Cooldown

▶️ I'm not ready!

“

▶️ Initializing in... 3..2..1!

— Tinker

”

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

Mechanics[edit]

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 ( ) charges and a second replenish time for each charge.

Sources of Reduction[edit]

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[edit]

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

Invoker - Invoke

Invoke Cooldown Reduction per Orb Level: 0.3
Reduces the ability's cooldown with each level of Quas, Wex and Exort, from to -6.3.

Talents[edit]

Cooldown Reduction

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self

There is no description for this ability.

Cooldown Reduction: Varies

NOTES

428, 5950, 6021, 6190, 568, 5951, 5952, 6222, 6561, 6445, 6804, 7109

special_bonus_cooldown_reduction_6/8/10/12/14/15/20/25/30/40/50/65

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%

The following heroes have a talent that grants them cooldown reduction.

Bonus	Level 10		Level 15		Level 20		Level 25
Bonus	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right
Cooldown Reduction

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

Main Article: Talent Upgrades

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade[edit]

Main Article: Aghanim's Scepter Upgrades

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

Flat Cooldown Reduction Sources

Nyx Assassin - Burrow

Impale Cooldown Reduction: 25%
Reduces the cooldown of Impale by a fixed amount while burrowed.

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade[edit]

Main Article: Aghanim's Shard Upgrades

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

Current Cooldown Reduction[edit]

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.

^2a Requires

Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires

Aghanim's Shard.

³ Requires

facet.

Percentage-based[edit]

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 = <math>\prod_{i=1}^n</math>(1 - r_i )

Percentage-based Cooldown Changing Sources

Ancient Frostbitten Golem – Time Warp Aura
Runes – Arcane
Quickening Charm – Cooldown Reduction
Spell Prism – Cooldown Reduction
Octarine Core – Cooldown Reduction
Faceless Void – Time Dilation

Unique Percentage-based Sources[edit]

The following abilities provide cooldown reduction on certain conditions.

Unique Percentage-based Cooldown Reductions Sources

Arc Warden - Tempest Double

Cooldown Reduction:
Cooldown reduction only applies to the Tempest Double's abilities and items.
Rubick - Spell Steal

Stolen Spell Cooldown Reduction:
Only applies to the acquired ability.
Tinker - Defense Matrix

Cooldown Reduction:
Applies to the affected target.
Telescope - Prescient Aura

Radius: 1200
Scan Cooldown Reduction: 50%
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
Aura, affects all nearby allies. Multiple instances of Prescient Aura do not stack.This is an old ability.

Ratio[edit]

Acceleration Deceleration

Examples[edit]

What will be the cooldown of a Level 1

Black Hole if

Enigma has

Octarine Core, affected by

Arcane Rune and has a

talent-specific 20 seconds ability bonus cooldown reduction?

Black Hole Level 1 cooldown: 180

Octarine Core cooldown reduction: 25%

Arcane Rune cooldown reduction: 25%

Talent-specific flat cooldown reduction: -20 seconds

Percentage-based Cooldown Reduction Multiplier

= (1 - 0.25) × (1 - 0.25)

= 0.5625

Final Ability Cooldown

= (180 - 20) × 0.5625

= 90

Enigma's Level 1

Black Hole ability cooldown will be at 90 seconds in this example.

Sources of Resetting[edit]

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

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

Various Cooldown Resetting Sources

Axe - Culling Blade

Resets its own cooldown when the kill succeeds.
Brewmaster - Primal Companion

Resets the cooldown the ability upon Primal Split cast.
Ex Machina - Reset Cooldowns

Resets cooldowns of all items, except Refresher Orb and Refresher Shard.
Grimstroke - Phantom's Embrace

Resets its own cooldown when the Phantom successfully returns to the caster.
Invoker - Invoke

Resets its own cooldown when invoking an already invoked ability.
Phoenix - Supernova

Resets cooldowns of all basic abilities, for self and the allied hero. Does not reset any item cooldowns.
Phantom Assassin - Blur

Killing an enemy hero resets cooldown of all her basic abilities.
Refresher Orb - Reset Cooldowns

Resets cooldowns of all abilities and items, except other Refresher Orbs, Refresher Shard and Ex Machina.
Refresher Shard - Reset Cooldowns

Resets cooldowns of all abilities and items, except Refresher Orb and Ex Machina.
Tinker - Rearm

Resets hero abilites, but not hero items.

