Cooldown is the amount of time that passes between the activation of a skill and the moment it’s usable again.

After you issue the order to use a skill and the cast time passed the skill will enter in cooldown, this means that for channeling skills the cooldown will start at the same time they do and not after they finish their effects.If you use the active skill of any item and have more than one version of it they will all go into cooldown, this is also the case for the Dagon series, even if they’re not the same item they are in the same cooldown group.

When a skill is on cooldown and you level it up the current cooldown will not be affected at all, there are no skills that can reduce cooldown time by a percentage or a fixed number, this is because the Wc3 engine only allows a skill on cooldown to be refreshed completely.
Some of these skills that refresh the cooldown completely are:

• Refresher Orb, that upon activation resets the cooldowns of all skills and starts it’s own.

• Tinker’s Refresh works on all of his skills and most of his items, except:
  • Helm of the Dominator
  • Necronomicon 1/2/3
  • Hands of Midas
  • Refresher Orb
  • Arcane Boots
  • Black King Bar


• In the mode –wtf almost immediately after you cast a spell all your spells are refreshed and your mana replenished, this is why skills that consume mana over time (like Lightning Ball) can leave you with 0 mana.