The BEST RINGS in Baldur's Gate 3 - Honor Mode Tier List and Guide - Act 2

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Hey pals, one error in this video: I said the killer's sweetheart uses the crit charge on the next attack, but that's not true - instead it lets you choose to make any attack a critical (similar to Luck of the Far Realms). I fooled myself by reading the tooltip (amateur mistake!) and somehow forgot hundreds of uses of the ring in actual play. Still A tier, but even better than I make it sound in the video!

[@thomasrosendahl2783]

Can you recommend some strong builds for a no or few rest playthrough? I have heard Gloomstalker assassin dont need to rest at all, but Rogue is not a strong mono class. I plan to play on Tactician, and want to rest as little as possible.

[@doloresabernathy9809]

You read my mind. i commented this before reading yours!

[@snakeman830]

It's even better than Luck of the Far Realms, because you can use it to turn a missed attack into a critical hit. Luck of the Far Realms can only modify attacks that hit.

[@calebpowell2257]

I’m not sure if it’s bugged, but any time I’ve used Killer’s Sweetheart, the guaranteed critical hit actually acts like an additional Luck of the Far Realms and allows me to get a critical hit on ANY attack roll of my choice. It’s a must-have for pretty much all of my paladins because of that. Edit: It seems like that’s how it works for everyone else and the item description is just wrong. Definitely deserves to be S-Tier.

[@FaultyRanger]

That’s how I’ve used it too - it pops up like a reaction for me to confirm, and if I skip, it’ll give me the option next time it’d pop.

[@davidtreece3922]

That's how it is suppose to work it defaults to a reaction that you can choose to use on any attack

[@UngodlyFreak]

Exactly. Definitely belongs in the S tier.

[@cold_ay_]

This is correct. Even works to turn a missed attack into a hit+crit. Fantastic item.

[@kinggamereon653]

Yeah, it's a reaction so it's just a better luck of the far realms once a day.

[@Raveneye2000]

I think lore of the True Love rings actually makes it make *more* sense to keep one ring on a party member at camp. One of the ring owners in the shadow lands died as he felt his lover die far away from him. The rings are explicitly made for people who are operating far apart from one another, so that one can help to keep the other safe. So that's their intended use.

[@MonteZuul]

Ring of Free Action = A tier defence item at the least, imo. You're immune not only to paralysis (many claws in A2, A3), but also Hold Person, and that's not even considering the enhanced mobility it provides you. Placing it in C-tier is kind of criminal. It's also important to note that most Act2 items can be acquired before you're even fully done with Act1 (barring Goblin camp), so you can get this ring quite early and go back and do the Creche/Crags + Auntie Ethel, which use paralysis/hold person. Most people won't (and probably 'shouldn't) play like that, but if you've completed the game multiple times, or want to Min/Max on a solo-honour mode run, it really does provide with a significant benefit to your survivability, by, as you've stated yourself, minimizing bad chance :-).

[@KrucielBL]

Has to be noted that this ring is literally useless if you're using camp clerics. You can cast freedom of movement on your entire party if you want for free. So unless you're banning them to make the game harder, the ring is basically just giving up a ring slot. Not trying to hate, it's just that in an honour mode run, you want every advantage you can find and until they patch out camp clerics, they make this ring look bad.

[@MonteZuul]

@@KrucielBL I exclusively play honor mode, and I think this is a fair-ish point, but if you go down this slippery road, then most items in all tier lists are going to be crashing down to C tier, because you can totally negate most of their efficacy by abusing mechanics (e.g., camp clerics, or spell save DC items). For example, by the same logic, The killer's sweetheart ring is practically C/D-tier max, considering you can just use the helm of arcane acuity and ensure perma-crits on practically all enemies. All of the sudden, all items that provide resistances need to be weighed differently, because you can just have a camp goblin giving you resistances to everything, and most people (I reckon) don't want to play like that. I didn't at all think you were trying to hate; honour mode can be quite punishing, but once you become familiar enough with the game, you also learn that abusing mechanics mostly, if not totally, negates the challenge it poses.

[@angelodegiule1753]

@@KrucielBLmy first honor mode run I abused camp clerics and felt invincible and truly was. My second run I just finished I didn’t use them, the difference was felt but the game became more fun than just being ungodly powerful

[@KrucielBL]

@@angelodegiule1753 Yeah there's different degrees of it for sure. Just using one to cast aid and a single set of buffs on your Tav is already an insane power spike, but if you go all out and have 4 camp clerics with an individual warding bond running on all 4 members of your main party you literally can't die to anything but elevators.

