Seekers Of Adoulin Reward Rings - 2022 Edition

Spurred by some recent discussion on the NIN forum (mostly about Shneddick Ring), I'm curious to see general opinions on rings given the current state of the game. To me, this is always a choice that is highly dependent on personal situation and the jobs/tasks/strategies that are important to the person. But there are also points that are broadly relevant. My take below, but absolutely interested in other people's thoughts here!

Personally, I'd lump the reward rings into 4 tiers:

(1)Irreplaceable if you care about the stat:
Orvail Ring: Totally unique crafting piece, so worthwhile for high end crafting characters. Niche use case for sure, but overwhelmingly useful for that niche to the point of being impossible to pass up.

(2)Valuable options in 2022:
Karieyh Ring: This has been reduced a bit in utility with newer WSD options (Epaminondas's, Beithir for most jobs), or something like Sroda Ring for capped attack STR WS for the jobs that can use it. But still, WSD+4% from Karieyh +1 remains a top 2 ring for many commonly used WS by a wide variety of jobs. Aside from that, it doubles as a nifty utility piece with Regain+5 for idle sets (not the reason to pick the ring, but a nice perk). The NQ version (WSD+3%) is a harder sell, but the +1 (WSD+4%) still holds up today.

Also relevant that other WS ring options like Epam and Sroda are quite expensive, and still other common WS options like Regal Ring are not easily obtained. So, I could see someone who can't afford those or get drops using Kari as a great "free" alternative (which you can always drop later to switch to another ring if/when you get the other WS options).

Shneddick Ring: I always kinda viewed this as a piece for mules or for convenience, for the 18% movement speed on one piece instead of having to get a movement speed piece for each job (some of which cap at 12% from other options too). If you aren't able to make use of Orvail, Karieyh, or Weatherspoon... I can see this as the reasonable next choice over the other super-niche options. However... I've seen others make arguments that this is the best choice in 2022 due to the ability to put together 18% movement speed sets with better defensive stats by getting movement in the ring slot and using the legs/feet they would have otherwise used (e.g., Carmine +1 legs) for a stronger Meva/Eva/DT piece.

Personally, I'm not entirely convinced - it's certainly YMMV as to whether you're pulling large groups of mobs and needing BOTH movement speed and strong defense at the same time. And for examples something like pulling a pack of mobs in Sheol, Sortie, Omen... I can see the argument for better defensive gear, but do you really need 18% movement speed for that? You aren't kiting stuff, you're basically rounding up a few mobs in a relatively small area and letting them swing away at you. So, I see this more as a niche piece for a puller who really wants to have both movement speed and max defensive sets at the same time (maybe a PLD rounding up huge pulls of Apex mobs or something).

Weatherspoon Ring: Almost in the top category of irreplaceable, since you can't get light elemental affinity in any other non-weapon slot. By far the best in slot choice for light elemental WS like Trueflight, Seraph Blade, Primal Rend. Doubling as a BiS Fast Case piece is just gravy - I don't know that I'd suggest anyone pick this just for the little bit of additional fast cast these days over the other available options, but if you're already able to make use of the ring for light WS purposes, FC is a nice little perk.

(3) Super situational, probably not worth it for anyone but people who really care about that ultra-specific niche:
Haverton Ring: BiS Snapshot Ring (and one of only two options along with Crepuscular's Snap+3), BiS Ranged Accuracy Ring, and the only DW ring means it does have some possible uses with slightly less orthodox sets. But you give up a lot to get it, particularly for RNG being one of the jobs that would most care about ranged stats having a phemomenal DPS alternative in Weatherspoon. Could be possibly useful for super niche purposes like a THF wanting to do a lot of ranged DPS in Sheol Gaol fights, or even a COR getting some use out of DW, Racc, and Snap (at the expense of other ring options).

Janniston Ring: Cure potency II/Enm- can be useful. Probably need to be a super dedicated WHM to care though, and not get use out of the other options. But I could see this for a WHM only dualbox bot or something.

