy more expensive and more useful support items like
Glimmer Cape or
Mekansm.
* At around the 10-minute mark, Disruptor would normally be level 6 or 7. This means you can have a level 3/4 glimpse along with Static Storm. A high level glimpse is enough to pull Storm back to a Static Storm even after he used Ball Lightning due to his limited mana pool at that time.
* Be careful in the late game however, as there is a good chance he will kill you straight-out before Glimpse has finished bringing him back. Therefore Glimpse would simply bring him back to safety after he's murdered you or a teammate. Of course, this is assuming he hasn't silenced you with an item.
* Mana Burn removes much-needed mana for Ball Lightning.
* Spiked Carapace triggers on Static Remnant for an easy stun.
Additional:
* Vendetta is capable of removing most of Storm Spirit's large mana pool, along with dealing heavy damage and quickly depleting his chances of escaping a gank or fight.
* Fade Bolt is not enough to burst
Phantom Assassin down without the help of other stolen spells.
* Rubick has little armor and can be
Phantom Assassin's primary target.
* Telekinesis is the only way for Rubick to retaliate if being jumped on, but the lockdown duration is generally not enough for Rubick to escape.
* Few of Phantom Assassin's spells grants utility for
Rubick.
* Phantom Assassin's spells strengthes her assault power combined with her physical damage output, yet Rubick is not considered a physical damage dealer.
* With that said, Blur could be of use for Rubick to hide on back in teamfights waiting for the key spell without fearing of being initiated.
* Similar to Timbersaw, Storm Spirit builds items that don't help against silences.
* An Orchid Malevolence will most likely silence you first. However, if you grab a
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, you might dispel his silence and turn the tides to your favor.
* Root and silence are Storm Spirit's ultimate counters. Skywrath Mage has a silence in his kit, and has
Rod of Atos as his core item. If he dispels one, you cast the other, both leaving him vulnerable.
* If he builds Black King Bar, he spends 4050 gold that doesn't help him snowball effectively.
* Bristleback's abilities are nearly useless for Rubick to Spell Steal, as he does not gain the bonuses from Warpath.
Additional:
* Rubick deals little damage on his own, and Bristleback can simply shrug off all his spells and chase Rubick down with his Quill Spray and the damage bonus from
Warpath.
* Rubick does not tend to charge forward in teamfights, stay in the front lines under most circumstances, yet effective casts of Quill Spray and
Viscous Nasal Goo requires the opposite as they require multiple casts and close range to add up stacks.
* Rubick does not benefit from Warpath through casting the stolen spell.
* Doom prevents Storm Spirit from using all of his abilities and items, rendering Storm Spirit useless in a fight.
* Tusks damage/stun is enough to obliviate Storm Spirit before he can do anything.
* Tusk is a common Blink Dagger carrier, and once he reaches Level 18,
Walrus PUNCH! deals roughly half of Storm Spirit's health alone, It also stuns for a long enough time for Tusk to
Snowball Storm Spirit, stunning him even more, If that hasn't finished him off, the damage from
Ice Shards probably will. Combined with
Tag Team, which adds bonus damage to Tusks attacks, Storm Spirit is unlikely to survive Tusk initiating on him
* Walrus PUNCH is even more potent if he uses a Silver Edge instead
* However while Ball Lightning doesn't disjoint Snowball, if used before Tusk hits with Snowball, prevents the stun and damage from being applied
* If Storm Spirit isn't careful, he could fall into a trap set by Techies and another hero acting as bait.
* Stasis Trap roots Storm Spirit for 2/3/4/5 seconds and
Blast Off! silences for 4/5/6/7 seconds, which effectively prevents Storm Spirit from using
Ball Lightning to escape for a lengthy duration.
* Pounce's leash prevents Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning, making it hard for Storm Spirit to escape a gank from Slark.
* Dark Pact can dispel Orchid Malevolence's Soul Burn.
* Pounce and
Dark Pact together with some attacks can take Rubick down quickly.
* Rubick's spells are ineffective due to the strong dispel effect of Dark Pact.
* Even though Shadow Dance is a great spell to steal, Slark's untargetable nature and his low cooldown spells prevents Rubick from stealing. Also Slark can freely use other abilities for the duration of
Shadow Dance.
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as Queen of Pain,
Slark and
Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as
Dust of Appearance or
Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
* Rubick usually positions in the back of a team. Heroes who can sneak up and assault Rubick (e.g. Slark) or damage Rubick from great distance (e.g.
Spectre,
Sniper) should be treated cautiously, as otherwise the matchup usually ends up badly for Rubick.
* Basically, Heroes that heavily rely on abilities for damage or escape, such as Queen of Pain and
Storm Spirit.
Additional:
* Silencer's Intelligence Steal can reduce Storm Spirit's damage output if he gets some kills on laning phase.
* Last Word and
Global Silence will make Storm Spirit an easy target.
* Global Silence can be used to prevent Storm Spirit from connecting abilities after a Ball Lightning on his targets.
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game: Crystal Maiden,
Lich,
Techies,
Rubick
* Flame Guard absorbs up to 500 magical damage (700 with Level 10 talents), which helps Ember Spirit survive against Storm Spirit's high magical damage.
* Searing Chains can root enemies up to 3 seconds, making Storm Spirit unable to escape with
Ball Lightning.
* Fire Remnant deals high magical damage when casting multiple instances at once, granting Ember Spirit the damage to burst Storm Spirit down in the early to mid game.
* Certain Hero's potential lies on the combo of their abilities. As an example, Ember Spirit can cast
Sleight of Fist and
Searing Chains together to root and damage enemies from a far distance. Yet for
Rubick, casting
Searing Chains can only catch enemies at a close distance, and
Sleight of Fist does little more than a scratch of right click.
* It is arguably possible to group spells together after getting Aghanim's Scepter, but stealing two separate spells from one single enemy is somewhat luxurious in an intense fight.
* Storm Spirit is not only a potent Orchid Malevolence carrier, his
Electric Vortex provides an additional disable and
Overload provides a great slow. When paired with
Static Remnant, they can cut through Flame Guard fast.
* Ball Lightning not only provides great initiation upon Ember Spirit from any position anytime, but also helps dodge Sleight of Fist.
* Mobility heroes will often be rooted by Troll Warlord and unable to escape, like Storm Spirit.
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing towers will often struggle from a small map very early, such as Phantom Assassin,
Storm Spirit and
Phantom Lancer.
* Storm Spirit can close the distance towards Sniper very easily with his ultimate Ball Lightning.
Additional:
* Sniper is very squishy and cannot deal with heroes that jump onto him and lock him down. Storm Spirit closes the gap in a fight against Sniper, and Sniper has no way to escape except for some items.
* Storm Spirit can dodge Assassinate with a correctly timed
Ball Lightning.
