Note: this guide was initially written and published by Lecaros on Atlantica Online Players. Updated until May 2009, it remains interesting and useful for beginners.

Hello and greetings to all.

For the past few days, I've been testing out some things in battle to confirm my theory of Skill Cooldowns in Battle.
Now I pretty much have figured out how it actually works, and have decided to submit my findings here. This guide contains explanations and examples to elaborate why some skills can be used twice in a turn, why some other cannot ; also on why no skill except Awakening can be used on the 1st turn. I'm sure there are players who can profit from this knowledge, especially those who PvP and Free League a lot. Hope this guide will be helpful to ya!  

p/s: I'm trying to simplify this guide to the best of my ability so that readers can easily understand the guide. Edits will be made in the future.

*HOW SKILL COOLDOWN WORKS (THE COUNTER SYSTEM)*

• On every player turn, every character (mercenaries and main character) will gain 1 'counter' (i call them counters). The counter is not shown anywhere, it is just data that is stored in the game data cache.
  
• Every character's counters is of their own only. They do not affect the counters of other characters.
  
• A character's counter is shared by all of his skills. More details on the *DELAYING* section below.
  
• Here's the interesting part. 'Skill of cooldown : X' actually means that you need to accumulate X counters first before you can use the skill. In other words, X counter is used to launch the skill.
  
• Also, basic attacks do not consume counters. Only skills do.

Example:

Skill  : Flame Sword
Cooldown : 2 turns

Simply put, on your first turn, Flame Sword cant be used yet. This is because your characters only have 1 counters on them. Flame Sword has a cooldown of 2 turns, which means it needs 2 counters before it can be used. After you have used the Flame Sword skill, 2 counters will be consumed.

Detailed example :

> (2nd turn of player X)
       Player X's Swordman uses Flame Sword on an opponent
  ~Counter Calculation:
   (2)* - (2)** = (0)

(2)* = 2 counters have been accumulated, since it is now the 2nd turn.
(2)** = 2 counters is consumed, because Flame Sword's cooldown is 2 turns, in actuality it consumes 2 counters.

Therefore, after using Flame Sword on the 2nd turn, Player X's Swordman need to wait for 2 more turns (2 more counters) before he can use Flame Sword again.

Another example :
> (3rd turn of player Y)
        Player Y's Swordman uses Flame Sword on an opponent. The Swordman did not use any skill during the 1st and 2nd turn.
   ~Counter Calculation:
   (3) - (2) = (1)

After using the Flame Sword, the Swordman can use it again next turn! this is because after using Flame Sword, he has 1 more counter. On Player Y's next turn, the Swordman will now have 2 counters and can use Flame Sword again.


The Counter System theory can explain why all skills cannot be used during the 1st turn, except for Awakening. Awakening is the only skill with 1 turn cooldown. Other skills have cooldowns of 2 turns and above.

Edit : Deadly Strike and Deadly Shot also have cooldown of 1 turn and can be used on the 1st turn, though they are not usable during that time since you'll always be at full health anyways. With the exception of that character being low-health beforehand (pve).

*DELAYING*

One important thing to remember is that the counters of a character is SHARED by ALL of his/her skills. This means that by using a skill, the other skills is delayed. "Also, the MAXIMUM COUNTERS A CHARACTER CAN HAVE AT ONE TIME IS 4 ONLY".

Example and elaboration :

Weltall (Staff Main)
Skills:

• Evanescent Scud (3 turns cooldown)
  
• Flame Blow (4 turns cooldown)
  
• Blessing of Life (2 turns cooldown)

>(now is the 6th turn)

Let's say Weltall has 4 counters on him. He hasn't use any skill yet. He can use any of the 3 skills now, since he has enough counters.
If Weltall casts Blessing of Life, then;
           (4) - (2) = (2)
Therefore, after casting Blessing of Life, the cooldown now becomes:

• Evanescent Scud (1 turn)
  
• Flame Blow (2 turns)
  
• Blessing of Life (0 turn)

Evanescent Scud can be casted on the next turn, while Flame Blow can be casted on the turn after that (only if no other skill was used)
The counters will then be consumed and become 0 again.
Thus, the cooldown now becomes:

• Evanescent Scud (3 turns)
  
• Flame Blow (4 turns)
  
• Blessing of Life (2 turns)

*GENERAL MISCONCEPTION OF SKILL DELAYING*

Most Atlantica players often get the wrong idea of skill delaying, given the fact that the game developers only wrote down what the skill cooldowns are, but not how they work.

