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A cooldown is a period of wait time before a spell, ability, or item power can be used again.
Contents
Mechanics[]
Usually, an ability will be on cooldown if the ability was activated and the cast time of the ability has passed. If the hero is interrupted before the channel time is over, the ability does nothing, and the cooldown and mana is wasted. On the other hand, abilities like Assassinate and Requiem of Souls have long cast times, and they will not go on cooldown before the cast time is over. Charge of Darkness is an exception to the usual rule; it goes on cooldown once the charge ends or is canceled, not upon cast.
If a hero has several versions of the same item, all versions will be on cooldown upon activating one of them. For instance, all Dagons are in the same cooldown group.
Some abilities or items have multiple cooldowns, using a different cooldown duration if their conditions are met. For instance, Culling Blade's cooldown is 0, but only when successfully killing a hero.
Many abilities have reduced cooldown when leveled up. If an ability is on cooldown and it is leveled up, the current wait time will not be affected at all.
Some abilities have charges and a charge replenish time instead of the usual cooldown. For instance, Shrapnel has 3 (
9) charges and a 35 ( ) second replenish time for each charge.
Cooldown Manipulation[]
Some abilities and items are able to manipulate the cooldowns of abilities. There are several different types of cooldown manipulation:
- Percentage-based Reductions and Increases
These cooldown modifiers reduce or increase the cooldowns of all abilities and items by a percentage when used. They cause abilities and items to enter a reduced or increased cooldown after being acquired. This means they do not retroactively affect already running cooldowns. Percentage-based cooldown reductions do not stack, the highest value takes priority.
- Flat Reduction and Increases
These cooldown modifiers reduce or increase the cooldowns by flat amounts. Unlike percentage-based cooldown modifiers, these can affect abilities which are already on cooldown. Flat changes are applied before percentage-based changes.
- Cooldown Resetting
Some abilities are able to completely reset the cooldowns of abilities and items instantly, so that they are ready to use again.
Talents[]
The following heroes have talents which reduce cooldowns of specific abilities by a flat amount:
Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade[]
The following heroes have Aghanim's Scepter upgrades which reduce cooldowns of specific abilities by a flat amount:
Aghanim's Shard Upgrade[]
The following heroes have Aghanim's Shard upgrades which reduce cooldowns of specific abilities by a flat amount:
Sources of Reduction[]
Ability Cooldown Reduction: 30%
Reduces the cooldowns of abilities and passives. Also affects charge replenish times.-
Cooldown Reduction: 30%
Reduces all cooldowns, including items and passives. Also affects charge replenish times. -
Current Cooldowns Reduction: 3/4/5/6
Reduces the current cooldowns of all non-ultimate abilities by a fixed amount. Does not affect items. -
Impale Cooldown Reduction: 7
Reduces the cooldown of Impale by a fixed amount while burrowed. -
Cooldown Reduction: 26%/38%/50%
Reduces all cooldowns, including items and passives. Also affects charge replenish times. -
Cooldown Reduction: 12%
Reduces all cooldowns, including items and passives. Also affects charge replenish times. -
Cooldown Reduction: 18%
Reduces all cooldowns, including items and passives. Also affects charge replenish times. -
Radius: 1200
Scan Cooldown Reduction: 50%
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
Aura, affects all nearby allies. Multiple instances of Prescient Aura do not stack. -
Cooldown Reduction: 25%
Reduces all cooldowns, including items and passives. Also affects charge replenish times.
Sources of Resetting[]
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Resets its own cooldown when the cull succeeds.
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Resets cooldown of all spells.
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Resets cooldowns of all items, except for Refresher Orb.
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Resets its own cooldown when the phantom successfully returns to the caster.
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Resets its own cooldown when invoking an already invoked spell.
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Resets cooldowns of all basic abilities, for self and the allied hero when upgraded. Does not reset any item cooldowns.
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Requires Aghanim's Scepter, killing an enemy hero resets cooldown of all her basic abilities.
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Resets cooldowns of all spells and items.
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Resets cooldowns of all spells and items, except for Refresher Orb.
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Resets its own cooldown when cast on self.
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Resets all cooldowns, except the following: Arcane Boots, Black King Bar, Bottle, Hand of Midas, Aeon Disk, Helm of the Dominator, Linken's Sphere Necronomicon, Pipe of Insight, Refresher Orb and Refresher Shard.
Other Interactions[]
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Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
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The heal restricting buff's duration is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions.
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The heal restricting buff's duration is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions.
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The guard stack restricting buff's duration is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions.
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Duration: 10/11/12/13
Causes enemy cooldowns to recharge 60% slower while they have the debuff. -
Triggers the cooldown upon cast, and again when the buff on the ally blocks a spell.
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Cooldown triggers upon leaving the infested unit, rather than upon cast.
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Casting Adaptive Strike (Agility) puts Adaptive Strike (Strength) on a 3 second cooldown.
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Casting Adaptive Strike (Strength) puts Adaptive Strike (Agility) on a 3 second cooldown.
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Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown. Cooldown also triggers upon landing on a tree after a jump, and upon unperching from a tree.