* In the mid to late game, the physical attack from Sniper can be painful to go through as
Rubick. However with the help of Rubick's teammates, the abilities of
Sniper can turn against his team.
* Shrapnel is a great wave-clear ability, and helps with scouting the area.
* Shrapnel already has a long cast range, and together with
Arcane Supremacy Rubick can put constant damage on
Sniper while he stays at back.
* Assassinate, if stolen, can be cast to assist a gank while Rubick stays at a range that can merely be found in the area, damaging heroes in the backline including
Sniper.
* Arcane Supremacy (combined with Level 25 talent +40% Spell Amp For Stolen Spells, as of 7.31c) increases its damage before reduction to 406.2/611.1/819(531.2/805.1/1079) without considering any further amplification source.
* With Aghanim's Scepter,
Assassinate becomes an ability with a reliable 1.5 second stun, massive damage, short cooldown and over 3000 cast range which should not be made light of.
* Shrapnel is used frequently and can be easily stolen;
Assassinate has a long cast animation for Rubick to forsee the chance to steal.
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to close the gap between him and Weaver in no time. Once locked down with certain items, Weaver is extremely fragile to Storm Spirit and his teammates.
* Arcane Bolt has a long range and a low cooldown, and is a great spell to waste Linken's Sphere. It also serves as an effective spell to harass Weaver with.
* Ancient Seal prevents Weaver from using Shukuchi or Time Lapse.
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to escape through
Viper Strike, wasting Viper's mana.
* It's also very easy to wait out the duration of Nethertoxin's break.
* If Rubick can use Spell Steal to take
Nethertoxin, he will be able to disable
Corrosive Skin, reducing much of Viper's durability.
* He can also steal Viper Strike, which can be used to hinder a hero on your team (or multiple heroes, if Rubick has
Aghanim's Scepter).
* Ball Lightning disjoints an incoming
Magic Missile, avoids
Wave Of Terror, and allows Storm Spirit to easily escape if he ever gets
Nether Swapped.
* Magic Missile is a solid damage source and lockdown that fits nicely with Rubick's kit.
* Rubick also acquires the secondary Magic Missile with
Aghanim's Shard.
* Wave of Terror can be used to scout an area to prevent juking or initiate with
Telekinesis, as well as reducing the armor of enemy team during a teamfight.
* Nether Swap does what it does - saving an ally from danger, initiating on an enemy, or helping with caughting a fleeing hero.
* With Aghanim's Shard, Rubick can lift himself up and drop quickly to a place of safety after the swap. Note that Rubick can only choose to either disable the enemy or save himself at one time with
Telekinesis.
Additional:
* All of Vengeful Spirit abilities are very good for Rubick to Spell Steal:
* Magic Missile provides an additional nuke/disable to pair with Fade Bolt and
Telekinesis, respectively.
* Wave of Terror serves as a good scouting/armor reduction skill that Rubick and his team can benefit from.
* Nether Swap complements Rubick's mobility and pairs well with other mobility items he usually builds. He can also use it to save an ally from danger.
* An isolated Enigma in the early game can be easily killed by Storm Spirit thanks his higher mobility and dueling potential. However, Storm Spirit can be killed when caught by Enigma's full combo, especially if Enigma has Black King Bar.
* Storm can kill all of Enigma's Eidolons relatively quickly without much risk, slowing down Enigma's farming speed, preventing him from split pushing, and giving Storm its considerable bounty, especially if Enigma chooses the Level 25 Talent that gives him more Eidelons.
* Storm can zip through Black Hole stunning Enigma while he's channelling until Enigma buys
Black King Bar.
* Telekinesis has a longer range than the AoE of
Black Hole for the purposes of cancelling it.
* All of Enigma's spells are useful to Spell Steal.
* Malefice is useful for interrupting channeling spells or long cast animations. Its stun duration is also amplified thanks to Spell Steal's debuff amplification.
* Demonic Conversion can be used to push or counter-push a lane.
* Midnight Pulse is useful to block an area or for team fights.
* Black Hole is very easy to steal, as it is a channeled ability. It's also one of the best ultimate abilities for team fights, and it can easily turn the fight around for the enemy team. It also does more damage and has a larger cast range thanks to
Arcane Supremacy. A stolen
Black Hole can also cancel Enigma's
Black Hole.
Additional:
* Enigma's signature
Black Hole can be devastating if being stolen and dropped on multiple heroes.
* Black Hole requires channeling. Since Enigma has no other ability to replace his last casted spell during channeling, Rubick can steal
Black Hole relatively easily if he stays back.
* Rubick can interrupt Black Hole from Enigma, even with an activated
Black King Bar, by casting the spell with Enigma in range with regards to the extra cast range granted by
Arcane Supremacy.
* Black Hole can be interrupted by
Telekinesis in the early game, giving enough time window to steal the spell.
* Bear in mind that an experienced Enigma will purchase Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere at the same time to prevent Rubick from stealing the spell, yet the extra
Linken's Sphere will delay Enigma's power spike, so use it to Rubick's advantage.
* It is advised to build items around Black Hole as Rubick.
Aghanim's Shard,
Black King Bar ,
Aghanim's Scepter and even
Refresher Orb are all legitimate item choices.
* Malefice is a decent source of damage and stun that helps with ganking. If stolen, it can be used to interrupt
Black Hole as well.
* Demonic Conversion helpes with pushing and farming for Rubick.
* Fade Bolt effectively negates damage from Eidolons and helps with counter-pushing.
* Midnight Pulse is a solid skill for farming and teamfight damage, which is further amplified by
Arcane Supremacy and talents.
* Unexpected enemy may take the effect of Midnight Pulse as that of Enigma's and soak up damage while unrealized.
* Escape-type carries: Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Weaver.
* Telekinesis allows Rubick and his team to coordinate a gank on Luna early on. And just like
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Dismember,
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Telekinesis can also allow Rubick to save an allied hero from being killed by Eclipse.
* Fade Bolt allows Rubick to harass Luna on lane and weaken her attack damage early on.
* Both, Lucent Beam and
Eclipse are very useful for Rubick to steal with
Spell Steal, Luna's only way to counter this is with
Lunar Orbit. Rubick can also use them from further distances than Luna thanks to
Arcane Supremacy that increases his cast range and when he gets
Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* Lucent Beam is a solid magic nuke with a stun.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Lucent Beam gives Rubick bonus damage whenever he uses it
* Eclipse can output massive damage if casted by
Rubick.
* Rubick has a good chance to steal Eclipse since
Luna has only two cast abilities.
* Aghanim's Scepter greatly increase the effectiveness of the ability, with more damage as well as extended cast range.
* For the same reasons, Rubick also makes a good ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls allows Rubick to output enormous crowd damage and control to the enemy team.
* Requiem of Souls has an effective range of 1000.
Rubick can steal the spell out of the fear range with any level of
Arcane Supremacy learned.