Thurandaut Ring: Is it a good pet-only ring? Sure. Is it necessary? Nah. Has some niche use for things like PUP automaton-only Overdrive fights, but for other purposes like pet DT sets it's... sort of irrelevant? Easy to cap pet DT without this, so tends to be more useful for pet haste/acc/atk, which you don't really need when PUP tanking. BST's lack of current emphasis on pet DPS means it's not so important for that job (and a hardcore BST who has an Aymur would be really tempted to go Weatherspoon for those sweet Primal Rends). Varar/+1 and C.Palug Ring existing means that there are good alternatives without giving up your one Adoulin reward.

Woltaris Ring: Well, Woltaris +1 giving refresh +2 is BiS for idle, and Sublimation at least gives is some additional utility beyond what Renaye Ring offers. But with Stikini+1 existing for Refresh+1 per ring slot, it's a minimal gain and seems like a waste of a reward. If you're picking for idle piece only, movement speed +18% may be more useful.

(4) No good argument to pick tier
Adoulin Ring: A little bit of everything = not particularly good at anything. Basically, any possible use for this, you could replace with a better 2 ring combo for better results.

Gorney Ring: TH+1 is unique in the slot, but ultimately pretty useless. For non-THFs who care about keeping a TH+4 (maximum level from non-THF or RNG), we already have a very easily obtained all jobs TH+1 belt (Chaac) and ammo (Perfect Lucky Egg), and then you only need a single piece of DM-augmented TH+2 Reisenjima gear to cap. I guess if you reeeeealy wanted that as a placeholder until getting a TH Oseem augment, you could always drop this ring and replace later - but that's a real stretch of a solid use case.

Renaye Ring: If you really wanted refresh +2, Woltaris +1 gives that too and has better additional idle stats (regen/sublimation). Singing/Geomancy skill is irrelevant and can be obtained in other slots, and blue magic skill is of extremely minimal importance (e.g, unlikely chance that this skill from ring slot results in hitting another tier on Occultation, versus next best options of Stikini/+1)

Vocane Ring: I see some people who like this one, and honestly I don't get it. It's the second best DT- in the ring slot, true. But it's not hard for any job in the game to cap DT- without Vocane, especially now that Nyame set exists. I guess there's some use in reducing knockback (for people who don't cheat use Anchor :P), but not enough to make it worth picking this ring, IMO.

Recently commuted all six of my characters to Shneddick Ring because of the amount of running around that happens in Sortie. I was having major irritation when people would get stuck on corners because they were moving 6% slower than the rest.

It's absolutely fantastic -- and all of the characters in question aren't slouches when it comes to job diversity, they all have jobs that could've used Karieyh, Janniston, or Weatherspoon. They each had different rings for years now. Fully commuting everybody to Shneddick Ring was one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. Nobody ever has to fall behind on follow on any job ever again. And I got to stop running in things like Herald Gaiters, Danzo Sune-Ate, and Hermes Sandals, all of which dropped your ilevel and had trash for stats.

I'd put Shneddick at #1 if you aren't crafting.

I think Vocane could go up one tier. Knockback resistance on the ring slot is unique, and can either let you go without repulse mantle, or stack both for twice as much resistance.

It'd still be super situational, but I could see some uses.

Orvail Ring +1 is what I use and I have a hard time not thinking its the best ring of the bunch. Only a little biased.

Based on this discussion, I recently converted to Shneddick the other day, as I mentioned in the ninja thread. One thing I had not considered is the inventory savings this ring provides. Prior to swapping rings, I was carrying several non ilvl footwear:

Danzo Sune-Ate (Sam nin mnk)
Hermes Sandals (War)
Skadi’s Jambeaux +1 ( BST DNC)
Herald’s Gaiters (BLM)

A lot of events now require traveling, so you kind of have to have movement speed on any job you play.

