History Main / Cooldown

* The ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series has both versions with various tradeoffs. In Mass Effect 1, each power had its own cooldown, which was abominably long or somewhat fast, depending on what passive abilities you had equipped. In Mass Effect 2, however, using one power put all the other powers on a cooldown after using only one power. In exchange, though, the cooldowns were greatly reduced to a few seconds for almost every ability; powers with cooldowns longer than ten seconds were almost non-existent. Unless the squad members used their powers, since the squad members had much longer cooldown times than Shepard.

Most game characters don't have that option, however, and will be forced to wait for a fixed period of time or a certain number of turns before they can use that room-clearing move again. While it could be argued that said move was exhausting and that the character needed to recover before acting again, why is he or she able to use a different and more powerful move immediately? More importantly, why does ''that'' move also have a fixed recovery time? Why does the ''majority of the character's repertoire'' have such recovery times?

* The ''MassEffect'' series has both versions with various tradeoffs. In Mass Effect 1, each power had its own cooldown, which was abominably long or somewhat fast, depending on what passive abilities you had equipped. In Mass Effect 2, however, using one power put all the other powers on a cooldown after using only one power. In exchange, though, the cooldowns were greatly reduced to a few seconds for almost every ability; powers with cooldowns longer than ten seconds were almost non-existent. Unless the squad members used their powers, since the squad members had much longer cooldown times than Shepard.

* ''StarCraft2'' is moving a bit in this direction, where some {{Mana}}-based abilities are being replaced with cooldowns.

* All special abilities and magical spells in ''DragonAge: Origins'' have cooldown periods in addition to consuming stamina and mana, respectively.

* Most active abilities in ''XCOMEnemyUnknown'' have cooldown timers. Standard is two turns, while the most powerful abilities can take up to five.

* ''{{Diablo}} 2'' had the combination. Some spells were cooldown spells, some could be cast continuously. Unlike most games, if any cooldown spell was used, it would prevent all other cooldown skills from being used for the period, not just itself. Many skill setups in the game involved combining a cooldown skill with a fast casting skill.

* ''HyperdimensionNeptunia'' suffers from this when you're not in battle. In the dungeons, it is possible to execute one of three actions; swing a hammer overhead to clear away a breakable wall in front of you (as Neptune), ring a bell to trigger battles (as Compa) and show the location of the dungeon's hidden treasure chest (as IF). Problem is, the cooldown times for these abilities are atrociously long. It takes around half a minute for Neptune to swing the hammer again, which is kind of fair enough when you consider it's very heavy, but Compa has to wait about fifteen seconds to ''ring the bell once more''.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' - The Scout's Bonk! Atomic Punch, Crit-a-Cola, and Mad Milk, the Sniper's Jarate, and the Heavy's Sandvich and Buffalo Steak Sandvich are all subject to cooldown, though they can be recharged instantly by visiting the respawn lockers and the Sandvich can also be recharged by picking up a health pack when you already have full health.

The [[TropesAreNotBad upside]] to this mechanic is that it adds a layer of complexity to the overall {{Metagame}} as players have to deal with timing as well as damage numbers and StandardStatusEffects. Changing a skill's recovery time has a disproportionately large effect on its usefulness compared to its other statistics as one second less can make it a {{Gamebreaker}} while one second more can make it entirely useless. As a result, the recovery time of an ability is almost always balanced against that of others as opposed to approximating reality or following flavor.

* All special abilities and magical spells in ''DragonAge: Origins'' have cooldown periods in addition to consuming stamina and mana, respectively. According to the developers, however, the cooldowns (as well as charge-ups for AOE spells) will be removed in ''Dragon Age 2'' to make combat pace faster.
** Which ended up not being true, as spells still have cooldowns. Not to mention the fact that Healing Potions, which used to have a cooldown of 5 seconds, now require 30 seconds.

* ''TheWorldEndsWithYou''. All abilities can be used instantly a certain number of times before entering a cooldown period.

* ''TeamFortress2'' - The Scout's Bonk! Atomic Punch, Crit-a-Cola, and Mad Milk, the Sniper's Jarate, and the Heavy's Sandvich and Buffalo Steak Sandvich are all subject to cooldown, though they can be recharged instantly by visiting the respawn lockers and the Sandvich can also be recharged by picking up a health pack when you already have full health.

If something proves effective in RealLife combat, it would be wise to do it again as quickly as possible.

* ''TeamFortress2'' - The Scout's Bonk! Atomic Punch, Crit-a-Cola, and Mad Milk, the Sniper's Jarate, and the Heavy's Sandvich are all subject to cooldown, though they can be recharged instantly by visiting the respawn lockers.

* ''TeamFortress2'' - The Scout's Bonk! Atomic Punch and Crit-a-Cola and the Heavy's Sandvich are both subject to cooldown, though they can be recharged instantly by visiting the respawn lockers.

* RealLife example: Sex for men. [[GameFavoredGender Women don't have cooldown time]].