* Requiem of Souls has a significant cast animation which allows Rubick to predict the steal timing, since Shadow Fiend usually positions at the center of battlefield.
* Telekinesis can lift a unit right on top of Rubick with no collision size, forcing the victim to absorb all damaging lines of
Requiem of Souls from Rubick, possibly resulting in a one-shot kill.
* Note that Requiem of Souls from Rubick still uses the original 1.67 second channeling time.
* It is advised to build Blink Dagger to jump in and cast
Requiem of Souls given the opportunity.
* The three Shadowraze (Far) abilities are decent for farming and extra damage output.
* Note that Shadowraze (Near),
Shadowraze (Medium) and
Shadowraze (Far) are considered three separated abilities, only one is stolen per spell steal cast.
* It could be troublesome to cast Shadowraze (Far) immediately for damage output immediately after stolen since it is hard to react and recognize which of the three is stolen.
* Shadow Fiend's right click damage together with his ability damage may hurt Rubick bad. Consider items like
Ghost Scepter and
Glimmer Cape, together with wards to avoid being picked up.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Chen's creeps to get to Chen: Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker.
* If Rubick can use Spell Steal to steal
Holy Persuasion, he will be able to turn Chen's creeps against him, reducing much of Chen's efficiency.
* Rubick can also steal Hand of God and use it to save his teammates during teamfights and
Penitence to slow down Chen and make Rubick and his allies attack him faster.
* Telekinesis can be used to coordinate gank on Chen and prevent him from escaping.
* Fade Bolt can deal high damage to both, Chen and his creeps and weaken their damage output.
* Heroes with considerable mobility can easily escape from a rolling Pangolier: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit, moreover, if a player is familiar with how Rolling Thunder works, they can adjust their movement to avoid it entirely and of course outplay the Pangolier player.
* Shield Crash is a great area-of-effect ability on Rubick primarily for farming.
* Swashbuckle is a great reposition and damage ability on the hands of Rubick.
* Note that Rubick does not have Lucky Shot, so the ability might be less effective as a source of damage.
* Pangolier may build items such as
Maelstrom or
Diffusal Blade to add up attack multipliers to the ability, and Rubick can choose to build similar items should he choose the route.
* Rolling Thunder is a unique ability that allows Rubick to jump in the center of teamfight while protected by Spell Immunity, creating chaos and possibly chain stun the enemy team.
* Rolling Thunder negates the collision damage and stun from Pangolier's
Rolling Thunder.
* Rubick uses the fixed 0.15 second cast time when casting Rolling Thunder, making it faster than
Pangolier himself.
* Rubick can still use his abilities during Rolling Thunder - throwing an enemy en route by casting
Telekinesis can be a good idea.
* The decision to steal Rolling Thunder should be made quickly as Pangolier cast
Shield Crash very often during Rolling Thunder.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Venomous Gale is a great ganking and farming skill.
* Plague Ward serves as a flexible ability for pushing, ganking, farming and scouting. The innate
Poison Sting also works on the stolen
Plague Ward with half the damage.
* Poison Nova, if stolen and cast, puts a huge damage-over-time debuff on the enemy team, even greater than Venomancer himself with the help of
Arcane Supremacy.
* Spell Steal has a greater cast distance than the effect area of
Poison Nova, allowing Rubick to steal the spell while staying at the back.
* Venomancer suffers from mana pool problems, while Rubick has relatively high intelligence gain and can cast the same set of spells at ease.
Additional:
* All of Venomancer's abilities are decent choices for Rubick's Spell Steal. Stealing Plague Wards makes them apply Poison Sting as well.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* Stroke of Fate provides Rubick with a short cooldown nuke.
* Note that Rubick uses a fixed 0.15 second cast time for the skill, much shorter than the 0.6 second cast time for Grimstroke.
* Phantom's Embrace is an unique ability with extra silence and damage.
* Ink Swell is a great initiation/counter-initiation ability for frontliners.
* With Telekinesis, Rubick can grant extra duration for
Phantom's Embrace's phantom latch, or throw an enemy within the area covered by
Ink Swell.
* Soulbind, as a powerful ultimate, gives Rubick extra crowd control and sows chaos among enemies.
* Both Telekinesis and
Fade Bolt are single-target abilities, and can be applied twice on the enemy. The damage of
Fade Bolt is effectively doubled as the bounce is very likely to happen as the bound heroes must walk together.
* Any hero with teleport abilities (e.g. Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit) can easily break Static Link.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning breaks Static Link.
* Razor has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit.
* Spell Steal can easily steal abilities from Razor. Since Rubick get steal Static Link, Rubick can recover of his stolen damage, or simply steal Razor's own
* Heroes that usually build Linken's Sphere as either a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna,
Naga Siren.
* Rubick can cancel Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness with Telekinesis under the condition that Rubick is able to cast it on time. And considering Rubick commonly buys
Eul's Scepter of Divinity that can also cancel Charge of Darkness, Spirit Breaker will have a hard time charging Rubick or his allies until Spirit Breaker buys
Shadow Blade.
Telekinesis can also be used to cancel Nether Strike and
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Telekinesis also allows Rubick to save his allies from Spirit Breaker.
* Fade Bolt weakens Spirit Breaker's damage output, reducing damage of Greater Bash.
* If Rubick succeeds to steal Charge of Darkness, he will be able to reduce much of Spirit Breaker's global presence. Rubick can also steal Nether Strike to further disable Spirit Breaker once he disables him with stolen Charge of Darkness. But bear in mind, however, that a skilled Spirit Breaker can use Bulldoze to prevent all that.
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
* All abilities from Juggernaut (except Blade Dance) is very vulnearable steal to Rubick's Spell Steal.
Additional:
* Juggernaut looks like a carry that
Rubick can hardly manfight, and it is surely the case that Rubick needs the assistance from his team to overwhelm the hero. However, his skills can be of great use for Rubick if used at the right occasions.
* Blade Fury is a great farming ability with low cooldown. What is bizarre about this ability is that it grants Rubick spell immunity and constant damage around him (movement speed buff with
Aghanim's Shard). In early to mid game when all heroes has relatively low physical damage, the spell allows Rubick to become a temporary tank that enemy needs to run away from, extending Rubick's early killing potential.
* Telekinesis can throw a victim in range to eat up the damage from
Blade Fury.
* Blade Fury can be stolen and used in a pinch to negate the damage from
Blade Fury of
Juggernaut. Note that with
Aghanim's Shard Juggernaut can still deal damage to Rubick.
* Healing Ward, if stolen, serves as a magnificant healing tool within or after a teamfight. The constant area-of-effect healing helps greatly when your teammate is manfighting the enemy or escaping in a bad situation, and can even turn the fight around.
* Juggernaut is melee and cannot target an enemy
Healing Ward easily unless he is in the midst of battle. Also, Juggernaut is not directly controllable during
Omnislash and cannot attack
Healing Ward.
