Recharge

Recharge, alternatively cooldown or CD, is the interval of time (in seconds) after a skill or ability has been used before it can be used again. While a skill is recharging, its icon is darkened and has a clock-like animation that gradually brightens the icon until the skill has fully recharged.

Skills have various recharge times. Some, such as Necrotic Bite, don't have any recharge at all and can be used again immediately. Before you can use a skill again it must fully recharge. Healing, Utility, and Elite skills may be swapped while recharging. If these skills are swapped while recharging, the recharge time of the old skill will continue on the new skill.

Weapon skills recharge even if their respective weapon set is not active.

Thief weapon skills do not have a recharge, but are fueled by initiative.

When an effect description states that skills recharge X% faster, it seems to actually reduce the recharge time by X% instead. Thus, for example, a skill that "recharges 20% faster" can actually be used 25% more often (ignoring activation time). The formula for this is:

actual recharge time = original recharge time / (1 + faster recharge rate)

For example, an ability with a 10 second recharge under  Alacrity (recharges 25% faster) will have an actual recharge time of 10 / (1 + 0.25) = 8 seconds.

Certain Sigils and Runes with active effects also have hidden recharge timers. The time taken to recharge can be found on the item, but there is no way to know exactly how long is left before it can activate again.

Skill recharge is tracked per character and is halted while not playing that character.

Related effects

•  Alacrity — Skills recharge faster.
•  Chilled — Movement speed decreased by 66%; skill cooldown increased by 66%; stacks duration.

Related skills

•   Renewed Focus — Meditation. Focus, making yourself invulnerable and recharging your virtues.
•   Rifle Butt — Knock back your foe with your rifle butt. Successfully striking a foe recovers ammunition for each of your other rifle skills.
•   Backbreaker — Knock down your foe. Weakened foes stay knocked down longer. Recharges Fierce Blow if you control a foe with this ability. Recharges Fierce Blow if striking a target with a defiance bar.
•   Decapitate — Primal Burst. Gather your strength into a powerful attack. If it hits, gain might and recharge this skill.
•   Spectrum Shield — Exceed. Break stun effects and create a holographic shell that reduces incoming damage. This skill recharges faster while above the heat threshold.
•   Distracting Daggers - Physical. Fire a dazing dagger at your enemy. If this ability interrupts a skill, that skill's recharge is increased.
•   Mercy — Cantrip. Lose all malice, instantly refresh Deadeye's Mark, and gain initiative. Gain additional initiative for each stack of malice you had prior to using this skill.
•   Hilt Bash — Daze your foe with a hilt bash. Stun them if you hit from behind or they are defiant, and refresh your Maul ability.
•   Ancestral Grace — Become a wisp of natural energy, traversing to the targeted location. When you reach the target, heal nearby allies and grant protection to your pet. Recharge is reduced if you heal another ally.
•   Ride the Lightning — Ride the lightning to your foe, then strike all nearby foes with an electrical burst. If a foe is hit by the burst, the skill's recharge is halved.
•   Unravel — Stance. For a period of time, you forego your weaver training, choosing to fully attune to elements instead. Gain boons based on your primary attunement, and reduce all attunement cooldowns.
•   Mimic — Manipulation. The next utility skill you use has significantly reduced recharge, and Mimic's recharge is increased by the original recharge of the affected skill.  Mimic's recharge cannot be reset by other mesmer skills.
•   Phantasmal Rogue — Phantasm. Summon a phantasmal rogue that deals increased damage from behind. If the rogue hits, the recharge of this skill is reduced.
•   Signet of Illusions — Signet Passive: Creates a clone every few seconds. Signet Active: Recharges shatter skills.
•   Signet of the Ether — Signet Passive: Heal yourself whenever you summon an illusion. Signet Active: Heal yourself and reduce the recharge of phantasm skills.  Virtuoso: Passive triggers when stocking a blade.
•   Chilling Scythe — Chain. Strike foes, and chill them. A successful strike reduces the recharge on Gravedigger.
•   Gravedigger — Perform a huge swing that deals heavy damage. Recharges faster if it hits a downed or low-health foe.

