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In a lot of games, like LOL and WOW, a used power needs to cool down before it can be used again. Is there a name used for "sending a power to cooldown?"

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    I'm not sure exactly what you mean - typically an ability is only put on cooldown by using it.
    – two bugs
    Mar 14, 2016 at 13:21
  • Do you mean only using the ability to trigger the cooldown?
    – user101016
    Mar 14, 2016 at 13:21
  • For instance: an ability that deals damage has an optional effect that increases this damage. If you opt in for this effect, you have to put another ability on cooldown.
    – FlakingEagle222
    Mar 14, 2016 at 13:43
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    @FlakingEagle222 I think there needs to be more clarification, and then you should really edit your question to clarify it better. Going off of that example, do you want to know if there's a term that a cooldown triggers another cooldown, a term for just triggering a single cooldown in general, or both? Also, provide examples like you gave in your question to help clarify any instance you may want to use the term, which will reduce the ambiguity of the question.
    – dakre18
    Mar 14, 2016 at 14:56
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    If there is an optional effect to increase damage then you would activate the booster ability and then the main ability. There are examples of this like Karma or Heimerdinger's Rs in League. If it didn't work that way then how would you opt in for the effect?
    – Probst
    Mar 14, 2016 at 15:01

1 Answer 1

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For the most part, "cooldown" isn't a "place".
It's usually thought of as the property of the ability itself.

Ability triggers.
Ability does its thing (does damage, or whatever).
Since the Ability has the property "Cooldown, X time", it "goes on cooldown". In other words, it changes it's state to "cooling down" and will spend X amount of time in this state, before changing back to "activatable".

I'm not aware of any separate verb for the transition between the "active" and "cooldown" states. The most common way to express this is to say "goes on cooldown" as I used before.

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    Great distinction for the OP, but what I have noticed in Final Fantasy 14, is using a macro or something to inform party members. So for example, one term people use is "popping a cooldown," but they will make a specific macro for the skill that says something like using this skill. Most of the time they don't worry about putting a time in there, unless it's something like "cure me in X seconds" or "invulnerable for X seconds." So the popping a cooldown is just what i've heard people use, but it's not widely used (as far as i know).
    – dakre18
    Mar 14, 2016 at 13:30
  • @dakre18 "Popping a cooldown" may be a niche term, but it seems to be a valid one. I just wasn't aware of it.
    – DJ Pirtu
    Mar 14, 2016 at 13:33
  • Yeah it most likely is a niche term, but that's why I can't say how often it is actually used. But it's used in the same sense of "Popping a pill." I just wanted to comment on it, but if it was a widely used term, i would have used it in a separate answer.
    – dakre18
    Mar 14, 2016 at 13:47
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    "I'm popping a cooldown" is basically just a colloquial way to say "I'm using [x powerful ability which has a long cooldown]." OP's subsequent comment describes a different thing, though, which is a situation where you do one thing which causes a different ability to go into cooldown status without actually being actively used. I think "goes on cooldown" or "gets put on cooldown" is probably fine to describe that.
    – Cloudy
    Mar 14, 2016 at 14:41

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