* Omnislash is possibly the least useful spell Rubick can steal from Juggernaut. Although it is a good damage source in the early game, as a hero who seldom bulk up his physical damage,
Omnislash falls quickly as the game goes on.
* It is worth mention that Omnislash could be used as an escape ability for Rubick with the help of
Blink Dagger.
* Omnislash grants invulnerability at the midst of a fight. With quick reflex and judgement, Rubick can possibly dodge lockdowns and area disables, even steal a new spell when
Omnislash is still on the fly.
* Heroes that are naturally hard to gank, ranging from beefy tanks like Abaddon and
Wraith King to heroes with quick escape mechanisms like
Anti-Mage and
Storm Spirit are also undesirable targets for a lone, roaming Bounty Hunter to scout out and initiate on.
* Rubick is a potential counter to Bounty Hunter as he can steal his Track and use it against his invisibility, and also provide his team with more gold if the tracked hero is killed.
* Ball Lightning can escape quickly fear from
Focus Fire. Windranger can not reach Storm Spirit although Windrun active catch him.
Additional:
* The high mobility provided by Ball Lightning makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire. It can be also used to dodge Powershot.
* Storm Spirit has multiple AoE abilities to deal with Phantom Lancer, especially with Aghanim's Scepter.
* Ball Lightning destroys illusions, avoids Spirit Lance, and makes Storm Spirit very hard to catch, even with Phantom Rush.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning with or without the
Static Remnant talent allows Storm Spirit to destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly. It is also easy to dodge
Spirit Lance with
Ball Lightning and makes Spirit Storm very hard to catch even with
Phantom Rush.
* Storm Spirit can easily make his way to Hoodwink with his ultimate Ball lightning, and coupled with Hoodwink's low health and magic resistance, she can be nuked easily.
* Additionally, Ball lightning can destroy a small amount of trees in its destination. Combined with Storm Spirit's frequent usage of his ultimate, he can clear out an area of trees while simultaneously attacking him and dodging incoming attacks.
* Ball Lightning makes it almost impossible to catch Storm Spirit without someone else initiating for you.
* Overload is not reduced by Bulwark and the magical damage spam can wear down Mars quickly.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit's abilities all do magical damage, which can bypass Bulwark.
* Ball Lightning can escape through
Arena of Blood and it is easy to dodge
Spear of Mars.
* Ball Lightning can be used to clear Nature's Prophet's Treants and easily destroys Sprout.
* Electric Vortex prevents Nature's Prophet's escaping using Teleportation.
* Terrorblade has low mobility, which makes it easy for Storm Spirit to kite him.
* Terrorblade gains a lot of agility and gains very low strength, which makes it easy to burst him down with Storm's magical damage.
* All of Terrorblade's abilities are easily avoided by Storm Spirit as he can simply use Ball Lightning, wasting the duration of
Metamorphosis,
Conjure Image, and
Reflection.
* However, if Storm Spirit's Orchid Malevolence is on cooldown or if he doesn't have it, Terrorblade can easily use
Sunder and kill a careless Storm Spirit.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit has heavy magic damage that bypasses Terroblade's high armor.
* Ball Lightning can either use to initiates Terroblade from distance or kite Terroblade from using
Sunder as he has no source of disable to deal with Storm Spirit outside of
Terror Wave from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Ball Lightning makes Storm Spirit a target difficult to chase, even for a hero as mobile as Timbersaw.
* The magical damage from Static Remnant and
Overload together with Storm Spirit's high mobility allows Storm Spirit to jump on Timbersaw and burst him down, even if he tries to escape.
* Meat Hook can prove annoying for Pudge if Rubick Spell Steals it, allowing Rubick to easily hook and save his allies being Dismembered.
* Crystal Nova helps on farming while applies an area slow.
* Frostbite extends Rubick's lockdown duration while providing extra damage, also serves as a farming ability.
* Freezing Field deals much greater damage thanks to
Arcane Supremacy in teamfights.
* Freezing Field is a channeling ability and therefore can be stolen easily.
* Crystal Maiden has no innate ability to interrupt
Freezing Field, though it may not be the case for her teammates; Yet a well-times
Telekinesis lift or drop can interrupt
Freezing Field.
* Consider build items that strengthens Freezing Field, such as
Aghanim's Shard,
Black King Bar and
Aghanim's Scepter to reach its full potential.
* Fade Bolt can hinder Jakiro's early pushing power by clearing creep waves.
* All of Jakiro's spells are great for Rubick to Spell Steal.
* Ice Path is a great spell for Rubick so steal, since Rubick has no cast time on stolen abilities, making Rubick's version of Ice Path much more reliable than Jakiro's.
* Macropyre is a great way for Rubick to farm.
Additional:
* One of Jakiro's weakness is his long cast animation, which gives enemy team extra time window to react. Rubick uses his fixed 0.15 second cast time for all Jakiro's stolen abilities, making the spells much easier to target.
* Dual Breath is a solid damage-over-time that is good for farming and helps with ganking.
* Ice Path is the go-to spell for Rubick to steal in teamfights - a sudden long range 2.5 second area stun is of no joke, especially if being casted out of vision. The control time is extended combined with
Telekinesis.
* Macropyre is a solid damage source (an area to avoid at least) for Rubick's side, and the damage benefits from
Arcane Supremacy, even further with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* It is not uncommon that the enemy team mistakenly treated the Macropyre ground effect as that of Jakiro's, and has already taken a lot of damage before they noticed their significant HP loss.
* Combined with Rubick's Level 15 talent (-25% Stolen Spells Cooldown, as of 7.31c), Macropyre can be used to clear creep waves and camps with ease, increasing his farming progress if a fight is not imminent.
* Spell Steal will easily steal all abilities from Dark Seer.
Additional:
* Spell Steal can perfect from Rubick's steal all abilities from Dark Seer. Rubick's always purchase
Aghanim's Scepter can two stolens abilities from Dark Seer's and waiting for seconds for second stolen abilities (example: combinated Vacuum and Wall of Replica) and many different combination.
* A good positoning from Rubick's Spell Steal waiting steal abilities from Dark Seer
Wall of Replica and illusion from
Wall of Replica Dark Seer's can fighting with effect from outcome steal
Wall of Replica from Rubick's.
* Combinated Rubick's steal Surge and
Blink Dagger is very important catch from Dark Seer's and enemies.
* Rubick's Telekinesis can lifted up Dark Seer or enemy heroes and throw to
Wall of Replica from Rubick's steal.
* Rubick's ability to steal Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) makes him extremely annoying to deal with because Rubick's shifted attributes will remain even if he steals a new spell.
* If Rubick moves enough points to strength and then steals Adaptive Strike, he will have a powerful 3-second ranged stun in his arsenal as well.
