In RoS one of the new affixes that many folks know is good, but probably don't realize how good until they actually reach a tipping point where cooldowns almost don't matter and you have 4-5 buttons to mash in any order you want. I reached this point at around 70% CDR and think it is an achievable goal for just about anyone since well over half the required gear is VERY obtainable - ie thru crafting and utilization of rare items. Only a few slots will require straight up RNG, but not nearly as much as other build types like Fire/Lightning. Since recipes no longer drop after you have learned them, just keep grinding for all the patterns and keep an eye out for a world-npc 'Dane Bright'. He actually sells legendary/set plans!
First, lets do a quick overview on the MAX CDR for Monks. CDR as a stat is diminishing and doesn't stack additively. For monks the current known itemization gives us a CAP @ 74.94% CDR.
List of requirements for MAX CDR
Kekegi Unbreakable Spirit 8.0%
Shoulder 8.0%
Gloves 8.0%
Amulet 8.0%
Ring 8.0%
Ring 8.0%
Weapon 1 10.0%
Weapon 2 10.0%
Beacon of Ytar 20.0%
Paragon 10.0%
Flawless Royal Diamond 12.5%
Captain Crimson's Set bonus 10.0%
Born's Set Bonus 10.0%
Great guide to Crafting Material locations:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-general-forums/diablo-iii-general-discussion/83094-guide-legendary-crafting-materials-drop-locations
How to sort of "Farm" plans from an NPC Dane Bright:
There IS a vendor in game right now in the form of a randomly spawned NPC called "Dane Bright" that does sell legendary & set plans.
A map of a few spawn locations:
http://i.imgur.com/6j4xVyd.jpg- Sells every plan - even ones you already know as well as 'legacy' plans
- Spawns only in Adventure mode (any difficulty) on at least Northern Highlands & Westmarch Commons
- There is NO icon on the mini map for this vendor
- Plans cost 5k-7k
- Restocks inventory every 15 minutes
Now onto the quite common-sensical guide on how to craft your way towards 75% CDR! I will skip the 2H build option for this because the primary advantages of 2H being spirit efficient is nullified by the fact you will have 90%+ Epiphany uptime, and the 2H CDR cap is lower and harder to obtain. The advantage of crafting is that the crafting drops are in KNOWN locations, each craft attempt costs you essentially 1 Forgotten Soul (since you can salvage if the rolls are bad) and don't require nearly as much RNG.
RNG Gods (Required)
Amulet: Start off using a RARE amulet with Dex, Crit %, Crit Damage, CDR should be fairly easy to find from gambling.
Ring 1: MUST be Royal Ring of Grandeur from Act 1 or 4 bounty bags. Recommend split farming normal runs until you find one to enchant with 8% CDR.
Ring 2: Start with a RARE ring with Dex/CC/CD/CDR until you can find a legendary one to move up from 7% CDR to 8%.
Bracer: (If Using Inner Fire) Warzechain Armguards - gamble these asap. Give a 50% movement speed boost everytime you break an object which happens a lot with IF. Otherwise Reaper Wraps/Strongarm/2pc Aug are also STRONG options.
Born's Command (Required)
Crafting material: Semi-annoying to farm - I would check for Dataminer/Digg Bounty and SE corner of Cemetery of the Forsaken T4+.
Three options here: Sword/Chest/Shoulder.
Recommend: Crafting Shoulders and Sword.
Two of these slots are the ones that can roll a 'natural' 8% and 10% CDR. Must have 3/4 good primaries to re-roll the missing one. Sword = Damage, Socket, Dex, CDR. Shoulders = Dex, CDR, Resist. If using Asheara's set, should swap Born's Shoulders to Chest (but takes the Cindercoat option away).
Captain Crimson's Trimmings (Required)
Crafting material: Annoying to Farm - I'd check for Razormouth Bounty in A2, and then just dash over from Magda's waypoint to check the 2 spawn locations north of Magda's waypoint. Or you can do sewers.
Three options here: Belt/Pants/Boots
Recommend: Any 2. I went with Pants/Boots, since I feel belts are stronger than any pant/boot options. Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan is also very good, but still a bit buggy/annoying to use currently. Ice Climbers is rendered obsolete with 90% Epiphany uptime. If using Asheara's can mix and match to obtain the full set bonus with whatever slots get better rolls.
None of these slots can roll 'natural' CDR so just try and max DEX and sockets.
Asheara's Vestments (Optional)
Crafting material: Very Easy to farm - SSthrass in front of the Watery Passage can be checkpointed in Campaign Mode.
