User blog comment:Commander Marko/Commander Marko's set of Custom Patch Notes! (I regret doing this...)/@comment-8919271-20140717041738/@comment-4290320-20140717093620

You can blame the 'Morello meme' for that.

So, -1 second cooldown on and  having a longer cooldown later on is a buff? The 'lowered' mana cost is something that Riot would or could change, since they said they are balancing mana costs (particularly on Ultimates) across the board.