Three of the above were only 12% movements. I was also carrying GEO+3 feet ( as well as THF+3 and NIN+3 feet whenever I swapped to the job). This ring has effectively given me back 6-7 inventory spots, in addition to not being defensive liabilities and an upgrade to some footwear in the movement speed value. I still carry Carmine Cuisses +1 for RUN SIRD set, but that can stay in other bags unless I’m playing RUN.

For those reasons alone, this ring has made me feel like this is the best option for my circumstances. I can deal with the lack of fc or minor dps loss, but one item saving that much space is a pure winner in my book.

Thurandaut used to be my go-to on SMN but I switched to Woltaris for the idle. It's very situational for sure.

me, a career whm, having the time of my life with my Janniston +1 :( that 12% Movement speed hurts in sortie tho...

lol wasting an adoulin ring for movement speed

just use project tako you shitbirds

Thanks for posting from your sock so I can block it immediately. I like to know up front so I don’t waste time.

This is tempting for me too, but IDK... I still see it mainly as a minor convenience since I do have 12-18% movement speed on all jobs. Sortie's large zone with lots of running does make it more appealing though, that's for sure.

If I actually pulled huge trains of mobs often and thought the extra defense I could build into a set would make a difference, I'd do that. But for me personally, I pretty much never find myself in that situation. So I either do movement speed (where the speed matters, but the lower defense is not super relevant - and even then, I'm still able to hit DT-50%), or max DT-/Meva/whatever defensive set if I really care about taking hits from a pack of mobs because I generally don't particularly care if I can go fast at the same time. I'm not doing any movement speed kiting in 2022, this ain't Sky RDM Despot solo.

I *do* currently use Karieyh+1/Epam for an awful lot of WS though, and needing to replace one of those rings would be a straight up DPS loss. As well as losing the little luxury of +5tp/tic Regain in most of my idle sets (often ends up being the difference between arriving at next mob ready to WS or not).

But still... the consistent 18% movement+ to improve my jobs that are at 12% is tempting. The inventory savings is the cherry on top. I feel like I'd have to do it on both of my characters though, and I also don't really want to give up Weatherspoon for my alt's Crocea Mors RDM and those sweet, sweet Seraph Blades. Tough one.

I liked somebody's idea in the NIN forum (Sechs, I think) that this problem could be solved if they gave us the ability to get a second NQ ring! I vote for that?

Just how far ahead is kariyeh over alternatives though? I feel like the utility rings have more value nowadays, with your biggest dmg boost coming from weatherspoon which still doubles as a very strong all jobs fc swap. I realize kariyeh has regain but its seldom noticeable imo

At least one crafter in my ls doesn't consider orvail as important anymore because there are now 2 other rings running around that give at least hq+1. In essence picking that as a reward is now for skillups and a mild increase in materials saved during breaks.

At the very least, Shneddick is an easy choice for mules.

I'm with this guy

And, imo, that mild increase is quite worth it.

Seeing as this is an opinionated post to begin with, I will give a very direct opinion and you can just do as you please its your sub $.

#1, craft on a another char not your main. If you didn't do this... still doesnt seem worth it imo.

#2, IF you get to +1 ring stage for 4 wsd, you play enough to have made 50m for epa and sroda, kill ou or pay 30m for regal merc'd. I undersdtand there are jobs that might not be able to use sroda/regal and it will be bis by a fair bit over say an infrits+1 or rufescent. I also understand those jobs are generally not DPS jobs so...

#3, Every event is a running event nowadays, why run slower? Use mules? Clear choice then to not get stuck.

#4, like buuki pointed out inv+ a ton

#5, Everyone gets aggro time to time, is in aoe ranged and in their idle set, or actually pulls stuff. The defensive benefit from using nyame legs/feet are massive and nothing else you can really do in game at this point will have as big of a boost as proper defensive sets.