[@Thoth728]

exactly my thoughts. its increadible for when you get it also, it completely neuters some pretty dangerous fights in act 2 (meanlocks, maezels, 3 different vine blight encounters, and even the shambling mound, it cant instakill you unless you are restrained by it)

[@fisher00769]

One of the only times the information here is incorrect. Killer's sweetheart does not automatically crit on your next weapon attack. Instead, after killing an enemy, it works exactly like Luck of the far Realms, and is a Reaction to change an attack roll into a critical. Even better than that, because it can actually turn a Miss into a critical hit too.

[@CMiY0]

Oo that makes it even better tbh. That’s insanely powerful.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep, my bad! I fooled myself by reading the tooltip (amateur mistake) and somehow forgot hundreds of uses of the ring in actual play.

[@CunningLingu1st]

These tier lists and your build guides have been invaluable resources to help not just myself, but many of us learn and enjoy aspects of the limitless build potential that we might’ve overlooked or not been aware of. Thank you!

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks so much for the support! Really glad the videos are helping :D

[@snakeman830]

Thankfully, the Shadow Blade Ring has a bug just like the Flame Blade spell where, using hirelings, you can get the weapon permanently and repeatedly.

[@joshwhite1562]

Yes please!!!

[@anska7475]

Thank you for all the work you put into these tier lists. I appreciate them very much. The warding bond rings are the items that made me wonder if the game wants me to use them with a character left in camp because it, in a twisted way, is the story told in the accompanying diaries - the husband unknowingly dies of the wounds his wife sustains in battle. ^^ At least this was the text that made me aware this sort of trick is even possible.

[@KrucielBL]

Risky RIng literally turns sharpshooter into "you deal +10 damage" on any archer. I didn't use it for so many runs because it looked scary. Now I rush to Moonrise in Act 2 just to buy it asap alongside Drake Glaive to turn my bard into a god. If you have a gloves of dex bard with alert, they are at literally 0 risk of being controlled. They go first in every fight, pewpew down any enemies on the edges of the arena and CC whatever's left. This ring is disgusting. And while it feels bad to not use damage rings, if you use the best archer armour in the game once you get to act 3, giving all enemies vulnerability to piercing, you outdamage the bards wearing 3 damage rider effect anyways just shooting everything for 60+ piercing damage every single action.

[@jcurious2598]

Wearing the Fey Semblance Amulet with the risky ring makes it a lot less scary.

[@lendial]

Risky ring is imo the strongest/most impactful single item in the game for what it does and when you get it.

[@ProbeAway]

@@jcurious2598yep, or the amulet of the Harper

[@Cassandra_Solidor]

I know camp caster can cross that cheesy line but you can use them to exploit the Shadow Blade ring. If you hire a hireling and have them cast the Shadow Blade spell then immediately dismiss them and hire them again, the blade will now become a permanent weapon with no concentration required. So with that exploit, I'd say there's an argument to bump it up into A tier. Depends if you feel this is crossing that line though!

[@bentrieschmann]

Same with flameblade.

[@zorlix130]

I haven't tested this recently, but when I was using the True Love's Rings, the Warding Bond remained even after the rings were taken off. So, two character could just put on the rings, cast the Bond and then replace them with any other rings. If this was a bug, then maybe it was fixed. I'm not sure. I might try this later and post the results. Edit: Yep, the Warding Bond persists after removing the rings on both Tactician and Honor Mode.

[@dbird162004]

I was going to say this same thing. That is how I have been using them, just use them then swap them.

[@Mhill08]

I can confirm this works still as of patch 7

[@antlerman7644]

I beat HM as my first win of the game thanks to your abjuration, thrower, light cleric, bard build. Thanks for making a new genre of game understandable for me. I'll be trying a more dps focused build next time, but the extra survivability was perfect for a first playthrough

[@cannyvalley8522]

Surprisingly for me, Killer's sweetheart was able to turn missed attack into critical hit in my testing which is even more powerful.

