Cooldowns
After use, an ability becomes unavailable for a fixed duration. Cooldowns are the workhorse of ability pacing: they prevent spamming the strongest button, force rotation through a full kit, and create tactical windows — an enemy whose defensive is down, a burst combo when everything aligns. Compared to resource costs, cooldowns are self-managing (no economy to balance) and communicate cadence directly: a 3-second cooldown says 'use freely', a 3-minute one says 'save this for moments that matter'. Designers layer them with resource costs when they want both pacing and spending decisions. Key decisions: global cooldown versus per-ability, cooldown reduction as a stat (a dangerously compounding one — many ARPG balance disasters route through CDR), reset mechanics on kills (Doom-style aggression rewards), and visible timers. Pitfall: long cooldowns on abilities that can whiff feel punitive; pair big cooldowns with reliability.
- Dev effort: Small
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based