The only other ring that should even be questionable is weatherspoon as it has real merits on every job coupled with it being amazing for light based dmg.

I mean sure it doesn't seem like much when you say "mild increase in materials saved during breaks" but when you consider that those materials might be worth 4-5m each, saving one is...kinda a big deal?

Shneddick means not having to upgrade to +1

Weatherspoon is my personal choice but my main 3 jobs are RDM, RNG, and RUN. RDM and RNG are definitely why I picked it, but it's really nice for RUN (and PLD) so you can hit FC cap easier and stuff some more HP into your set so you dont drop HP every time you cast.

I still have my karieyh currently as I haven't shelled out for an epam ring yet. The ws acc isn't to be sneezed at either since torcleaver likes to whiff more often than I would like.

I use Weatherspoon+1 because it made it easier to cap Quick Magic in jobs that I couldn't achieve capped QC otherwise (PLD and BLU come to mind).

I also considered Weatherspoon because it's obvious benefits going from NQ to HQ versions of the ring. I personally disliked Schneddick ring for the extremely speculative value in going from NQ to HQ. It's a shame that we can't keep 1 NQ and 1 HQ ring.

karieyh because regain in idle set

Just like Karieyh Ring is a minor upgrade to dps. Just like Weatherspoon Ring is a minor upgrade to FC (for all jobs) or a very good piece for Light Damage (for only a few jobs, maybe RDM BLU SAM RNG?). All of the rings are relatively minor upgrades.

Best is still best? This is FFXIAH, where gear set recommendations typically have NUMBAH ONE DPS ONRY and often won't even discuss alternatives that are 0.2% worse DPS. Aurgelmir Orb +1 sells for ~11x (~55mil) the price of NQ (~4.5mil) for one more Store TP and 2 more STR/DEX/VIT. "Best in slot" obviously still means something to a lot of people.

And we're talking WS that are in heavy use. Rudra's Storm, Tachi: Fudo, GK/Katana hybrid WS, Blade: Metsu when I break out my Kikoku, Savage Blade on many jobs (though if capping attack, the relatively new combo of Epam/Sroda does make it less of a sacrifice than it was a few months ago), Torcleaver (maybe? I'm not sure if Epam/Kari+1 or Epam/Niqmaduu is better here, need the DRK pros to guide me there), etc.

I'll give you that the addition of Epaminondas's Ring made it feel like you're missing out a little less by not having Kariyeh +1. And the very recent addition of Sroda also helps take the sting out if you're talking STR based WS (say, Savage and capping attack). But I still have lots of legit uses where swapping from Kari+1 to a different ring would indeed be a downgrade in DPS.


Regain in idle sets is the bomb, especially for jobs that can stack it (Gleti and Turms set jobs, SAM with AF head, hell I even have a DRK idle set with Ratri+1 head and still capping DT-). I love having a mini-meditate when I'm just standing getting buffed at the start of an Ambuscade. Or when I go from 800tp to 1000+ and ready for a WS while I'm running to next group of mobs in Sheol or Dyna or something. Or when I'm waiting at a HELM mob for other alliance members and I tick up to 3000tp at Reisenjima #9 while I'm afk grabbing a drink. It's not game breaking, but it does add up and it's a cool perk on a ring you're really picking due to the WSD. And to me it's certainly more noticeable than the miniscule number of times I'd really need the extra defense from a Nyame piece in an idle movement+ set (see my below comments to Azagarth's).


One of the biggest differences from BiS gear to second place option for Trueflight is a pretty big deal for a Gastra RNG, just sayin'. Or a Crocea Mors RDM using Seraph, or an Aymur BST using Primal Rend, etc. (and those jobs all have other 18% movement+ options, so we're really just talking about them missing out on stronger defensive stats in an idle set). Point being, I certainly couldn't fault anyone for choosing Weatherspoon if that person seriously plays a job where they regularly use light WS. It certainly pains me a little bit to have a R15 Gastraphetes and no Weatherspoon.