* Waveform provides a reliable nuke/escape to Rubick.
* Rubick can steal most abilities Morphling uses while Morphed, allowing Rubick to steal his own allies' abilities if the Morphling is not careful.
Additional:
* Morphling's abilities can grant unrivaled utility for
Rubick.
* Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) is a great spell that has a longlasting effect, since the attribute change is permanent even after losing the ability. By casting the spell,
Rubick becomes significantly tanky after pumping all his agility into strength.
* As the cost of the shift, Rubick's attack speed as well as his armor is hindered. Since the right click damage of Rubick is relatively trival in teamfights, armor items such as Medallion of Courage or
Buckler could greatly increase Rubick's effective health to physical damage.
* Rubick must be careful not to confuse Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) with
Attribute Shift (Agility Gain).
* Adaptive Strike (Strength) is a long-ranged stun.
* If Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) has been stolen and cast, the spell can stun the enemy for 3 seconds. The stun counters mobile heroes such as
Morphling.
* Waveform is a damaging pseudo-blink, giving Rubick much needed mobility and farming potential.
* As a frontline tank, the abilities of Underlord is surprisingly spell-cast heavy, and is often great for Rubick to steal.
* Firestorm is a great ability for farming, pushing and serves as a useful teamfight damage source, and even more so when its damage is amplified by
Arcane Supremacy and
Aghanim's Shard.
* It is worth mention that Firestorm has no visible effect on heroes other than damage, and the enemy team may easily mistaken the ability as casted by
Underlord, resulting in unexpectedly soaking up more damage.
* Pit of Malice is a great area control ability in teamfights, capable of trapping multiple heroes in a hazard area.
* Underlord has no immediate reposition ability, and since he usually stays at the front, he can be an easy target for Rubick's
Pit of Malice.
* Fiend's Gate, if stolen, grants Rubick's team great versatility around the map. Creating a surprise gank or appear as a group at the enemy backline during skirmish, escaping as a team from bad situations, or even taking Roshan or enemy highground unexpectedly, the possibility are endless with careful communication among Rubick's team.
Additional:
* All of Underlord's abilities are useful for Rubick to Spell Steal.
* All of Magnus's spells are perfect for Rubick to steal, especially Reverse Polarity for a counter-initiation.
* Telekinesis is one of the best instant-disables in the game, completely ruining Magnus's initiation.
Additional:
* Reverse Polarity, if stolen, can counter-initiate
Magnus's team and put them at a huge disadvantage.
* Magnus himself is positioned at the center of teamfight after casting Reverse Polarity, and will be stunned by Rubick's stolen one most of the times.
* Bear in mind that Magnus will usually cass Skewer or
Shockwave after he casts the ultimate, so the time windows left for steal can be short.
* Shockwave allows Rubick to farm fast, and also deals decent AoE damage in teamfights.
* Empower can be casted on the carry (especially affective if melee) on Rubick's team to accelerate their farm or amplify their damage in fights.
* Skewer could be used to displace enemy or escape from danger.
* Telekinesis can relocate the enemy in front of Rubick for
Skewer.
* With Quick Cast enabled, Rubick can stop the enemy Magnus with careful prediction using Telekinesis to interrupt
Horn Toss -
Skewer combo.
* Witch Doctor's iconic
Death Ward is a perfect spell for Rubick to output high damage.
* Death Ward requires channeling which makes Witch Doctor a clear tagret for stealing. Rubick can steal the spell outside of Death Ward's attack range most of the times.
* Note that an skilled Witch Doctor player can cast
Voodoo Restoration to disrupt their last spell for Rubick to steal.
* Telekinesis can interrupt a channeling
Death Ward. With
Death Ward's high burst damage, combining
Death Ward and
Telekinesis to hold enemy in place can result in a solo kill in the early game.
* Paralyzing Cask provides an additional disable. The ability also helps moderately with farming.
* Voodoo Restoration provides some utility by healing Rubick and his team.
* Maledict is a damage-over-time nuke that amplifies the damage enemy taken.
* Telekinesis can reposition the enemy within the range of
Maledict.
Additional:
* Rubick can steal Death Ward easily as it is a channeled ability and then use it to turn teamfight to his advantage.
* However, a skilled Witch Doctor will toggle Voodoo Restoration immediately after placing his Death Ward to prevent that.
* Burrowstrike is one of the best and easiest steals for Rubick and Sand King should be careful when playing against him - it's much better to give away Sand Storm.
* Shadow Demon will have a hard time catching Storm Spirit, as he can get away with Ball Lightning.
* Static Remnant will make quick work of the spawned illusions from Disruption.
* With very high mobility and usually being paired with Orchid Malevolence, he can catch Shadow Demon with ease both in ganks and in teamfights if Shadow Demon has no survivability items.
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze into the backline, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.
* Warlock's signature Chaotic Offering can be devastating if stolen and dropped on multiple heroes.
* Telekinesis interrupts Upheaval when used on Warlock. Alternatively, Rubick can also cast this on a naerby creep or hero and drop them near Warlock to interrupt its channeling. When upgraded with
Aghanim's Shard, Rubick can also use it to save an ally (or himself) from its area slow and damage.
* Fatal Bonds provides Rubick with a decent farming and harassing tool in the early game.
* Shadow Word provides some utility by healing Rubick and his team, and also as a harassment tool when used on enemies in the laning stage.
* Upheaval slows and damages enemies in an area, and it works exactly the same when casted by Rubick. Furthermore, he can extend its range and debuff amplification with Arcane Supremacy.
* A stolen Chaotic Offering can also be used to interrupt Upheaval while Telekinesis is on cooldown.
* It is advised to build items around Chaotic Offering as Rubick.
Aghanim's Scepter,
Octarine Core and
Refresher Orb are all legitimate item choices.
Additional:
* All of Warlock's abilities are worthy choices for Rubick to Spell Steal, primarily Chaotic Offering. Furthermore, stolen abilities are also affected by the increased cast range and spell amplification from
Arcane Supremacy.
* Telekinesis interrupts Upheaval when casted on Warlock, or to save allies (or himself) from its area slow and damage with
Aghanim's Shard.
* Bear in mind that Warlock likes to cast his abilities in quick succession, so the time window left for Rubick to steal Warlock's ultimate can be short.
* Storm Spirit destroys trees and ignores impassable terrains with Ball Lightning, rendering them dangerous places for Tinker to hide within.
* Ball Lightning disjoints projectile from
Heat-Seeking Missile and damage from
March of the Machines.
* Electric Vortex prevents Tinker from teleporting away, and
Static Remnant and
Overload can easily burst him down.
Additional:
* He can easily catch Tinker in the trees with Ball Lightning and kill him with
Orchid Malevolence and his abilities, which deal both physical and magical damage, making them difficult for Tinker to itemize against.
