by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

Books have often been society’s only bastion of light for passing along knowledge that would otherwise be lost to time or convoluted by the oral tradition. In order to provide new and old adventurers with as much knowledge of what to expect on their journey in Sanctuary, we created this tome of knowledge – Ars Arcanum. We will regularly feature a Legendary weapon or armor piece, discussing its stand-alone powers and capabilities, as well as how it may synergize with new builds or other items.

Last week’s Tavern Talk already seems like a distant memory. What it provided in the way of riling up some members of the community shouldn’t overshadow the amazing things coming in Patch 2.2.0. During the talk, John Yang often used the redesigned Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac as an example of how they’re trying to take rings to the next level. By adding incredible powers to pre-existing rings, the developers are hoping to unseat or at least provide competitive options to the mainstays – Ring of Royal Grandeur, Stone of Jordan, and Unity.

Why is it good?

As of the time I’m writing this, the ring has had its power clarified to read as follows:

• Your first hit with each cast of a resource-spending attack reduces the remaining cooldown of one of your skills by 1 second.

This is an important distinction from what you see in the image above because the old wording (and perhaps the old usage, as I didn’t get to test this one too much in the PTR) could make it seem like you would get a one second reduction for every enemy hit by one cast of your resource spender. So, if something like Condemn or Wave of Light hit 30 enemies, you’d have 30 seconds of reduction to disperse among your skills that were currently on cooldown. Pretty OP.

As such, the current version is still crazy powerful. In builds that have a lot of resource to burn, but few cooldown skills, you could essentially run with next to zero cooldown reduction on your gear and rely on your Obsidian ring to bring those skills back to you as you engage enemies. It’s almost akin to the new 4 piece set bonus for Barbarians on their Immortal King rework, but a less powerful version on a ring that everyone can use. One of the major differences though is that the ring only effects the cooldown of one skill at a time and it does so at random, so if you have two skills on cooldown simultaneously, you can’t guarantee which one the ring will target.

To call it less powerful (because the new IK set is really just that good by comparison) is a disservice though. This ring was, in fact, so good, that it led to a major change in the way that damage immunity skills work in the game. The developers made it so that cooldowns for skills like Serenity and Spirit Walk only start their cooldown process after the skill has ended to prevent players from maintaining permanent invulnerability and completely negating monster damage. The ring was directly propping up this playstyle.

It’s yet to be determined how many builds will utilize this ring, as the new sets and items won’t hit the live environment for a few more days, but I have a strong feeling that with how important cooldown reduction currently is, this ring will vie for a top spot.

Who is it good for?

As it stands, every class can equip this. I’m thinking Crusaders might have an applicable use as they are a class that is severely reliant on cooldown reduction. We also might see it work into zero DPS support builds, since they often depend on spamming their skills as much as possible and need to reliably have them off of cooldown.

Where can I find it?

[Correction: This ring has actually been marked season-only, so you will not be able to find the new version until Season 3 goes live on April 10, 2015.]

The Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac will remain a regular item come Patch 2.2.0, so whether you’re in seasonal play or not, you’ll have the opportunity to find this wherever you go.

It’s also worth noting that if you have one currently, you won’t receive the new Legendary power retroactively. You will have to find a new version of the ring after 2.2.0 goes live.

The Fluff

Many an adventurer met his doom searching for this fabled ring in the catacombs beneath the Zakarum cathedral in Tristram.

This is, of course, a call out to Diablo I, where the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac was one of the best rings that you could obtain. It was a magic ring and the prefix Obsidian provided for high All Resists while the suffix Zodiac gave you bonuses to all of your attributes (Strength, Dexterity, etc.).