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Cooldown
 
 
 
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Tinker

A cooldown is a period of wait time before a spell, ability, or item power can be used again.

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 icon Assassinate and Requiem of Souls icon Requiem of Souls have long cast times, and they will not go on cooldown before the cast time is over. Charge of Darkness icon 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 Dagon icon 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 icon 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 icon Shrapnel has (Talent ) charges and a second replenish time for each charge.

Sources of Reduction[]

Some abilities and items are able to manipulate the cooldowns of abilities. There are several different types of cooldown manipulation sources:

The total or final cooldown of an ability is defined as

CD = (Base CD - Σ Flat Reductions) × % CD Reductions Multiplier - Σ Current CDR

Flat Reduction[]

These cooldown modifiers changes the cooldowns by flat amounts. Unlike percentage-based cooldown modifiers, these can affect abilities that are already on cooldown. Flat changes are applied before percentage-based changes.

Multiple sources of flat cooldown reductions stack additively.

Flat Cooldown Reduction Sources
  • Invoke icon
    Invoke Cooldown Reduction per Orb Level: 0.3
    Reduces the ability's cooldown with each level of Quas icon Quas, Wex icon Wex and Exort icon Exort, from 7 to 0.7.

Talents[]

Cooldown Reduction
Can be used by illusions.
Talent icon
Ability
Passive
Affects
Self
There is no description for this ability.
Cooldown Reduction: Varies

  • Reduces all of the hero's cooldowns.
  • Multiple percentage-based cooldown reduction sources do not stack. The highest value takes priority.
  • The following values exist:
    • 6%/8%/10%/12%/14%/15%/20%/25%/30%/40%/50%/65%


No hero has this talent.

The following heroes have Talent talents which reduce cooldowns of specific abilities by a flat amount.

Main Article: Talent Upgrades

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade[]

The following heroes have Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter upgrades which reduce cooldowns of specific abilities by a flat amount.

Flat Cooldown Reduction Sources

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade[]

The following heroes have Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard upgrades which reduce cooldowns of specific abilities by a flat amount.

Current Cooldown Reduction[]

These cooldown modifiers change the current cooldowns by flat amounts and affect abilities that are already on cooldown. Current flat cooldown changes are applied after percentage-based changes.

Multiple sources of current flat cooldown reductions stack additively.

Current Cooldown Reduction Sources
1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Percentage-based[]

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 reduction sources reduces all cooldowns, including all items, passives and charge replenish times.

Multiple percentage-based cooldown reductions stack multiplicatively, and its multiplier is defined as

%CD Reduction Multiplier = (1 - ri )

Unique Percentage-based Sources[]

The following abilities provide cooldown reduction on certain conditions.

Unique Percentage-based Cooldown Reductions Sources
  • Tempest Double icon
    Talent Upgrade
    Cooldown Reduction: 0%
    Cooldown reduction only applies to the Tempest Double's abilities and items.
  • Spell Steal icon
    Talent Upgrade
    Stolen Spell Cooldown Reduction:
    Only applies to the acquired ability.
  • Defense Matrix icon
    Talent Upgrade
    Cooldown Reduction: 25%
    Applies to the affected target.
  • Telescope icon
    Radius: 1200
    Scan Cooldown Reduction: 50%
    Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
    Aura, affects all nearby allies. Multiple instances of Prescient Aura do not stack.

Examples[]

What will be the cooldown of a Level 1 Black Hole icon Black Hole if Enigma minimap icon Enigma has Octarine Core icon Octarine Core, affected by Arcane Rune minimap icon Arcane Rune and has a Talent talent specific 20 seconds ability bonus cooldown reduction?
Black Hole icon Black Hole Level 1 cooldown: 180
Octarine Core icon Octarine Core cooldown reduction: 25%
Arcane Rune minimap icon Arcane Rune cooldown reduction: 25%
Talent Talent specific flat cooldown: 20
Percentage-based Cooldown Reduction Multiplier
= (1 - 0.25) × (1 - 0.25)
= 0.5625
Final Ability Cooldown
= (180 - 20) × 0.5625
= 90
Enigma minimap icon Enigma's Level 1 Black Hole icon Black Hole ability cooldown will be at 90 seconds in this example.

