What Increase Skill Cooldown Does in Raid: Shadow Legends
In this guide, we explore the power of Increase Skill Cooldown in Raid: Shadow Legends. Learn how this disruptive effect delays enemy abilities, which Champions can apply it, and where you’ll get the most value from using it across PvE and PvP.
What Increase Skill Cooldown Does in raid
How Increase Skill Cooldown Works
Increase Skill Cooldown is one of the strongest control effects in Raid: Shadow Legends, preventing enemies from using their most powerful abilities as often by increasing the cooldown of skills that are already on cooldown. This can delay key attacks, cleanses, revives, or defensive abilities, giving your team more time to defeat enemies before those skills become available again.
Champions can apply this effect to either a single target or multiple enemies, depending on their kit. It always requires Accuracy to land and can be resisted, while abilities that apply it through an attack can also fail on weak hits. Some Champions, such as Yumeko, apply the effect without attacking, avoiding the weak hit check but still requiring Accuracy. It’s also worth noting that certain Champions, such as Raglin, are immune to having their skill cooldowns increased.
Outside of a few exceptions, Increase Skill Cooldown has no effect against Bosses, with the Eternal Dragon being the only current boss susceptible to it. This makes the effect primarily shine in PvP and against PvE waves, where delaying enemy abilities can make encounters far easier to control, especially when you can take the first turn and stop skills before they’re ever used.
Why Increase Skill Cooldown is valuable
Increase Skill Cooldown is valuable because it delays an enemy’s access to their strongest abilities, giving your team a much larger window to deal damage or maintain control. Its biggest impact comes in PvP and wave based PvE content, where shutting down dangerous skills can make encounters far easier to manage. While it has limited use against bosses, the Eternal Dragon is a notable exception, allowing you to delay its active skills and make the encounter much more manageable.
Best areas to use Increase Skill Cooldown
Arena
Increase Skill Cooldown is especially powerful in PvP because it prevents enemies from using the abilities that make their teams work. Delaying revives, cleanses, defensive buffs, Turn Meter boosts, or key damage skills can leave opponents with only their basic abilities, making them much easier to control and defeat.
The effect is even stronger if you take the first turn, allowing you to increase skill cooldowns before enemies have a chance to use their strongest abilities.
General PVE
It’s also extremely valuable against difficult PvE waves, helping keep dangerous enemy abilities unavailable for longer while you wear them down. This makes challenging encounters in areas such as Doom Tower, Cursed City, and Faction Wars much easier to manage, especially when facing enemies with powerful revives, cleanses, or damage skills.
While most bosses are immune to this effect, the Eternal Dragon is a key exception. Delaying its active skills gives your team more opportunities to deal damage while reducing the frequency of its strongest attacks, making the fight far more manageable.
Increase Skill Cooldown champion Examples
Here we’ll be highlighting some of the best Champions in Raid: Shadow Legends capable of increasing enemy skill cooldowns, showcasing the strengths they bring. This isn’t a complete list, so be sure to check out our Champion Tier List for other options.
Warlord
Warlord is one of the strongest Increase Skill Cooldown Champions in Raid, with his iconic A3 placing all enemy skills on full cooldown while reducing their Turn Meters. This makes him exceptional for shutting down Arena teams and controlling difficult PvE waves before enemies. Alongside this, his A2 provides healing, Shields, and Block Debuffs, making him a fantastic support Champion who also remains effective against the Eternal Dragon.
Fabian
Lord Entertainer Fabian is built around Increase Skill Cooldown, using his A3 to reduce enemy buff durations before increasing the cooldown of all their skills by 3 turns. This makes him excellent for shutting down abilities in both PvP and difficult PvE waves, while granting himself an Extra Turn if no buffs remain to quickly chain back into his control.
His A2 and passive further strengthen this by placing True Fear and Petrification, disrupting enemies even further, while his A1 steals Turn Meter and can apply additional True Fear. Altogether, Fabian offers great control, making him a strong choice for Arena and challenging wave based content.
