User blog:Alartan/Cooldown reduction is love, cooldown reduction is life!

Cooldown reduction is special stat in League of Legends. Cdr has out of ordinary pattern in nearly every aspect. I would like to point out some.

Gold efficiency
Most of stats has gold efficiency as flat gold value. Percentage stats (ex. % MS in )  increase gold value per stat.

In most cases we can look at value of certain stat as relative increase too, ex. if champion has 2000HP and buys 500HP more, he has 25% increased value, if champion has 1000HP and buys 500HP it's 50%. From that point of view to maintain efficient development player should boost his already gained stats by others  (health, armour, magic resist | attack damage, speed, critical, armor penetration | ability power, magic penetration, cooldown reduction).

From both points of view cooldown reduction is very special, because stacking cdr gives it more efficiency.

Example:
 * You have skill with 10s cd. You can use it 12 times in 1200 seconds.

What's important:
 * You bought . (20% cdr)
 * Now your spell has 8s cd. (20% from 10s is 2s. 10s-2s=8s) You can use it 15 times in 1200 seconds (25% more compared to 48 times before).
 * You bought . (20% cdr)
 * Now your spell has 6s cd. (20% from 10s is 2s. 8s-2s=6s)
 * You can use it 20 times in 1200 seconds (67% more compared to 12 times on basic cd, 33% more in comparison to 15 times with 20% cdr). Important to notice: percentage increase is higher then when one got first 20% cdr!
 * But! (8-6)/8*100%=25%! Wow, that Frozen Heart gave you not 20% cdr, but 25%!
 * more cdr = higher gold efficiency
 * higher cdr grows expontentially "in battle" strength

Hard cap and soft caps
Cooldown reduction has hard cap in 40% cdr. It's only such a stat, Movement Speed has soft caps, penetrations and resistances have unlinear effects. Champion cannot exceed that cap with purchases, if you alredy bought 40% you don't get more. It's important for supports, they have many valuable cdr items and they should avoid stacking them to higher then 40% cdr with items, runes and masteries.

There is wide range of cdr soft caps affecting champions.

Some champions have long time effect, that becomes permanent with some cdr. Some are not affected by cdr at all. Examples: As you noticed 38% is not that far from 40%, so one can take 40% cdr in build and it's ok. But Mundo should avoid more than 30% cdr. Amumu and Warwick should get cdr despite they have toggle on/off abilities.
 * is permanent with 38% cdr,
 * is permanent with 38% cdr.
 * is permanent with 30% cdr.
 * toggle on/off abilities like, ,.
 * does not depend on cdr.

Cooldown is low already for some champions - probably the best example is, she can spam her anyway and she should use some autos and move between. Player should avoid buying cdr for her.

Resets:,. With reset mechanic it's totally wasteful to get cdr for those champions.

Resources are limiting many champions. Lack of items. It's common issue among manaless champions. Cdr is great utility for them, but most of cdr items replenish mana too. It's waste. That's common reason why there is no manaless support too.
 * Energy is limited resource. To commit full combo energy champions like or  use up their whole energy. With cdr player in most cases must wait to replenish energy before throwing next combo even if cooldowns are up alredy.
 * Mana is not big limitation for many champions, but for example has big mana issues. Despite big utility from her spells it's much more effectiove to avoid cooldown in her kit.
 * HP can be problem for or.

Spell effects
Math here, sorry.

Lets take for example. That spell has 250 basic damage on 5th level, 0.85 AP ration and 8s cooldown. With pure 40% cdr it would have 5,6s cd, that spell can be used 67% more frequently. 67% from 250 is 168. To have 168 more damage you need 198 AP.

40% cdr is equvalent to 198AP in this case. Not to mention you have better chance to use it again if missed or provide spell effects like crowd-controls etc.

Second part is seriously important. Obviously bronze playeres never miss (or he is called "retard" by teammates), but Korean players have tendencies to avoid skillshots on daily basis. That's why Koreans prioretize cdr much more.

With some AP, lets say 120 from damage from Incinerate is already around 350. In that case to afford 67% increased damage one need to have roughly 280AP more.

Is that cdr much or no?

Actually, it depends on champion and his spells, ex., or  have spell effects like cc on nearly every spell, so cdr is very valuable for them. Casters tends to prefer raw damage for time being, but after some items and levels it's very good to get cdr. Marksmen rely on basic attacks, so cdr is rather waste.

Summary
Plan you itemization carefully if you want to get cdr!
 * Try to get 40% cdr if you already have 20%. Really.
 * Never buy more than 40% cdr with items, runes and masteries.
 * Try to get some cdr on every champion that can make use of it. In most cases it's better to have 600AP and 20% cdr than 900AP. (6  FTW!)
 * Avoid cdr on Energy champions, Health champions and reset champions.