* Storm Spirit outlanes Earth Spirit wins by having a ranged attack type, and also deals damage to the Earth Spirit every time he approaches the creeps with his ability Static Remnant, which is why he overtakes Earth Spirit in level and gold
* Storm Spirit has the ability to quickly kill Earth Spirit under his ability Electric Vortex, which Earth Spirit cannot do if Storm Spirit buys
Falcon Blade at the liner stage, because Storm Spirit will have too much health for Earth Spirit`s abilities and will survive Earth Spirit`s damage.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit outlanes Earth Spirit wins by having a ranged attack type, and also deals damage to the Earth Spirit every time he approaches the creeps with his ability Static Remnant, which is why he overtakes Earth Spirit in level and gold
* Storm Spirit has the ability to quickly kill Earth Spirit under his ability Electric Vortex, which Earth Spirit cannot do if Storm Spirit buys
Falcon Blade at the liner stage, because Storm Spirit will have too much health for Earth Spirit`s abilities and will survive Earth Spirit`s damage.
* As a hero with uncommon traits, Phoenix's abilities require more health than mana. It is advised for Rubick to purchase health regeneration items such as
Tranquil Boots,
Urn of Shadows or
Hood of Defiance to keep up with the HP loss.
* Phoenix's signature
Supernova, if casted successfully, can turn a teamfight around if being stolen.
* The initial lift and the following crowd control from the drop of Telekinesis can protect the egg from being attacked if casted right before
Supernova with quick fingers.
* A successfully reborn Supernova refreshes the cooldown of
Telekinesis as well as
Fade Bolt, so don't hesitate to spam both of them before
Supernova with the reasons mentioned above.
* Supernova has a stun range of 1200, which requires Rubick to have Level 3
Arcane Supremacy at least to exceed its range. Consider buying
Aether Lens or
Blink Dagger to help with positioning.
* It is not possible to cast Supernova (as of 7.31c) with
Aghanim's Shard's extra
Sun Ray even with both spell stolen, since
Sun Ray takes up two stolen ability slots.
* Icarus Dive is a useful repositioning ability for scouting, initiation or escaping.
* Fire Spirits aids with Rubick farming given enough HP regeneration. In early skirmishes, the stolen ability can slow the attack speed of the enemy team to a crawl.
* Combined with Fade Bolt, both the attack damage and attack speed of the enemy team are reduced if they have no source of dispel, effectively nullifying their physical attack damage.
* Sun Ray thrives in and after a teamfight by damaging enemy heroes and healing allies at the same time.
* Rubick can interrupt both Icarus Dive and
Sun Ray by casting
Telekinesis.
* All of Omniknight's abilities are valuable for Rubick to Spell Steal, and Omniknight has no throwaway ability to cover his last used spell.
* Tombstone can be stolen to counter-initiate the enemy team in skirmishes.
* Tombstone provides vision over the enemy around, use this to Rubick's advantage for more spells.
* Since Undying is melee and has low attack speed, the tombstone can be hard to taken down by Undying himself.
* Flesh Golem provides Rubick with increased Health pool and a powerful attack modifier.
* Rubick can apply the
Flesh Golem debuff much more easily as a ranged hero.
* Decay is a decent damaging ability, making Rubick somewhat tankier in teamfights.
* Soul Rip can be used for extra heal or burst damage.
Additional:
* All abilities from Undying easy to steal to Rubick with Spell Steal.
* Lina can win on a line against Storm Spirit because of the range of her abilities and attacks, and Storm Spirit will be forced to survive on such a line, not farm
* Storm Spirit can quickly close the distance with Lina using Ball Lightning. In addition,
Ball Lightning can be used as a way to dodge the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can quickly close the distance with Lina using Ball Lightning. In addition,
Ball Lightning can be used as a way to dodge the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array
* Dragon Slave is easy to steal, and provides Rubick with a useful nuke.
* Light Strike Array serves as a cheap nuke as well as a crowd control ability.
* Rubick uses the fixed 0.15 second cast time when casting Light Strike Array, much faster than
Lina herself.
* Rubick can gurantee a stun by throwing the victim into the area with Telekinesis, extending the overall lockdown duration.
* Laguna Blade is an awesome ultimate that gives huge burst damage.
* Arcane Supremacy (combined with Level 25 talent +40% Spell Amp For Stolen Spells, as of 7.31c) increases its damage before reduction to a whopping 660/882/1134(830/1162/1494) (and even more so with
Aghanim's Scepter), without considering spell amplification from items.
* Laguna Blade is an intelligence hero with no regen ability, and casting
Laguna Blade back to Lina can result in her unexpected sudden death, or severly hinder her presence in the rest of teamfight. Nevertheless, the skill can also be cast on other squishy heroes or help bursting down enemy carries.
* Light Strike Array and
Laguna Blade has a short cast range, and Rubick can extend its range thanks to
Arcane Supremacy.
* Storm Spirit can hunt down Arc Warden with his Ball Lightning and kill him quickly due to his lack of escape abilities.
* None of his abilities are effective against Storm Spirit, as they can be evaded with Ball Lightning.
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during Ball Lightning, allowing him to zip away from any ganking attempts with Rupture.
* Ball Lightning also prevents Bloodseeker from chasing down an injured Storm Spirit, or catching him in Blood Rite.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during Ball Lightning, rendering
Rupture ineffective against him.
* Heroes that have superior mobility that can easily catch up with Mirana even after she used Leap to escape: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Riki.
* Heroes with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta: Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Lycan,
Chaos Knight,
Tusk.
* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks: Storm Spirit,
Morphling,
Ember Spirit
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities: Shadow Strike and
Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the
Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the
Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy
Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of
Electric Vortex
Additional:
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities: Shadow Strike and
Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the
Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the
Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy
Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of
Electric Vortex
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as Queen of Pain,
Slark and
Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as
Dust of Appearance or
Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
* All of Queen of Pain's abilities are worthy choices for Rubick to Spell Steal. In addition, he can cast her abilities from further distances than her thanks to
Arcane Supremacy's increased cast range and spell amplification.
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp: Phantom Assassin,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate: Clinkz,
Slark,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Bounty Hunter,
Spirit Breaker,
Night Stalker,
Storm Spirit,
Juggernaut, etc.
Additional:
* Ancient Apparition's only skill to stop Storm Spirit is Cold Feet, which is bad in general when trying to stop a Storm Spirit without any other disable.
* As a fragile support with low Strength gain and no magic resistance, Ancient Apparition is vulnerable to Storm Spirit's combos.
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include: Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
* None of Spectre's spells are very good for Rubick to Spell Steal.
* Storm Spirit can exploit every one of Spectre's weaknesses, and thus is one of the best counters against her.
* Spectre has to be in melee range to deal damage, making her likely to trigger Static Remnants and susceptible to being kited by
Overload procs.
* Electric Vortex can lock Spectre down as she doesn't like to build
Black King Bar.
