What makes the Stone of Jordan Special?

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Welcome back to BlizzPro. I am Dannie “IAmDiR” Ray, and today I have brought a friend along. Yes that’s right Cody “Vaeus” Hamshire is back at it to tells us a little story about the Stone of Jordan.

The Stone of Jordan

by Cody Hamshire

Originally introduced in Diablo II, the Stone of Jordan has become a staple of the Diablo franchise.  Generally speaking, the Stone of Jordan is viewed as one of the most powerful rings in the game.  For example, in vanilla Diablo II the Stone of Jordan was not only the most powerful ring, it was also used as a currency for trading.  This was primarily due to the fact that it added a unique “game-breaking” in comparison to the other rings: +1 to all skills.  It was so popular that it was regularly duplicated and disbursed, eventually becoming numerous enough to be used as a currency.  Eventually, its run came to an end with the expansion, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and its numerous patches, when it was replaced by other superior rings that mocked and improved upon its abilities.  That was the end of the story for the time being…

Even though it seemed the Stone of Jordan would die a death in obscurity, a plot twist was introduced to its story.  In an attempt to diminish the number of Stones of Jordan that were available in game, a server-wide event referred to commonly as the Uber Diablo quest was established.  The mechanic of this event was as such:  When a certain number of Stones of Jordan were sold on any server, eventually it would cause a version of Diablo to spawn that was far superior in power to the original with unique skills.  Most importantly, this creature dropped another game-breaking item: The Annihilus Charm.  So, even though it seemed the SoJ’s story had faded out, it ended up revolutionizing Diablo II for a second time with yet another item that boasted its key ability: +1 to all skills along with a myriad of other powerful effects.

As many of you already know, the Stone of Jordan has burst forth from the past yet again the shake the foundations of what we understand about our Jewelry in Diablo III and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls!  Though it appears to be a regular RNG item as it has no legendary special effect, it boasts the ability to always combine 2 incredibly powerful magical attributes (elemental damage % and +% dmg against elites)  and a guaranteed main stat in one sweet package.  That means that getting a Stone of Jordan is almost always good news, even with low rolls on the three primary magical attributes, you’re still only left with one random primary roll to contend with.  The only problem comes in when you roll a poor random stat and the wrong element!  Luckily, this seems to be a rare occurrence thanks to the loot system!  With a max roll on this ring and the right element, you could be doing +50% damage to champs, elites, and bosses from magical attributes by equipping one single item!

Though the Stone of Jordan in my mind has maintained a major lead on all other rings, it has one exception that I’m sure many of you are already of aware:  The Ring of Royal Grandeur.  But, I challenge you to ask yourself: is the Ring of Royal Grandeur actually better?  Granted, being able to juggle additional set effects by decreasing the amount of set items needed by one is amazingly powerful, but is that enough?   The Ring of Royal Grandeur has the following primary rolls:

• Primary Stat
• Attack Speed
• Life on Hit
• Random Magical Attribute

As many of us have learned, healing is currently severely underpowered, making Life on Hit a rather useless stat and the obvious target of a reroll of this ring.  But what happens when another bad stat is rolled as the random?  I’ll tell you.  People wear them anyway for the unique effect, not caring about the actual magical attributes of the ring are dragging them down.  The only way the Ring of Royal Grandeur comes out “optimal” is when the random stat is critical hit chance or critical hit damage, since elemental damage and damage vs. elites aren’t even available for this ring.  In both of these cases, Life on Hit can be rerolled in favor of the critical combo stats or whatever other stat your build needs.

The Ring of Royal Grandeur is still really strong, but its performance against the Stone of Jordan is severely hurt by having situational stats like attack speed and Life on Hit fixed to it. Damage to Elites and Elemental Damages are too stats that can be used to great effect in almost every build. Life on Hit and Attack Speed on the other hands are only desirable on a handful of builds.

With the increase in Life on Hit and Life per Second efficacy in the 2.1.0 patch however, we might see the value of the Ring of Royal Grandeur sky rocket.  In the meantime, for those of you that like a sure thing, I’d suggest the Stone of Jordan due to the relative “safety” in its attribute rolls and overall reliability.  Out of the two most powerful rings in the game, I can confidently say that The Stone of Jordan is the easier of the two to count on to notably improve your character.