Dark Souls 3: The 5 Best Rings In The Game (& 5 Worst)
Gear is an important factor in any Dark Souls build. Players have hundreds of weapons, armor pieces, and rings to choose from. Even though the impact of armor and rings has been lessened in Dark Souls 3, they still have large impacts on the way a character behaves.
Rings grant passive bonuses such as increased Stamina regeneration or enhanced character stats. Some stronger rings come with negatives to help balance them, but not every ring in Dark Souls 3 is created equal. Some are vastly superior to others while a small subset of rings are practically useless. Here are the 5 best and worst rings players can use in Dark Souls 3.
10 Best: Covetous Silver Serpent Ring
Obtaining Souls is a core part of leveling up and upgrading gear in Dark Souls 3, which is why the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring is such a strong choice. While equipped, this ring will grant a 10% bonus to all Souls earned through kills.
This includes Souls dropped from bosses to make early game progress much faster. To obtain it, players need to run past an illusory wall at Firelink Shrine and open a hidden chest. A +3 version can also be found in The Dreg Heap that grants a massive 35% Soul yield bonus.
9 Worst: Sun Princess Ring
Considering how limited healing is in Dark Souls 3, having regenerating health sounds overpowered at first glance. The Sun Princess Ring is a great example of how regenerating health is near useless in practice.
Two HP is regenerate per second while the Sun Princess Ring is equipped. Since it is obtained in Anor Londo, players will likely have over a thousand HP at this stage of the game. At this rate, it would take the Sun Princess Ring over 8 minutes to heal someone from critical health, which makes this ring useless in combat and a poor alternative to using an Estus Flask or Miracle.
8 Best: Sage Ring
Magic has received major changes in Dark Souls 3, the most notable of which is the return of FP. Players must spend the equivalent of mana to use spells instead of the charge-based system of the last two games.
This makes Attunement much more important than before. Sadly, that means there are fewer points to spec into Dexterity to make spells cast faster. That is where the Sage Ring comes in. This ring grants the equivalent of 30 Dexterity to a player's cast speed—bumped up to 40 Dexterity with the +2 variant. It's mandatory for any builds that frequently cast spells and don't have a high Dexterity stat.
7 Worst: Chillbite Ring
Frostbite is a new ailment type introduced in Dark Souls 3 that is rarely used. Few weapons have it innately, no infusion grants Frostbite, and only a handful of enemies use Frost as a damage type.
That is why the Chillbite Ring is one of the worst rings in the game. Obtained from Sister Friede in the Painted World of Ariandel, it grants 140 Frost resistance to help prevent Frostbite buildup. This is useful for the Sister Friede boss fight since she deals considerable amounts of Frost damage, but this ring is otherwise useless since so few enemies in Dark Souls 3 can even inflict this ailment.
6 Best: Carthus Bloodring
There are three methods players can use to mitigate damage in the Souls series. Players can choose to block incoming damage at the cost of Stamina, roll out of the way of attacks at the cost of less Stamina, or parry the hit altogether for a big boost in damage. Since so few enemies in Dark Souls 3 can be parried, most players opt for rolling out of attacks instead.
Rolling comes with invulnerability frames or "I-frames" that allow players to aggressive roll into enemies. The Carthus Bloodring makes this easier to do, increasing the I-frames of fast and medium dodges from 13 to 17 frames. This is a dramatic boost, but it also causes players to take 30% more damage from hits. As long as a player is confident in their ability to dodge, the Carthus Bloodring makes PvE and PvP much easier and increases the likelihood they won't take damage from an attack.
5 Worst: Hawk Ring
Niche cases can be made where the Hawk Ring is a great choice. Those who deal with frequent PvP players will find the Hawk Ring a solid choice for sniping enemies, but these moments are rather infrequent.
Bows and thrown equipment gain increased range with the Hawk Ring equipped. For PvE, the range bonus is nice but hardly necessary for bow builds. For PvP, its uses are too niche to give up a ring slot for. It also doesn't benefit melee or spellcaster builds, which leaves the Hawk Ring too niche of a ring for most builds to consider using. Players must slay the Giant at Undead Settlement to obtain this ring.
4 Best: Hornet Ring
If it wasn't for its inconsistent nature in PvE, the Hornet Ring would easily be the strongest ring in Dark Souls 3. This ring grants a massive 30% damage boost for critical hits with no drawbacks.
Players that frequent PvP either love or hate this ring for its dramatic effect on damage output. Characters that deal high damage per hit can instantly kill invaders with a single critical hit using this ring. Unfortunately, it only affects targets that can be backstabbed in PvE. That effectively means it only works on 4 of Dark Souls 3's bosses and a small subset of enemies. For PvP, this ring is a must.
3 Worst: Wood Grain Ring
Most players forgot this ring existed. The Wood Grain Ring increases the durability of all weapons by 20%, up to 40% with the +2 variant. Weapon durability in Dark Souls 3 is hardly a consideration for most players as weapons repair themselves when resting at a bonfire.
Players can also use Repair Powder, a cheap equipment item, to repair their items if an item's durability somehow gets too low. This ring is nearly useless, but at least it doesn't have any negatives tied to it.
2 Best: Ring Of Favor
Increasing Stamina with a ring is good enough, but the Ring of Favor does much more than that. This single ring grants increased HP, Stamina, and max Equip Load with no penalties.
It normally increases a player's health by 3%, Stamina by 8.5%, and Equip Load by 5%. However, the +2 variant raises this to 6% HP, 11.5% maximum Stamina, and 8% increased Equip Load. These bonuses are rather substantial and boost core stats, making this a fantastic choice for virtually every build in the game.
1 Worst: Calamity Ring
Dark Souls is frequently hailed as a challenging series amongst many gamers. Certain fans and masochists disagree with this stance, which is likely why From Software brought the Calamity Ring back in Dark Souls 3.
The Calamity Ring provides no bonuses to the player. While equipped, it doubles all damage the player takes. There are few beneficial reasons for increasing the damage the player takes, making this a ring used solely for challenge runs or masochistic Souls fans. Since it provides no benefits, it is easily the worst ring in Dark Souls 3.
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