Related traits

Traits that reduce recharge of profession mechanics

•  Power of the Virtuous — Gain condition damage based on your vitality. Virtues gain reduced recharge.
•  Renewed Justice — Virtue skill 1 is renewed when you kill a foe.
•  Loremaster — Retain Resolve passive while it is on cooldown. You generate pages more quickly.
•  Versatile Power — Gain might on weapon swap. Burst skills gain reduced recharge.
•  Mechanized Deployment — Your tool belt skills gain reduced recharge. Tool belt skills remove conditions. Engage Photon Forge cannot activate this trait.
•  Loud Whistle — While your health is above the threshold, your pet deals increased strike damage. Your pet swap gains recharge reduction.
•  Swindler's Equilibrium — Successfully evading an attack while wielding a sword or spear recharges Steal. Swords and spears deal increased damage.
•  Lead Attacks — Increases all damage dealt per initiative spent. Steal gains reduced recharge time.
•  Renewing Gaze - Deadeye's Mark recharges if your mark is defeated. Gain regeneration when this recharge occurs.
•  Sleight of Hand — Stealing also dazes the target. Reduces the recharge of Steal.
•  Elemental Enchantment — Gain concentration and your attunements gain reduced recharge.
•  Fresh Air — Recharge air attunement on a critical hit. Gain a ferocity boost when attuning to air.
•  Master of Misdirection — Shatter skills gain recharge reduction.
•  Sinister Shroud — Shroud skills gain reduced recharge.
•  Reaper's Onslaught — Gain ferocity and quickness while in Reaper's Shroud. Hitting with Life Reap reduces the recharge time of shroud skills. Recharge reduction can only occur once per use of Life Reap.

Traits that increase recharge of profession mechanics

•  Sand Savant — Summon only one shade at a time. This greater shade has a modified recharge. Influence a larger area with shade skills. A greater shade counts as three shades for related traits.

Traits that reduce recharge of weapon skills

• Zealous Blade (Zeal) — Your power is increased. Gain additional power while wielding a greatsword. Your greatsword skills have reduced recharge.
• Radiant Fire (Radiance) — Gain Zealot's Flame when you critically hit an enemy. Burning you inflict has increased duration, and your torch skills gain reduced recharge.
• Focus Mastery (Valor) — Focus skills grant you protection and gain reduced recharge.
• Stalwart Defender (Valor) — Gain toughness when wielding a shield, and shield skills gain reduced recharge.
• Invigorated Bulwark (Honor) — Increase your healing to other allies each time you block an attack. Mace skills gain reduced recharge and their boons gain increased duration.
• Honorable Staff (Honor) — Gain concentration. Gain additional concentration while wielding a staff. Staff skills recharge time is reduced.
• Forceful Greatsword (Strength) — Gain power and a chance to gain might on critical strike. Double these bonuses while wielding a greatsword or spear. Greatsword and spear skills recharge faster.
• Blademaster (Arms) — Gain expertise. Gain condition damage while wielding a sword. Sword skills gain reduced recharge.
• Axe Mastery (Discipline) — Gain ferocity. Gain additional ferocity when wielding an axe. Axe skills gain reduced recharge and grant adrenaline when critically striking.
• Lead the Wind (Marksmanship) — Your longbow and harpoon-gun skills pierce and recharge faster. Striking foes beyond the range threshold grants boons.
• Light on your Feet (Skirmishing) — Damage and condition duration are increased after dodging or using Quick Shot. Short bow skills pierce and gain recharge reduction, and their attacks from behind or while flanking or against defiant foes are improved.
• Ambidexterity (Wilderness Survival) — Gain condition damage. Gain additional condition damage while wielding a torch or dagger. Torch and dagger skills recharge faster.
• Two-Handed Training (Beastmastery) — Greatsword and spear skills deal more damage and recharge faster. Gain fury when you disable a foe.
• Honed Axes (Beastmastery) — You and your pet gain ferocity. Axe skills gain reduced recharge, and you gain additional ferocity while wielding an axe.
• Pyromancer's Training (Fire) — Your fire-weapon skills gain reduced recharge. Deal increased strike damage to burning foes.
• Aeromancer's Training (Air) — Gain ferocity, and gain additional ferocity while attuned to air. Air weapon skills get a reduced recharge time.
• Geomancer's Training (Earth) — Strike damage from nearby foes is reduced. Earth weapon skills gain reduced recharge.
• Aquamancer's Training (Water) — Increase healing to other allies. Water-weapon skills gain reduced recharge.
• Duelist's Discipline (Dueling) — Pistol attacks from you and your illusions have a chance to cause bleeding. Interrupting a foe recharges pistol skills. This trait can only reduce recharge on enemies with defiance bars once per interval.
• Fencer's Finesse (Dueling) — Gain a stacking ferocity effect when you or one of your illusions strikes with a one-handed sword or a spear. Reduces recharge on sword and spear skills.
• Chaotic Potency (Chaos) — Gain condition damage. Gain additional condition damage while wielding a staff. Staff and trident skills gain reduced recharge.
• Warden's Feedback (Inspiration) — Focus weapon skills reflect projectiles. Reduces recharge on focus weapon skills.
• The Pledge (Illusions) — Reduces recharge on torch skills. Flame bursts from torch skills inflict additional burning.
• Malicious Sorcery (Illusions) — Increases attack speed while wielding a scepter. Reduces recharge on scepter skills.
• Mirrored Axes (Mirage) — Reduce recharge of axe skills. Axe skills generate an additional phantom axe.
• Spiteful Talisman (Spite) — Deal increased strike damage to foes with no boons. Focus and axe skills recharge faster.
• Dark Gunslinger (Harbinger) — Pistol skills gain reduced recharge. Gain expertise based on your vitality.

