Cooldown

Cooldown is the delay between a unit or building's attacks or use of certain non-passive abilities, measured in seconds.

Types of Cooldown

Attack Cooldown

Attack Cooldown is the amount of delay between the damage dealing actions of buildings or units, measured in seconds. It's a key statistic, as combined with attack damage, it defines the Damage per second (DPS) of a unit or building. To calculate DPS, a unit's attack damage is divided by the cooldown period.

There are several upgrades that reduce the attack cooldown of specific units, such as Adrenal Glands on the Zergling, which reduces the unit's attack cooldown by 0.109 seconds. The Terran ability Stimpack can be used to temporarily reduce the attack cooldown of the Marine and Marauder by 33%, thereby increasing the DPS of those units by 50%.

Attack cooldown is also an important attribute to be aware of when kiting, as the kiting units should ideally be moving during the entire cooldown period.

Ability Cooldown

Ability cooldown is the minimum period of time that must pass between usages of a specific non-passive ability for a single unit or building, measured in seconds.

There are several building and unit abilities which, instead of requiring on Energy to be used, only utilize a cooldown mechanic. Examples of these include Blink and Charge. When using these abilities, a clock animation will appear over the ability icon, denoting how much of the cooldown period remains.

There are also certain abilities, such as Generate Creep, which have no cooldown period at all and may be used continuously.

Units & Building by Attack Cooldown

Unit/Building Name	Race	Ground Attack Cooldown (s)	Air Attack Cooldown (s)	Upgrade/Ability
Zergling	Zerg	0.696 (0.587)		Adrenal Glands
Drone	Zerg	1.5
Queen	Zerg	1	1
Baneling	Zerg	none
Roach	Zerg	2
Locust	Zerg	0.8
Hydralisk	Zerg	0.75	0.75
Infested Terran	Zerg	0.8608	0.8608
Ultralisk	Zerg	0.861
Broodling	Zerg	0.6455
Mutalisk	Zerg	1.5246	1.5246
Corruptor	Zerg		1.9
Spine Crawler	Zerg	1.85
Spore Crawler	Zerg		0.8608
Broodlord	Zerg	2.5
Probe	Protoss	1.5
Zealot	Protoss	1.2
Stalker	Protoss	1.44	1.44
Sentry	Protoss	1	1
Dark Templar	Protoss	1.694
Immortal	Protoss	1.45
Colossus	Protoss	1.65
Archon	Protoss	1.754	1.754
Phoenix	Protoss		1.11
Void Ray	Protoss	0.5	0.5
Carrier	Protoss	0.5 (0.125/0.25)	0.5 (0.125/0.25)	Graviton Catapult
Interceptor	Protoss	3	3
Tempest	Protoss	3.3	3.3
Mothership Core	Protoss	0.85
Mothership	Protoss	2.21	2.21
Nexus	Protoss	1.25	1.25	Photon Overcharge
Photon Cannon	Protoss	1.25	1.25
SCV	Terran	1.5
Marine	Terran	0.8608 (0.57387)	0.8608 (0.57387)	Stimpack
Marauder	Terran	1.5 (1)		Stimpack
Reaper (vs. Units)	Terran	1.1 (1.8 vs. Buildings)		Building attack only in WoL
Ghost	Terran	1.5	1.5
Hellion	Terran	2.5
Hellbat	Terran	2
Siege Tank (Siege Mode)	Terran	2.80
Siege Tank (Mobile)	Terran	1.04
Thor	Terran	1.28	3.00 (2.00)	High Impact Payload
Auto-Turret	Terran	0.8	0.8
Viking	Terran	1	2
Banshee	Terran	1.25
Battlecruiser	Terran	0.225	0.225
Planetary Fortress	Terran	2
Missile Turret	Terran		0.8608

Note: Units without an attack are not included in this table.

Abilities With Cooldown

The following table shows the multiplayer abilities which have cooldown periods.

Ability Name	Unit/Building Name	Race	Ability Cooldown (s)
Prismatic Alignment	Void Ray	Protoss	60
Corruption	Corruptor	Zerg	45
Sentinel Missile	Widow Mine	Terran	40
Spawn Locusts	Swarm Host	Zerg	25
Ignite Afterburners	Medivac	Terran	20
Tactical Nuke	Ghost	Terran	20
Spawn Creep Tumor	Queen, Creep Tumor	Zerg	15
Charge	Zealot	Protoss	10
Blink	Stalker	Protoss	10
Pulsar Beam	Oracle	Protoss	4
Revelation	Oracle	Protoss	3
Psionic Storm	High Templar	Protoss	2
Consume	Viper	Zerg	1
Transfusion	Queen	Zerg	1