Alice
Alice the Wanderer combines strong single target & AOE damage with Increase Skill Cooldown, using her A2 to increase enemy skill cooldowns by 2 turns while reducing their Turn Meters. She pairs this with a hard hitting A3 that ignores 20% DEF and can chain into another target upon a kill, while her passive and A1 both gain additional value against enemies with skills on cooldown.
Basher
Basher is one of the strongest Epic Increase Skill Cooldown Champions, using his A2 to increase the cooldown of all enemy skills by 2 turns. This makes him solid for locking down Arena teams and controlling PvE waves. Alongside this, he brings Weaken on his A1 and random Block Buffs on his A3, giving him utility across a range of content. He’s also a standout option for Skinwalkers Faction Wars progression.
Elegaius
Elegaius is a control focused Legendary who can increase enemy skill cooldowns while spreading Block Buffs, making him a strong option for shutting down key threats in areas like Doom Tower and Faction Wars. This A2 can disrupt enemies of the same affinity, preventing them from cycling back into their strongest skills.
He also removes all enemy buffs with his A3 before reducing Turn Meters, while his A1 can place Block Active Skills for even more disruption. Following his buffs, Elegaius has become a much more reliable crowd control Champion for wave based content.
Krixia
Base Form
Krixia’s base form is built around Increase Skill Cooldown, using her A3 to remove all enemy buffs before increasing the cooldown of their skills by 3 turns. Combined with Decrease RES and Block Buffs on her A2, she’s an exceptional Champion for content like Arena and Hydra.
Alternate Form
Krixia’s alternate form supports allies instead, cleansing debuffs before decreasing their skill cooldowns by 3 turns. She also provides Block Debuffs, Increase RES, and Turn Meter fill, making her one of the strongest support Champions in the game.
Tekteon
Tekteon combines strong damage with Increase Skill Cooldown, using his A2 to attack all enemies twice while increasing the cooldown of their skills by 2 turns on each hit. This makes him a powerful option for disrupting enemy teams in both PvP and PvE while dealing damage.
His A3 complements this with Taunt, Poison Cloud, and a 30% Shield for allies, while his passive greatly boosts his survivability by reducing incoming critical hits and increasing his MAX HP throughout the fight.
How to build Increase Skill Cooldown Champions
Build Focus
Champions who increase enemy skill cooldowns should prioritise Accuracy to ensure the effect lands consistently, alongside enough Speed to take their turn before key enemies and cycle back to their control skills more frequently. As a general guideline, aim for around 25 more ACC than your target’s RES, using tools such as the Raid Stages Tool to identify the requirements for specific encounters.
Beyond this, build around the Champion’s primary role. Damage dealers should also focus on their main scaling stat alongside 100% C.Rate and high C.DMG, while support Champions benefit most from Speed, Accuracy, and enough HP and DEF to consistently keep enemies locked out of their strongest abilities.
Recommended Artifact Sets
Artifact Sets should focus on helping you land Increase Skill Cooldown consistently while complementing the Champion’s primary role. Accuracy focused sets such as Perception, Pinpoint, and Feral are excellent choices for reaching the required thresholds, while offensive sets like Savage, Lethal, or Merciless are ideal for hybrid damage dealers who also bring this effect, while maintaining enough accuracy.
In PvP, Speed is especially important to ensure you act before the enemy and lock out their strongest abilities. Sets such as Speed, Impulse, and Righteous pair well with Accuracy builds, while Supersonic offers additional protection against Turn Meter reduction and can help your Champion cut into the turn order after enemy buffs are placed, pairing well with sets like Stoneskin for the opening phase.
Tips for using Increase Skill Cooldown Champions
Increase Skill Cooldown is most effective when used before enemies have a chance to activate their strongest abilities, making Speed & accuracy key stats for these Champions. Focus on locking down revivers, cleansers, controllers, or damage dealers to limit the enemy team’s options and create openings for your own strategy.
This effect becomes even more impactful when combined with decrease cooldowns, buff removal, Block Buffs, and other forms of crowd control, making it much harder for an enemy who resists the cooldown increase to protect their allies and break the lockout cycle. While only one boss is susceptible to Increase Skill Cooldown, it remains one of the strongest forms of control for Arena and wave based PvE content.