Traits that reduce recharge of skill types

• Radiant Fire (Radiance) — Gain Zealot's Flame when you critically hit an enemy. Burning you inflict has increased duration, and your torch skills gain reduced recharge.
• Versatile Power (Discipline) — Gain might on weapon swap. Burst skills gain reduced recharge.
• Mechanized Deployment (Tools) — Your tool belt skills gain reduced recharge. Tool belt skills remove conditions. Engage Photon Forge cannot activate this trait.
• Mech Core: Jade Dynamo (Mechanist) — Unlocks the Mech Command skill Jade Mortar. Mech Command skills grant you quickness when used and have a reduced cooldown.
• Improvisation (Deadly Arts) — Use stolen skills twice. Reduce the cooldown of all equipped utility skills when you steal. Cooldown effect will only trigger if all utility slots are filled and if at least one of your active utility skills is on cooldown. Does not affect inactive sequence skills.
• Payback (Deadeye) — When Renewing Gaze triggers, this trait restores a portion of the recharge time needed by your healing, utility, and elite skills. Excludes racial skills.
• Elemental Enchantment (Arcane) — Gain concentration and your attunements gain reduced recharge.
• Transcendent Tempest (Tempest) — Time to attain singularity is reduced. Upon successfully completing an overload, gain increased damage.
• Master of Misdirection (Illusions) — Shatter skills gain recharge reduction.
• Master of Corruption (Curses) — Corruptions gain reduced recharge time and inflict additional conditions on you.
• Sinister Shroud (Soul Reaping) — Shroud skills gain reduced recharge.

Traits that reduce recharge of pet skills

•  Pack Alpha — Your pet's attributes are improved and pet skills gain recharge reduction. Improved attributes are power, condition damage, precision, toughness, and vitality.

Traits that reduce recharge of actions

•  Fast Hands — Weapon-swapping recharges faster.

Traits that increase recharge of skills

•  Power Block — Interrupts deal damage and inflict weakness. Enemy skills that you interrupt have an increased cooldown. Cannot increase recharge of skills with no recharge or skills on creatures with defiance bars. This trait can only damage enemies with defiance bars once per interval.

Related equipment

Sigil	Description
Superior Sigil of Frenzy	Recharge all equipped skills by 2 seconds upon killing an enemy. Cooldown: 10 seconds