[@zero11010]

Ring of geniality - The persuasion bonus also impacts trading. The amulet of the envoy is +2 but only for 10 rounds per long rest. And people seem to like that. Most areas with trading have lots of traders in a tight space (3 in moonrise, 3 in myconid grove, 4 in last light in, and a TON in Baldur’s gate itself. It’s an easy micromanage option to increase buying and selling prices. And also it’s a minor 5% boost for conversations.

[@Jamisen22]

I actually find the Ring of Exalted Marrow quite useful in Act 2 especially. I'm a big user of Command throughout the game, and it's always frustrating to not be able to use the effect when in an undead encounter. There have been a number of fights, like with Ketheric and his ghouls in Moonrise where it's been pretty clutch. Same with Cazador and friends.

[@ModTea]

Last time I checked those two rings who pair together to give warding bond don't need to be equipped after you cast the spell. You equip them on the recipients cast the spell you're set for the rest of the day. Feel free to replace them afterwards so essentially they take no ring slots.

[@travisretriever7473]

IIRC, the ring of free action is a godsent if you're doing a solo honour mode run, especially when combined with the risky ring. H/t to Miss Morgana Ev/Mommy Milkers for that combo for stealth archery build. n.n

[@davidtreece3922]

Thing is once you hit level 7 you can just camp cast freedom of momenent on everyone and that kinda makes the ring obsolete.

[@davidtreece3922]

But ya I guess if you are going strict solo

[@Cephalopocalypse]

True, worth mentioning for solo since in party play they'll just Hold Person a different character, but in solo it makes your whole party immune!

[@lendial]

S tier remains incredible even in A2. Happy you did not sleep on the incredible power of spiteful thunder ring, combined with gloves of baneful striking you will consistently knock enemies on their ass while dazing them regardless of how high their saves are.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I knew rings were good but honestly I was really impressed at HOW good the S tier rings are

[@creedolala6918]

FYI you can unequip the warding bond rings and keep the ward. So after every long rest, it's a little tedious, but you equip them and get the spell, unequip, and you're good until the next long rest.

[@NathanT_Performer]

Risky ring on a paladin with 24 charisma, so you get a +7 to every save anyways

[@Thorg2337]

It's worth noting the Ring of Geniality's persuasion bonus also affects buying/selling at vendors, because vendor prices are based on both their attitude toward you and the persuasion skill of the character initiating dialogue. If you are selling off all your vendor trash or buying a bunch of expensive items, you can make a ton of extra gold over the course of the game by popping the ring of geniality on your highest persuasion character before you talk to vendors. I might put it in A tier personally when you combine that with the roleplay/dialogue check bonuses you get from it.

[@lendial]

I absolutely do this and people who dont run high charisma builds/min max vendor approvals would benefit even more.

[@schmian95]

I personally find it hilarious that the ring of trading does not help with vendor prices, but the almost strictly better ring of geniality does

[@TheVaultDescendant]

I'd love if you made a playlist of only these videos, they are surprisingly hard to find on mobile

[@Jeremy-d7i]

I’d just watched part one of this and looked for part 2 a few days ago and was disappointed. Thanks Ceph! You’re the best.

[@aldoushuxley5953]

The snowburst ring also uses the character DC, not a fixed AC. For Swords Bard archers in particular, this means you can combine it with the Drakethroat Glaive and the Helmet of Arcane Acuity, and the DC for the prone effect is affected by the acuity! So you can guarntee that any character that can be proned has a 100% chance to skip their turn, and you can do this to multiple enemies every turn with slashing flourish/ arrow of many targets. And because you are an archer and attack from range, most enemies have to move

[@LordAryu]

Thanks for this tip! I'm playing a Swords Bard Durge in my current evil run, so this is perfect!

[@KrucielBL]

You can also use encrusted frost gloves on a caster with the ring to give them disadvantage on the saving throw, basically guaranteeing that ray of frost turns into a stun. My last playthrough, my wizard knocked over over half the enemies in the Viconia encounter with a sleet storm and simple ray of frost in the first round.

[@lendial]

I love that even the strongest bosses can lose their turn because they walked on a little circle of ice and fell on their ass

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep, it's wild how good it is!

[@drunkrealtor]

I use the snowburst ring on my archer, and use the elemental weapon spell given from the drakethroat glaive to put cold damage on all my arrows.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

The classic method!