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Cooldown triggers upon losing the provided buff, rather than upon cast.
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The armor loss on the caster is bound to the cooldown of the item.
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Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
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Cooldown triggers when the charge ends, rather than upon cast.
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Cooldown triggers upon losing the tree, rather than upon cast.
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The downtime is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions, but cannot be reset.
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The cooldown of the sub-ability on the hero periodically sets itself equal to the shortest cooldown of Stone Form on the Familiars.
Unaffected by Cooldown Manipulation[]
The following abilities have cooldowns that are unaffected by cooldown manipulation for several reasons:
- The ability may use a custom cooldown system, which is not covered by default cooldown manipulation.
- The ability may use a cooldown for other purposes, for example, to indicate a delay before taking effect, like the effect delay of invisibility.
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Cooldown: 2.3
Unlike Skull Basher, Abyssal Blade's bash uses a custom cooldown system, because a regular cooldown would prevent the player from using the item's active ability. -
Damage Cooldown: 3
Instead of getting disabled by damage, Arcane Blink goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting. -
Cooldown: 0.3
Counter Helix uses a custom cooldown system for unknown reasons. -
Damage Cooldown: 3
Instead of getting disabled by damage, Blink Dagger goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting. -
Cooldown: 0.2
Gleipnir's Chain Lightning uses a custom cooldown system, because a regular cooldown would prevent the player from using the item's active ability. -
Passive Charge Gain Interval: 10
Cooldown reduction does not reduce the passive charge gain interval, it is always 1 charge per 10 seconds. -
Cooldown: 12
The cooldown that triggers when blocking a spell for an ally always uses the default cooldown value for unknown reasons. -
Damage Cooldown: 1000
Instead of getting disabled by damage, Tree Dance goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting. -
Damage Cooldown: 3
Instead of getting disabled by damage, Overwhelming Blink goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting. -
Cooldown: 0.2
Maelstrom uses a custom cooldown system for unknown reasons. -
Cooldown: 0.2
Mjollnir's Chain Lightning uses a custom cooldown system, because a regular cooldown would prevent the player from using the item's active ability. -
Fade Delay: 4/3/2
Cloak and Dagger uses the cooldown system to indicate its fade delay for the invisibility. It has visual purposes only. -
Damage Cooldown: 3
Instead of getting disabled by damage, Swift Blink goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting. -
Fade Delay:
Nature's Guise uses the cooldown system to indicate its fade delay for the invisibility. It has visual purposes only.
Charges[]
Some abilities use the charge mechanic, instead of cooldowns. These abilities have a set number of charges on them, which replenish over time. Instead of going on cooldown, these abilities use up one charge per cast. This means when having multiple charges, they can be cast quickly in succession, but cannot be used when having no charges left. Each charge takes a certain time to replenish. Multiple charges of a spell do not replenish at the same time, they recharge one after another.
Charge-based abilities will appear to be on cooldown when using the last charge. This "cooldown" however is only to visualise when the next charge is going to be ready again.
The replenish time of charges can be affected by the cooldown reductions of Octarine Core, Arcane Rune, and talents, and can all be replenished with Refresher Orb, and are also affected by Chakra Magic and Time Dilation. Other sources of cooldown manipulation cannot grant charges back or affect the recharge times.
An ability's current charges and recharge time are indicated by a number at the bottom left corner of the ability icon, surrounded by a green circle that fills up while recharging a charge.
Charge-based Abilities[]
The following abilities use the charge system:
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Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 18/17/16/15 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 40 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 20 -
Number of Charges: 4/6/8/10
Charge Replenish Time: 40 ( 25) -
Number of Charges: 3
Charge Replenish Time: 15 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 9 -
Number of Charges: 1/2/3/4 ( 2/3/4/5)
Charge Replenish Time: 36/34/32/30 ( 16/14/12/10) -
Number of Charges: 7 ( 11)
Charge Replenish Time: 20 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 18/14/10/6 -
Number of Charges: 3 ( 5)
Charge Replenish Time: 38 ( 26) -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 16/14/12/10 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 30/24/18/12 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 23/20/17/14 -
Number of Charges: 3 ( 4)
Charge Replenish Time: 45/40/35/30 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 20/17/14/11 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 12 -
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Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 25/20/15/10 ( 21/16/11/6) -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 29/26/23/20 -
Number of Charges: 3
Charge Replenish Time: 60 ( 30) -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 10 -
Number of Charges: 3 ( 9)
Charge Replenish Time: 35 ( ) -
Number of Charges: 3
Charge Replenish Time: 23 ( 20) -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 17/15/13/11 -
Number of Charges: 3
Charge Replenish Time: 40 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 18 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 28/23/18 ( 24/19/14) -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 12/10/8/6 -
Number of Charges: 2
Charge Replenish Time: 15/14/13/12
Recent Changes[]
- Percentage-based cooldown reductions no longer stack. [?]
- Refresher Orb now replenishes all charges to charge-based abilities.
- Percentage-based coooldown reduction now affects the replenish time of charge-based abilities.
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