I can honestly say that I don't believe I have died a single time from being caught in movement speed+ idle set where I would have been saved if only I was wearing a Nyame piece in the slot where I was in movement+ gear. You can still easily cap DT- on ANY job without that one slot, and load up on DEF/Meva/HP/whatever in other slots.

If you're trying to argue that someone who is intentionally pulling a dozen or more mobs might see more of a difference, well, OK. But in that case, do you REALLY need movement speed at the same time? I can chalk this up to YMMV, and perhaps you're the PLD or THF or whatever that is needing to kite multiple mobs AND move fast, and that extra DEF/Meva/whatever might be the difference between survival and not. Personally, I never run into that situation so it's irrelevant to me. Even when I get some weird situation like an impromptu need to kite an Ambuscade mob due to a mistake and a dead tank, I have never felt like my survival hinged on that one slot having more DEF/Meva/Eva instead of movement+.


I suppose this is true (at least for mules that don't craft). But if you're truly talking about mules (and not like, well geared multibox alts), well, IDK about everybody else but I do not give a damn about bringing my mules all the way through SoA storyline for a movement speed ring. Mine can run to the AH with their 8% Track Pants +1, or 12% nation Aketons or Trotter's Boots. That's plenty good for me lol. The time I saved from not bringing them through the entire SoA mission line more than outweighs the time I'd save with a little more movement+ for running around town.

Karieyh is not bis or it's break even with Epam for almost anything right now tho. What WSs you have in mind that would still use it and in what scenario?

You wear two rings when you WS, right? I'm not saying Kari+1 > Epam, I'm saying Epam/Kari+1 as the top 2 BiS pair for various WS. The other contenders are stuff like Sroda (nice for STR WS & capped attack, but not all WSD oriented WS use STR mods), Niqmaduu for the handful of jobs that can use it, Regal Ring (which is generally worse than WSD+4%, and highly relevant for a lot of people that it is a pain in the *** to get).

I called out some of the more notable WS already, not an exhaustive list (off the top of my head, other quirky stuff like Onslaught would fit too) and perhaps some of these have a better 1-2 combo with Epam/??? instead of Epam/Kari+1 (in which case, would love to be corrected if I have some mistakes):

I'm not even sure if it is BiS for majority of situations.

Basically anyplace you would cap and can use sroda it will be bis. Outside of that generally since you are not capped things like regals attack will actually be better.Then you get stuff like multi hit ws where gere wins. Move onto dark based and archon wins. Dex based ws like metsu and rudras from my understanding is still bis gere from the 5 ta.

Hybrids ws? well maybe you got a case there, but any dps gain over regal will be so small and for this alone would not be worth it. I can safely say this as a sam and nin who are the 2 jobs that abuse it most.

Even back in the day, years ago when we just had ifrits+1 and such there was the debate if it was even worth it then and most came to the conclusion no.... now with the massive wsd we get from nyame I can see it being an even bigger no.

My point was the gap is incredibly minor with all the alternatives available, though ill grant that no regal can muddy this comparison, you still got beither ring, i personally dont see much value in an extra .5% dps over saving myself multiple mov speed inventory or in fc, or before when pets were more useful getting a strong acc/dt/haste which is pretty unique for pets at the time.

Not really. It's Sroda/Epam for almost every (STR or not, just not pure dex WSC like Rudra) WS at capped attack, because 15STR and3%PDL>4%WSD even for WSs without STR mod. For uncapped attack Regal easily wins for almost everything and Sroda also wins for heavily STR WSC WSs (and if it's Trust scenario it's not even competition).

Overall Kari+1 wins only for maybe something like Rudra at capped attack, but it 0.16% win even then. It doesn't even win with Sroda at capped attack for WS like Blade: ten which is 30%STR 30%DEX, despite -20DEX on Sroda (and significantly lose to Regal at uncapped attack ofc).