Hammerwiki:Cooldown

A cooldown is a period of time directly after an action is performed (here, meaning the use of any item or ability, not the WAR-specific term "action") during which that same action, possibly along with other actions, cannot be performed. There are generally three types of cooldowns:
 * Single-action cooldown
 * Restricts only the action that was just performed
 * Example: After using Ice Bolt, the player may not use Ice Bolt again for 2 seconds
 * Example: After using Apocalypse, the player may not use Apocalypse again for 5 minutes
 * Multiple-action cooldown
 * Usually restricts actions of the same type as the performed action
 * Example: After using Icestorm, no abilities in the Ice line may be used for 3 seconds
 * Example: After using a Health Potion, no Potions may be used for 2 minutes
 * Example: After switching to Shadow Stance, the player may not switch stances for 3 seconds
 * Global cooldown
 * Restricts all or nearly all actions and is triggered by nearly all actions
 * Example: After switching armor, no abilities or items may be used for 1.50 seconds

Please note: All abilities, items and cooldown lengths used in the examples are completely made-up and do not reference actual, in-game mechanics; they will perhaps be changed to real examples when that information is available.

Additional Information
Cooldowns are in place to prevent "spamming"(rapid and repeated use of an action) for both gameplay and performance purposes, and also to limit the use of very powerful abilities. For this reason, the length of a cooldown will usually scale with the power of an action, ranging from less than a second to several minutes to an entire day.

An action will cause all cooldowns that apply to it simultaneously. In other words, the types of cooldowns do not add, subtract or replace each other, but instead stack. To use another example, casting Apocalypse immediately restricts the use of Apocalypse for 5 minutes, and at the same time also triggers the global cooldown, immediately restricting all actions for 1.5 seconds.