After a character has used/casted a skill, how long you have to wait depends on how many counters you have left, and how many counters will your next skill consume.

General Misconception :

Most players share the same idea, that a Witch's Mana Drain will greatly delay her Meteor Strike. "After you cast a skill, you will need to wait for 4 more turns before you can cast a Meteor Strike".
This is only true, if the Witch had 2 counters before she casted the Mana Drain.

In Truth :

After a Witch has casted Mana Drain, you do not necessarily need to wait for 4 more turns before you can cast a Meteor Strike.
Let's say the Witch had 4 counters beforehand, and use Mana Drain (2 turns cooldown, meaning it will consume 2 counters)

(4) - (2) = (2) ---> 2 more turns before Meteor Strike can be used

If you select your witch, you will notice that the cooldown of Meteor Strike has become 2 turns. This is simple enough, as it means that 2 more counters are needed (Meteor Strike's cooldown is 4 turns; it will consume 4 counters)

Again, the result will vary depending on the counters the Witch had beforehand.

(3) - (2) = (1) ---> 3 more turns before Meteor Strike can be used

(2) - (2) = (0) ---> 4 more turns before Meteor Strike can be used

*DOUBLE CASTING A SINGLE SKILL IN ONE TURN*

In the above example, notice that the cooldown of Blessing of Life has become 0 turn. This means Blessing of Life can be used again that turn! (conditions : Weltall has at least 100 AP after casting the first Blessing of Life, another 'green circle' is directed to Weltall)
This is because :
    (4) - (2) = (2)

after casting the first Blessing of Life, there is enough counters to cast another Blessing of Life.

From this example and theory, I found out that ONLY skills with cooldown of 2 or lower turns can be casted/used twice in 1 turn.
(passive skill not included)
Study the case below :

 (4) - (1) = (3)
 (4) - (2) = (2)
 (4) - (3) = (1)  --> the skill with the 3 turn cooldown CANNOT be casted again, because there is not enough counter to cast it again.
 (4) - (4) = (0)  --> the skill with the 4 turn cooldown CANNOT be casted again, because there is not enough counter to cast it again.

You don't necessarily need to cast the same skill twice in one turn. You can always go for Flame Sword followed by Deadly Strike for better damage output rather than a double Flame Sword ^^

This knowledge is useful in PvP. Double Lightning Spear, double Holy Guard, double Healing, Flame Sword followed by Deadly Strike in 1 turn are useful when used wisely and correctly in PvP.

I wont be explaining about AP usage for those cases here. maybe in some other guide..maybe =P

Edit : Double casting is usually possible when that particular character has 3 or 4 counters. Seems like Awakening is the only spammable GG skill in the game by far :p  (1 counter consumption i.e. 1 turn cooldown, and AP cost of ONLY 75!)

Edit :One more thing. If possible, make your mercs learn skills that have different cooldowns. This is helpful in checking how many counters the merc have at that moment. Heck, I dont play DoT builds but my Swordman has lvl 1 Dark Seed. Since Dark Seed has cooldown of 3 turns, Deadly Strike of 1 turn, and Flame Sword of 2 turns, therefore :

when it says Dark Seed can be casted, I know I can cast Flame Sword and Deadly Strike (3 counters total) in one turn. Go figure how is this useful in PvP   =P
Basically, the Dark Seed skill serves as a 'counter checker'.

My witch has all skills learnt, with Mana Trap only at lvl 1. I can keep track of her remaining counters easily

*EXCEPTION*

I noticed that when a battle starts, the side which moves second has 2 counters on that turn, instead of  just 1.
Always happened to me when I fight a match in Free League ; my team moved first, followed by the opponent. Eventhough it's the opponent's first turn, his Swordsman can use Flame Sword (2 turns cooldown). Pretty lame move, but i kept wondering why that guy can use Flame Sword on his first turn.

Thus, this leads to one hypothesis - the side which moves second in a battle, naturally gain 1 more counter on the first turn to make up for the fact that they moved second. Moving first and moving second does bring difference in Free League  (^_^)

p/s: although that being said, i still need to confirm this. I will post future results here.

Edit: Till now, there has been no observation of freeze, stun and silence interrupting the accumulation of Counters. However, mercs that are in the Mercenary Room do not accumulate counters. Mercenaries who just entered the battle later on (via the in-battle Mercenary Room swapping system) will have his/her counter start at 1.



I guess that is all for now. I will still make edits and changes in the future, so stay alert  :p