Sources of Resetting[]

Some abilities are able to completely reset the cooldowns of abilities and items instantly, so that they are ready to use again.

For Rearm icon Rearm, the following items do not have their cooldowns reset: Aeon Disk icon Aeon Disk, Arcane Boots icon Arcane Boots, Black King Bar icon Black King Bar, Hand of Midas icon Hand of Midas, Helm of the Dominator icon Helm of the Dominator, Helm of the Overlord icon Helm of the Overlord, Linken's Sphere icon Linken's Sphere, Meteor Hammer icon Meteor Hammer, Pipe of Insight icon Pipe of Insight, Refresher Orb icon Refresher Orb, Refresher Shard icon Refresher Shard and Neutral Items.

Various Cooldown Resetting Sources

Other Interactions[]

Other Miscellaneous Cooldown Interactions

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.
Abilities Unaffected by Cooldown Manipulation
  • Abyssal Blade icon
    Cooldown: 2.3
    Unlike Skull Basher icon 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.
  • Blink Dagger icon
    Damage Cooldown: 3
    Instead of getting disabled by damage, it goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is not affected by cooldown resetting.
  • Arcane Blink icon
    Damage Cooldown:
    Instead of getting disabled by damage, it goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is not affected by cooldown resetting.
  • Overwhelming Blink icon
    Damage Cooldown: 6
    Instead of getting disabled by damage, it goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is not affected by cooldown resetting.
  • Swift Blink icon
    Damage Cooldown: 3
    Instead of getting disabled by damage, it goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is not affected by cooldown resetting.
  • Fallen Sky icon
    Damage Cooldown: 3
    Instead of getting disabled by damage, Fallen Sky goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting.
  • Crimson Guard icon
    Stack Limit Duration: 8
    The stack limit duration is set upon cast and is unaffected by cooldown manipulation.
  • Guardian Greaves icon
    Heal Stack Limit Duration: 39
    The heal stack limit duration is set upon cast and is unaffected by cooldown manipulation.
  • Holy Locket icon
    Passive Charge Gain Interval: 1
    Cooldown reduction does not reduce the passive charge gain interval, it is always 1 charge per 1 seconds.
  • Linken's Sphere icon
    Cooldown: 14
    The cooldown that triggers when blocking a spell for an ally always uses the default cooldown value for unknown reasons.
  • Mekansm icon
    Heal Stack Limit Duration: 49
    The heal stack limit duration is set upon cast and is unaffected by cooldown manipulation.
  • Tree Dance icon
    Damage Cooldown:
    Instead of getting disabled by damage, Tree Dance goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting.
  • Gleipnir icon
    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.
  • Maelstrom icon
    Cooldown: 0.2
    Maelstrom uses a custom cooldown system for unknown reasons.
  • Mjollnir icon
    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.
  • Cloak and Dagger icon
    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.
  • Pounce icon
    During the leap, Pounce is on a non-refreshable cooldown which is bound to the leap buff.
  • Nature's Guise icon
    Aghanim's Shard Upgrade
    Fade Delay: 0.75
    Nature's Guise uses the cooldown system to indicate its fade delay for the invisibility. It has visual purposes only.

Cooldown Sharing[]

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 icon Octarine Core, Arcane Rune minimap icon Arcane Rune, and talents, and can all be replenished with Refresher Orb icon Refresher Orb, and are also affected by Chakra Magic icon Chakra Magic and Time Dilation icon 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[]

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Self-Restoring Item Charges[]

Recent Changes[]

Main Article: Cooldown/Changelogs
Version
Description
  • Percentage-based cooldown reductions now stack multiplicatively. [?]
  • Refresher Orb icon Refresher Orb now replenishes all charges to charge-based abilities.



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