* Ball Lightning gives Storm Spirit multiple advantages:
* Spectre cannot evade Storm Spirit, as Ball Lightning is superior to Spectral Dagger in terms of mobility.
* Storm Spirit can kite her and her Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks (Reality is far inferior to Ball Lightning).
* It is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with Desolate. Ball Lightning grants invulnerability and can mitigate damage done from
Dispersion and
Radiance.
* To mitigate this, Spectre needs a team with hard disable to take Storm Spirit out.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning is the ultimate counter to Spectre's entire toolkit. With this ability, he can score easy kills on Spectre without her having any means of escape early game, kite her and her
Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks.
* Furthermore, it is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with Desolate, and without both
Manta Style and
Diffusal Blade he will always remain on the move.
* Also, Ball Lightning grants invulnerability, and as Storm Spirit likes to spam that ability, he can mitigate the damage done from
Dispersion and
Radiance.
* Rubick usually positions in the back of a team. Heroes who can sneak up and assault Rubick (e.g. Slark) or damage Rubick from great distance (e.g.
Spectre,
Sniper) should be treated cautiously, as otherwise the matchup usually ends up badly for Rubick.
* Heroes with strong team-fight abilities (especially ultimates) like Tidehunter,
Brewmaster,
Death Prophet, etc.
* Marci can be effective against vulnerable squishy heroes that cannot deal with heroes that jump onto them - Sniper,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Rubick, etc.
* Heroes that can reliably kite out Dispose, Unleash and dodge Rebound, like Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Puck or always build items like
Blink Dagger and
Force Staff.
* Heroes that reduce the damage that Marci can deal during her ultimate, like Razor,
Rubick,
Bane,
Dragon Knight and
Underlord.
* Heroes with strong team-fight abilities (especially ultimates) like Tidehunter,
Brewmaster,
Death Prophet, etc.
Additional:
* Fade Bolt reduces damage output of Anchor Smash.
* Ravage is an easy target to Spell Steal, so always be sure to use Anchor Smash immediately after Ravage when playing against a Rubick.
* Spells stolen by Rubick are potentially stronger due to the lack of cast animations, his talents, and his passive, Arcane Supremacy.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Io's allies to get to Io: Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Lifestealer.
* Heroes with escape abilities: Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* In general, heroes who are melee with no way to fight back can be very easily poked by Monkey King to gain his Jingu Mastery stacks: Dark Seer,
Riki,
Rubick.
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to easily catch up to Monkey King, destroying a large number of trees, cancelling Tree Dance, and causing Monkey King to be stunned in the process.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to destroy a large amount of trees, negating
Tree Dance. It also makes it easy to avoid
Wukong's Command and
Boundless Strike.
* In general, highly mobile heroes like Earth Spirit or
Storm Spirit are at a disadvantage against X Marks the Spot.
* Similarly, heroes with low cooldown teleports can be afraid to split push against X Marks the Spot, such as Tinker and
Nature's Prophet.
* Rubick can steal abilities from Kunkka (except Tidebringer) with Spell Steal. Since build Aghanim's Scepter, Rubick's make two steal abilities from Kunkka when the spot is right.
Additional:
* Kunkka is a strong teamfighter with his powerful control spells, which Rubick could exploit to his advantage.
* Torrent provides another source of damage and crowd control.
* Ghostship is a powerful teamfight spell, providing huge magical damage to enemies and buffing allies with damage negation.
* Both skills works the best when comboed with other source of control from allies, such as Duel or
Beserker's Call.
* Telekinesis can reposition an enemy onto a
Torrent or
Ghostship.
* Torrent Storm works as a disruptive spell for Rubick to create chaos around him.
* Tidal Wave offers another source of control and repositioning.
* As long as Kunkka gains these spells with
Aghanim's Shard and
Aghanim's Scepter,
Rubick does not need extra items to steal these spells.
* X Marks the Spot serves as a utility spell for escaping, chasing and other useful functions.
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* All of Lion's abilities are dangerous even to Lion himself, and
Rubick may steal them with
Spell Steal.
* Arcane Supremacy powers up abilities cast range and damage, making
Rubick better at using
Lion's abilities than Lion himself.
* Telekinesis can easily catch and disable
Lion while also manipulating his position to favor
Rubick and allies, rendering him helpless.
Additional:
* Earth Spike is a great crowd control ability for Rubick to use, extending his lockdown potential.
* Rubick can caught enemy at greater distance due to Arcane Supremacy.
* The spell also helps with Rubick's farming, however the affected area of Earth Spike is limited to a straight line, making it harder to clear the creep wave.
* Hex is one of the strongest single-target lockdowns in the game, and works exactly the same when casted by Rubick.
* Though Mana Drain does not directly provide damage or lockdown, it does solve Rubick's mana regen issue in the early to mid game.
* Finger of Death is one of the best magical nukes in the game, increases Rubick's ganking potential greatly.
* Note that the stack of Finger of Death is lost when Rubick lost the spell.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Rubick can clear creep waves and flash farm with the boosted
Finger of Death if stolen, assuming Rubick has enough mana pool to hold.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw.
* All of Puck's abilities are good for Rubick to Spell Steal:
* Illusory Orb and Waning Rift are all great wave-clear abilities.
* If Rubick manages to steal Waning Rift, he can silence Puck, disabling all its abilities including Phase Shift, Puck's main survivability tool.
* Dream Coil is a powerful teamfight ultimate that leashes enemies and disables their movement.
* As an elusive hero who requires constant repositioning, Puck is greatly countered by its own ultimate as it disables all its mobile abilities and items (especially Blink Dagger), forcing it to either stay in the danger zone or latches and stuns for a long time.
* Although Phase Shift does not provide extra damage or lockdown on its own, it does grant Rubick invulnerability, and enables him to use Blink Dagger with full duration similar to Puck's escaping combos.
* Rubick can initiate on Puck relatively fast as Telekinesis only has a 0.15 second cast animation.
Additional:
* Illusory Orb and
Waning Rift are all great wave-clear abilities.
* Waning Rift can silence
Puck, disabling all her abilities including
Phase Shift.
* Dream Coil is a powerful teamfight ultimate that leashes enemies and disables their movement.
* As an elusive hero who requires constant repositioning, Puck is greatly countered by her own ultimate as it disables all her mobile abilities and items (especially
Blink Dagger), forcing
Puck to either stay in the danger zone or latches and stuns for a long time.
* Although Phase Shift does not provide extra damage or lockdown on its own, it does grant Rubick invulnerability, and enables him to use
Blink Dagger with full duration similar to
Puck's escaping combos.
* Rubick can initiate on Puck relatively fast as
Telekinesis only has a 0.15 second cast animation.
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* In the early to mid game, Invoker is defenseless against Storm Spirit's ganking with Ball Lightning and
Orchid Malevolence.