Other Interactions[edit]

Other Miscellaneous Cooldown Interactions

Blink Dagger - Blink

Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
Arcane Blink - Arcane Blink

Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
Overwhelming Blink - Overwhelming Blink

Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
Swift Blink - Swift Blink

Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
Guardian Greaves - Mend

The heal restricting buff's duration is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions.
Mekansm - Restore

The heal restricting buff's duration is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions.
Crimson Guard - Guard

The guard stack restricting buff's duration is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions.
Linken's Sphere - Transfer Spellblock

Triggers the cooldown upon cast, and again when the buff on the ally blocks a spell.
Lifestealer - Infest

Cooldown triggers upon leaving the infested unit, rather than upon cast.
Morphling - Adaptive Strike (Agility)

Casting Adaptive Strike (Agility) puts Adaptive Strike (Strength) on a second cooldown.
Morphling - Adaptive Strike (Strength)

Casting Adaptive Strike (Strength) puts Adaptive Strike (Agility) on a second cooldown.
Monkey King - Tree Dance

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.
Sniper - Take Aim

Cooldown triggers upon losing the provided buff, rather than upon cast.
Spirit Bear - Return

Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
Spirit Breaker - Charge of Darkness

Cooldown triggers when the charge ends, rather than upon cast.
Tiny - Tree Grab

Cooldown triggers upon losing the tree, rather than upon cast.
Tranquil Boots - Break

The downtime is affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions, but cannot be reset.
Tumbler's Toy - Vault

Taking hero or Roshan-based damage triggers a short cooldown.
Visage - Stone Form

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[edit]

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 - Bash

Cooldown:
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.
Blink Dagger - Blink

Damage Cooldown:
Instead of getting disabled by damage, it goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is not affected by cooldown resetting.
Arcane Blink - Arcane Blink

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 - Overwhelming Blink

Damage Cooldown:
Instead of getting disabled by damage, it goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is not affected by cooldown resetting.
Swift Blink - Swift Blink

Damage Cooldown:
Instead of getting disabled by damage, it goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is not affected by cooldown resetting.
Fallen Sky - Fallen Sky

Damage Cooldown:
Instead of getting disabled by damage, Fallen Sky goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting.
Crimson Guard - Guard

Stack Limit Duration: 7
The stack limit duration is set upon cast and is unaffected by cooldown manipulation.
Guardian Greaves - Mend

Heal Stack Limit Duration:
The heal stack limit duration is set upon cast and is unaffected by cooldown manipulation.
Holy Locket - Energy Charge

Passive Charge Gain Interval: 17
Cooldown reduction does not reduce the passive charge gain interval, it is always 1 charge per 17 seconds.
Linken's Sphere - Transfer Spellblock

Cooldown:
The cooldown that triggers when blocking a spell for an ally always uses the default cooldown value for unknown reasons.
Mekansm - Restore

Heal Stack Limit Duration:
The heal stack limit duration is set upon cast and is unaffected by cooldown manipulation.
Monkey King - Tree Dance

Damage Cooldown: 4
Instead of getting disabled by damage, Tree Dance goes on a fixed cooldown instead. The cooldown is affected by cooldown resetting.
Gleipnir - Chain Lightning

Cooldown:
Gleipnir's Chain Lightning uses a custom cooldown system, because a regular cooldown would prevent the player from using the item's active ability.This is an old ability.
Maelstrom - Chain Lightning

Cooldown:
Maelstrom uses a custom cooldown system for unknown reasons.
Mjollnir - Chain Lightning

Cooldown:
Mjollnir's Chain Lightning uses a custom cooldown system, because a regular cooldown would prevent the player from using the item's active ability.
Riki - Cloak and Dagger

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.
Slark - Pounce

During the leap, Pounce is on a non-refreshable cooldown which is bound to the leap buff.
Treant Protector - Nature's Guise

Fade Delay:
Nature's Guise uses the cooldown system to indicate its fade delay for the invisibility. It has visual purposes only.

Cooldown Sharing[edit]

Charges[edit]

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.