Ultimate Cooldowns Compared: Karthus & Shen Lead at 200 Seconds, Kog'Maw Bottoms Out at 2

Comparing every champion's base ultimate cooldown, Karthus and Shen sit at the top with 200 seconds at rank 1, while Kog'Maw's sits at a mere 2 seconds. Same "R" slot, a 100x gap.

Ultimate cooldowns are all over the map

Most ultimates in League scale over three ranks, getting shorter cooldowns as you level them up. But the starting number and how far it drops is entirely champion-specific, there's no shared formula. Source: ddragon's official stats (patch 16.18.1). I excluded transform-type and charge-based ultimates and counted the 151 champions with a standard 3-rank R.

Longest: 200 seconds, and it's mostly global-impact ultimates

Champion	Rank 1 CD (s)	Max Rank CD (s)	Ratio
Karthus	200	160	1.25x
Shen	200	160	1.25x
Galio	180	140	1.29x
Pantheon	180	150	1.2x
Ryze	180	140	1.29x
Taliyah	180	120	1.5x

Karthus and Shen both sit at 200 seconds at rank 1, tied for the longest of the 151 I checked. Requiem hits the whole map, Stand United shields an ally anywhere on the map, both are the kind of ability that swings a game the moment it lands. Galio, Pantheon, and Ryze also lean on huge range or map-wide movement, the heavier the ultimate, the bigger the footprint.

Shortest: 2 seconds, built to be spammed

Champion	Rank 1 CD (s)	Max Rank CD (s)	Ratio
Kog'Maw	2	1	2.0x
Anivia	4	2	2.0x
Kassadin	5	2	2.5x
Zoe	11	5	2.2x
LeBlanc	45	25	1.8x
Blitzcrank	60	20	3.0x

At the other end, Kog'Maw's Living Artillery is down to 2 seconds at rank 1. Anivia's Glacial Storm sits at 4, Kassadin's Riftwalk at 5, both single digits. These aren't one-shot game-enders, they're pokes, escapes, and sustained pressure tools that were never meant to be a once-per-fight button (Kassadin's R also gets cheaper the more mana he spends, so 5 seconds is just the floor).

Ranking up doesn't shrink every ultimate the same way

Champion	Rank 1 CD (s)	Max Rank CD (s)	Ratio
Zeri	80	70	1.14x
Ivern	140	120	1.17x
Aphelios	120	100	1.2x
Sylas	80	30	2.67x
Gnar	90	30	3.0x
Blitzcrank	60	20	3.0x

Looking at the reduction from rank 1 to max rank, Zeri only drops from 80 to 70 seconds, a 1.14x change. Three points of investment barely touch the cooldown, the payoff clearly sits in damage or duration instead. Blitzcrank and Gnar, on the other hand, both cut their cooldown exactly 3x, from 60 to 20 and 90 to 30. For them, ranking up the ultimate is directly about getting it back faster, a completely different kind of upgrade from Zeri's.

Takeaway

Ultimate cooldown isn't just "the stronger it is, the longer it takes." Whether it's a global-impact ability, whether it's built for repeated use, how much ranking up actually shrinks it, every champion has its own design logic. Next time you level an ultimate, it's worth checking the cooldown curve, not just the damage.

Anivia getting her ult back in 4 seconds makes sense for a bird who summons blizzards, but it still feels oddly casual for something called Glacial Storm.