* Heroes that have escape abilities (such as Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit or
Timbersaw) can be either nullified by Reaper's Scythe or a complimentary item for Necrophos (like
Rod of Atos or
Scythe of Vyse). If Necrophos is quick enough and enters range, they can quickly, if not instantly, die if they are not quick enough.
* If Rubick steals Reaper's Scythe, he can turn the powerful ultimate back against Necrophos's team. Even his other spells are useful in Rubick's hands, giving him a sustain or a weak initiation/protection tool.
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* Pugna is a very fragile hero who can easily get caught and killed by Storm Spirit's long range initiation.
* This is especially true if he has Orchid Malevolence or
Scythe of Vyse.
* Pugna has no disables that can prevent Storm Spirit from escaping.
* Even though Ball Lightning requires high amount of mana, Nether Ward is ineffective since Storm Spirit is invulnerable while using it.
* Storm Spirit's other abilities cost very insignificant amount of mana for Nether Ward to be effective.
* Wraith King,
Medusa,
Storm Spirit and other mana dependent heroes will have diminished impact on a fight if they survive Fiend's Grip due to its mana steal.
* Fiend's Grip is a powerful but channeled ability, making it useful and easy to Spell Steal and interrupt with
Telekinesis.
* Stolen Fiend's Grip or Nightmare combined with Arcane Supremacy allows Rubick to disable Bane's allies for a longer period of time.
* As a natural Aghanim's Scepter carrier, Rubick can steal an upgraded Fiend's Grip and deal lots of damage to Bane's allies.
* In general, squishy heroes that rely on escape often struggle against the amount of disables Shadow Shaman can bring. Queen of Pain,
Anti-Mage and
Storm Spirit are among these.
* Ether Shock is a great farming ability as a handy short-cooldown nuke.
* Hex and
Shackles gives Rubick extra lockdown potential in ganks and teamfights.
* Mass Serpent Ward, should Rubick steal, serves as a powerful source for teamfighting, pushing, and acquring Roshan.
* Arcane Supremacy allows Rubick to cast
Hex and
Shackles at a further distance, which keeps Rubick at a safer position compared to
Shadow Shaman.
* Rubick can interrupt Shackles by casting
Telekinesis.
Additional:
* All abilities from Shadow Shaman can very vulnearble steal from Spell Steal.
* Rubick can interrupt Shackles by casting Telekinesis.
* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Dazzle,
Rubick,
Lich.
* Ball Lightning and
Electric Vortex will catch Broodmother before she has a chance to retreat, and is able to catch her through the trees.
* Conversely, Ball Lightning also allows him to easily escape Broodmother, as she has no way to prevent him from using it before getting Orchid Malevolence.
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar: Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
* Heroes with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons: Storm Spirit,
Magnus,
Pangolier.
* If Storm Spirit is caught in an Overgrowth, he is shut down.
* With the exception of Electric Vortex, he won't be able to cast any relevant skill.
* All of Treant Protector's abilities are worth stealing, and Rubick is able to cast them with no animation time.
* Any heroes with stuns or silences: Death Prophet,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with strong team-fight abilities (especially ultimates) like Tidehunter,
Brewmaster,
Death Prophet, etc.
* Fade Bolt is not enough to burst
Ursa, and even more so with
Enrage active.
* The damage reduction from Fade Bolt is not effective due to
Fury Swipes.
* Enrage lessens the lockdown duration from
Telekinesis due to its status resistance.
* Ursa can easily melt Rubick down with
Fury Swipes and
Overpower if he gets close enough.
* Few of Ursa's spells grants utility for
Rubick, as Rubick cannot steal the
Fury Swipes passive.
* Enrage provides Rubick with some sort of survivability, yet Rubick generally wastes the duration in the front line as he does not have a constant damage source.
* Storm Spirit can steal Aegis of the Immortal during Roshan attempts through the Pit, because of his
Ball Lightning.
* Ursa has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit, as Earthshock's slow will do nothing to stop Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning.
* Wraith King abilities are mostly passive making Spell Steal meaningless.
* This can also mean that Rubick's Spell Steal used on Wraith King guarantees him a stun spell.
* Rubick's lack of mobility & low health pool is easily tear down by Wraith King physical attacks.
* A hero that Rubick cannot reliably kill in most cases,
Wraith King is deceptively vulnerable to
Rubick in teamfights.
* Rubick can kite
Wraith King by casting
Telekinesis should
Rubick stays alive after first wave of skirmishes.
* {{A:Fade Bolt|Rubick} negates damage from Wraith King's skeletons.
* Wraithfire Blast is a spell very easy to stolen even for new Rubick players if
Wraith King is on the other side.
* A 2 second stun with a 8 second cooldown (6 second with Rubick's Level 15 talent -25% Stolen Spells Cooldown, as of 7.31c) is already far enough to lockdown Wraith King to a crawl, as he does not have much mobility on his own and can be easily targeted.
* Reincarnation may sound insurmountable, but the extra 3 second delay already grant about half the cooldown duration for a stolen
Wraithfire Blast.
* Rubick has sufficient mana pool to cast Wraithfire Blast multiple times.
* Although not the best option, Vampiric Spirit can be casted after Rubick gained enough last hits to summon skeletons for pushing and farming.
* Outworld Destroyer has a huge damage from Arcane Orb, which is why in a 1 on 1 skirmish Storm Spirit simply cannot defeat him in damage. Since Outworld Destroyer will stop gank Storm Spirit with his
Astral Imprisonment, and then kill him if he decides to fight
Additional:
* Outworld Destroyer has a huge damage from Arcane Orb, which is why in a 1 on 1 skirmish Storm Spirit simply cannot defeat him in damage. Since Outworld Destroyer will stop gank Storm Spirit with his
Astral Imprisonment, and then kill him if he decides to fight
* Rubick can use Spell Steal to steal Astral Imprisonment, and if Rubick gets
Aghanim's Scepter he gets 2 charges of it. This can overpower Outworld Destroyer in team fights.
* Rubick can also steal Sanity's Eclipse against Outworld Destroyer's teammates.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
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Storm Spirit
* Storm Spirit is absolutely helpless if caught within Night Stalker's silence range.
Crippling Fear is a silence that can last up to 8 seconds during night, rendering Storm Spirit tied limited to his items in a fight.
Dark Ascension allows Night Stalker to initiate on Storm Spirit across the impassable terrain around the middle lane, rendering Storm vulnerable in the early game and prevent him from snowballing.
* Common items a Storm Spirit will build will not remove the AoE silence.
Additional:
*
*
Rubick
*
Crippling Fear silences nearby heroes and cannot be dispelled, which hinders Rubick's way to retaliate when being jumped on.
Hunter in the Night and
Dark Ascension,
Night Stalker can find Rubick easily in teamfights. The two spells grants more than enough damage to hunt Rubick down without defensive items.
* With