Four options here: Shoulders/Gloves/Pants/Feet
Recommend: If you went Belt/Pants with Captain Crimson, must go Shoulders/Gloves/Feet (for example)
Two of these slots are the ones that can roll a 'natural' 8% - Shoulders and Gloves, so crafting into these is preferred. Pants and Feet can be mixed and matched with Captain Crimson, or if you can find a good legendary/set gloves can forgo the entire Asheara's Set as it doesn't have a CDR set bonus. But having all 3 followers up with all the gear (unities) equipped can help out a lot in multiplayer, which is why I recommend the set - very easy to craft and an underated 4 pc bonus.
Aughild's Authority (Optional)
Crafting material: Semi-annoying to farm, but can pick them up in the normal course of bounties in A1/2 (see guide)
Four options here: Shoulders/Chest/Helm/Bracer
Recommend: Bracer/Helm if using Asheara's Shoulders/Gloves/pantsorfeet.
The main weakness of the typical CDR-IF build is elite damage, and Aug's has a nice bonus to counter that.. at the cost of probably using up your helm/bracer slot which has many (cooler) options.
Remaining Slot Recommended Options
Helm: Kekegi's can roll up to 8% CDR off-slot, but it's leg affix isn't as CDR compatible as most cooldown skills don't have spirit costs. I deem it not required to hit 70%+ cdr as there are many other helm options for different builds with build-changing affixes (every other spirit stone) or great procs/stats like Andarial's, straight +dex with 2pc Raiment bonus, or if not using Inner Fire pretty much every other well-rolled Spirit Stone with a decent legendary affix.
Chest/Pants/Belt/Boots: Can use at least one of your favorite legendary found if not using Asheara's. Cindercoat for fire! Harrington Waistguard is also AMAZING once you learn to use it. Best belt for IF if you want to snapshot some damage.
Gloves: Magefist, FoT, Frost, Worship. Whatever CDR trifecta you can muster.
1x 1h Weapon: Can craft a 1h of your element choice (Devestator for Fire)with 10% CDR or pray to the RNG gods for a good 1h to drop.
CDR GOALS
According to the chart there are 8 CDR Affixes you need to reach MAX CDR. Throw out the helm (Kekgi's 8%) for flexibility and you're down to 7 CDR slots. 4 of those 7 slots (Shoulder/Gloves/Weapons) are craftable at a net loss of 1 Forgotten Soul a roll. Definitely try to hit 7/8% on Shoulders/Gloves and 8-10% on weapons. 2 of the remaining 3 should be easy to find as RARES for that can roll 7% cdr. The best part is rare rings/amulets can roll max Crit/Crit Damage. The hardest part is finding theRoyal Ring of Grandeur with a good random roll so you can enchant LoH to 8% CDR.
Some build that aren't as high CDR intensive as Inner Fire should aim for 50-60% CDR. That is a fairly easy mark to hit with just standard diamond/ytar passive/paragon using 2pc Born+Crimson and only using 3x 8% CDR affixes on all your items. @ 60% CDR Desert Shroud would be up 15 seconds, down 9 seconds. Those 9 seconds could be filled by 6 second Inner Sanctuary and the remaining 3-4 seconds with Serenity. Thus you would have 50%+ damage reduction or immunity all the time. Of course, most folks don't need that high uptime, so 50% cdr would suffice. (just one set bonus & 2x8%)
Summary
Obtaining 70%+ CDR set is a fairly straight forward and 'grindable' since you can craft almost every slot outside of Amulets/Ring which rare version are easily found thru gambling. Just need one Royal Ring of Grandeur with CDR to break past the 70% CDR barrier and into the land of 90% Epiphany uptime, 100% Inner Sanctuary toughness, BoH/Blind every 4 seconds, Serenity every 5, and 7-sided close to greatness
Lower torments can be farmed very fast with a CDR build, and if you decided to not go deep into a specific element, can pick any number of runes for variety. Comments/Anecdotes welcome.
I personally switched from a 2H build around 60% CDR to DW with Born's that pushed me past 70% and it made a world of difference. Didn't need Air Ally anymore to keep a full spirit bubble, and felt much more 'incontrol' of my upgrades since farming for crafting materials was quite measurable. Currently 6% CDR from max spread out in 4 slots, putting me at 73.5% CDR! I used to use Sunwuko gloves/amulet so I can hot-swap Flow of Eternity in for Rift Bosses, but now only swap the rare Nemesis or Eye of Peshkov when on really bad density maps.