[@SpookyGman]

Great stuff! Looking forward to the next one. Maybe it's just me, but I've never had a party where someone didn't have Killer's Sweetheart on pretty much all day. Just sayin'.

[@CommunismVCapitalism]

You had said rings were the last item. But you will do Weapons as well, right? Right? 🙏

[@FelipeArthurferpa]

I love your videos man, if dollar wasn't crazyly expensive compared to my country's currency I would like to be a member, however, best bg3 tier lists ever, thanks for your work

[@timothyaladesanmi4898]

for the killers sweetheart you can decide when to trigger it by switching it to ask on the reaction tab, at least on playstation. I wouldn't know if thats just not possible on pc.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep, my bad! I fooled myself by reading the tooltip (amateur mistake) and somehow forgot hundreds of uses of the ring in actual play.

[@PłaskiJakZiemia]

I remember my first attempt at solo run. I went to the creche and in the first fight with githyanki I got hit with Hold Person for 7 turns. On my next run I always had Ring of Free Action equipped just in case.

[@ajtp1349]

The true loves caress rings can be taken off right after you cast Warding Bond so it lasts all day without taking any slots up

[@HyozanX]

Thank you for your videos! I enjoy your analysis and humor.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks so much for the support and kind words! I really appreciate it :D

[@himawarimanjushage9735]

I would really like to know how to actually make use of the Shadow Blade Ring better. I love the effect, but in a couple of situations my rogue-fighter Astarion lost concentration and I unequipped it afterwards. He can still attack with his other hand but it is a great risk, specially as thief-rogue since it was equipped as a left-hand blade, it made me loose 2 attacks just like that.

[@northofself]

A pretty cool approach at end game is to run him as a clothing+mage armour build, using the Supreme Defenses robe, peerless focus elixir/Greater Health amulet, and respec'ing to an initial level in Fighter (two-weapon style), followed by 11 levels of Thief. It's worth putting at least one INT ASI to help buff your CON save further, but the real synergy point then comes from the Hat of Pyroquickness. If you save up all the different fire-spell scrolls, it lets you spend your action every turn on activating the hat's extra bonus action, and then you have 3 bonus actions for slashing with the Shadow Blade! If you're stingy with scrolls (which you shouldn't be, as a Reliable Talent Rogue) you can even wear the Daredevil Gloves and Astarion's Firebolt will trigger the pyroquickness for some reason. I like the Braindrain Gloves otherwise for tough fights. Add on the Reverse Raincoat from the Djinni too if you're worried about the burning status. Otherwise, don't forget the Savage Attacker feat now that it will increase the damage of your 6d6 (psychic) Sneak Attacks as of Patch 7, and the Resonance Stone to make enemies vulnerable to your damage!

[@himawarimanjushage9735]

@@northofself Thank you so much for the detailed guide! I going to give it a try in my next run for sure!

[@nbBROFIST]

love your videos Cephalopocalypse

[@antonyfaulkner8649]

A "Radiating Orb" (Lighting Animation above the victims head) is a "Source of Illumination". In this respect, it's a self fuelling mechanic for the Callous Glow Ring. In other words, the Radiating Orb can be applied freely in "obscured environments" by one character (Shadowheart for example), while another (Katlach for example) can capitalise, and just keep the affect snowballing. I think this is the best way (multi character) to maximise the Radiating Orb mechanic, rather than just trying to set everything up on a single character.

[@joerundell8197]

Great video, sad this will be the last one, really enjoy them.

[@Zero_Zone.]

I cracked up at the mental image of my Tav trying to force Gale to eat the Family Ring. 🤣

[@marpatch4417]

Killers sweetheart is actually really good because unlike what the tooltip says you can use it on any attack roll after you kill. Its like luck of the far realms however with 1 key difference. Luck of the far realms converts any successful attack role into a critical. However, killers (unless it was fixed in patch 7) makes any attack a critical even an attack that would have otherwise missed. This makes it a really good ring on builds like the lighting lord lr paladins that care about doing massive amounts of damage on a single hit. Not sure if this is enough to make it s tier but its definitely more powerful then you think.

[@packgrog]

FYI, I don't know if this is fixed in Patch 7, since I play on a Mac, but it seems that you can unequip the True Love's rings from both caster and target after casting and still maintain the Warding Bond. So you don't have to choose these over other rings, but you do need to do a swap. Kinda worth it for the resistance and armor class for a squishy character to help them rely on a beefier ally.

[@TheSolidSnakeOil]

I just started playing an abjuration wizard and Larian put in 3 perfect rings for in Act 2. And here I am walking around with only 2 fingers.

[@Shindetsuku]

I've been trying to theory craft how to use the Shadow Blade Ring and it's convoluted as hell, but I think it can be very powerful...especially if the bug of having a follower cast it, dismissing them, and then getting the blade as a permanent object still works.

[@thomasrosendahl2783]

If you want to play 4 of the same classes, Bard is the only class that can be a skill monkey and face of the party while being strong with stealth, melee and spellcasting. 4 Clerics would be the second best followed by Warlocks.

[@NerdiestPerson]

I don't know what you're talking about, Shadow Blade is clearly in the top 2 best weapons in the game. Being able to aim it in 8 directions and even hit enemies on the return stroke is just so powerful. It even makes the first phase of the final boss completely trivial given it is capable of hitting it from its blind spot. This video was a Megaman 3 tier list, right?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

It's Dota actually, shadow blade is a noob trap because the enemy will just buy dust

[@morganwells1984]

I feel that the ring of exalted marrow could be moved up to c tier, the command undead can be so useful in the myrkul fight by making him drop his scythe, that even though it’s a one time use kind of thing, the value is really high.

[@adhdd4169]

I started using the Ring of Shadows and it lets me equip it, cast pass without trace and swap it out for another ring. I’ve been swapping with the strange conduit ring so they can maintain concentration for all day bonus damage. Maybe not the best concentration in this instance but it’s a free cast for a decent spell effect bc I try to sneak up on a lot of enemies and I’m too lazy to use hunters mark a lot of the time. I am on patch five tactician mode though so maybe that was updated.

[@dla458]

If a Druid equips coruscation ring, does he inflict radiant orb on hit with concentrated spell after shapeshifted into owlbear?

[@travishartzler9155]

I don't disagree with Killer's Sweetheart being A instead of S, but I'll prioritize it over many of the S tier rings. It's fun.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

The most important metric!

[@northofself]

I somehow fear the Risky Ring, but make entire characters' primary strategy Shadow Blade + Resonance Stone 😂

[@jcurious2598]

These item tier lists are extremely helpful. I only have to disagree about the value of the ring of free action and the ring of geniality. Hold Person seems to come up everywhere (as early as Auntie Ethel) and getting ensnared is really annoying. The ring of geniality really affects pricing when you’re a wizard and don’t run with a charisma character.

[@boopdabeep5300]

Once again asking you to cover the inaccessible items after you’re done with all other tier lists (I’d even make the list)

[@rammune7260]

Callous Glow Ring does NOT work with Level 10 Spore Druid's Spreading Spores. It does work on Halo of Spores (Twice with Symbiotic Entity activated).

[@Cephalopocalypse]

There's a few sources of damage that don't count as coming from the actual character - that might be one of them! Moonbeam is another, as are explosions from barrels etc

[@johanfredriksvendsen8482]

I think the ring slots is one that could have done with a s+ tier. There are a couple that are just so incredibly strong and useful that they probably should be separated from the rest. Snowburst ring is very good, but only for a select few builds/characters and it also prevents your team from always doing what they want to do, it is obviously a strong item, but giving it the same rating as the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel seems wrong to me. That ring, which is obviously getting an s rating, is so gamebreakingly strong the comparison makes little sense.

[@mightythor-9286]

I’m a warlock with dark vision and devil sight but still blinded by darkness

[@Cephalopocalypse]

If you have the Devil Sight invocation you shouldn't be getting blinded by the Darkness spell - could be a bug, or is it possible you missed picking it at level 2?

[@poatrykdas]

coruscation ring doesnt work with spirit guardians for me

[@olmers]

LEt´S GOOOOO!

[@swedishmom9412]

pop off early king

[@0ctoberForever]

Warding bond is a level 2 spell

[@entropicdoom8018]

The way you add items to your tier leads us to believe that act 1 rings are better than act 2 since they are listed 1st in the tier list. Can you please sort within a given bin?

[@AirLancer]

All things being equal, it IS better simply because you get to use it for more of the game.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

watch the intro!

[@sldkgf]

33:30 People who say "no pun intended" are cowards. Intent your puns, weaklings.