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, either providing strong neutral game benefits or build-enabling buffs. Here are the seven best rings players can use in Dark Souls 3.

Updated November 30th, 2021 by Russ Boswell: There are a lot of useful rings to be found in Dark Souls 3, with many enhancing a players' abilities, health, magic power, range, and a slew of other things. These rings can be crucial in maximizing a player's proposed build and some are so helpful they can actually turn the tide of battle against some enemies and bosses. To get a better grip on DS3's best rings, the following list has been updated. It now includes even more entries that shine a light on the best rings in Dark Souls 3, as well as where to get them.

10 Sun Princess Ring

Dark Souls 3 Anor Londo
  • Health is gradually restored (2 per second).

Health is a vital part of Dark Souls. With all of the bosses and enemies capable of doing downright insane amounts of damage to players, items that boost health and heal can be particularly important, especially to newer players or those that are unfamiliar with Dark Souls 3's mechanics.

The Sun Princess Ring will gradually restore a player's health, giving them another means of healing besides sitting at a Shrine or using an Estus Flask. Players that use this ring and its health regen correctly will find it easier to make it through some of the punishing zones in Dark Souls 3, since they can escape combat and wait for their health to return without using any valuable healing items.

The Sun Princess Ring is found in Anor Londo, inside of Gwynevere's Chamber (after Aldrich's boss chamber).

9 Hawk Ring

Bow user in Dark Souls 3
  • Extends the range of ranged weapons (as well as reducing their damage falloff and increasing their zoom).

Ranged weapons are a bit of a nice for some Dark Souls 3 fans. Many players prefer the ability to attack their enemies head-on, as killing foes from range can be a bit tricky. The Hawk Ring can help any would-be bow and ranged weapon users out there by extending their attacking range.

The ring is capable of increasing the range and zoom of bows and other ranged weapons while simultaneously reducing their damage falloff. This gives players more power for their ranged build, especially when invading other Dark Souls 3 gamers.

The Hawk Ring is dropped by the bow-wielding Giant in the Undead Settlement.

8 Dusk Crown Ring

Dark Souls 3 Irithyll Dungeon
  • Reduces FP consumption (Miracles, Sorceries, and Pyromancies).

Many of the rings in Dark Souls 3 come laden with positive and negative effects. There are many rings that are overlooked because players see their negative debuffs as something too striking and painful to overcome. A great example of this is the Dusk Crown Ring.

This powerful ring is incredibly useful in the right hands but it's often disregarded as it cuts the user's maximum HP by 15 percent. The trade-off is that it reduces the FP of all spells. This is the perfect setup for players who are mainly magic users, as they are known to be a bit squishy overall. Those that realize they are "glass" and don't mind reducing their HP further can in turn sling more spells and produce more DPS.

Those who are willing to "trade off" can find this ring in the Irithyll Dungeon (in a cell near Xanthous Ashes).

7 Covetous Silver Serpent Ring

https://www.gameskinny.com/rmgde/dark-souls-3-ng-guide-how-to-find-ng-and-ng-rings
Via: GameSkinny.com
  • Fallen foes yield 10-35% more souls.

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.

6 Prisoner's Chain

Dark Souls 3 Prisoner's Ring
  • Increases Vigor, Endurance, and Vitality by five points. Absorption rating is reduced slightly.

Depending on the player's Soul Level, the Prisoner's Chain ranges from top-tier to decent in strength. This ring increases a player's Vigor, Endurance, and Vitality by five while reducing all damage absorption stats by 4%. While that negative might sound horrible in PvE, that absorption detriment is negated by the increased Soul Level the ring provides.

Twink builds—characters that invade players at low Soul Level—will find this ring invaluable inside of PvP. Any challenge runs that limit themselves to a certain Soul Level in PvE will love this ring as well. With all of those positives in mind, the ring serves little purpose for players that don't abide by any Soul Level restrictions for phantom matchmaking.

5 Sage Ring

https://www.gosunoob.com/dark-souls-3/sage-ring/
Via: GosuNoob.com
  • Shortens spell casting time by granting artificial Dexterity (+30-40).

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.

RELATED: Dark Souls 3: All Minibosses & How To Defeat Them

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 build that frequently cast spells and doesn't have a high Dexterity stat.

4 Chloranthy Ring

Chloranthy Rings in the Inventory
  • Raises stamina recovery speed by +7-10 points per second.

Builds that rapidly consume stamina will want to consider using the Chloranthy Ring. The +3 variant grants an additional ten stamina regeneration per second. Since the base stamina regeneration rate in Dark Souls 3 is 45, gaining ten additional stamina regeneration is a dramatic boost. The Chloranthy Ring also stacks with the Grass Crest Shield and Green Blossoms. It also seems to reduce all stamina regeneration delay tied to rolling, sprinting, or attacking.

Stamina is key to staying alive in Dark Souls 3 due to the abundance of rapid attacks. Dodging between enemy attacks before retaliating will consume an immense amount of stamina from any build. Virtually every build that uses melee weapons can benefit from this ring, although characters that use heavy weapons with long stamina regeneration delays will benefit the most.

3 Hornet Ring

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dark-souls-3-all-ring-locations-and-effects/page-2
Via: USgamer
  • Boosts critical attack damage by 30%.

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 serious 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 that the Hornet Ring works on four of Dark Souls 3's bosses and a small subset of enemies. For PvP, this ring is a must.

2 Carthus Bloodring

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Via: Severance2008 (YouTube)
  • Boosts rolling invisibility frames from 13 to 17, at the cost of 30% reduced absorption.

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 aggressively 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.

1 Ring Of Favor

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dark-souls-3-all-ring-locations-and-effects/page-3
Via: USgamer
  • Increases max HP by 3-6%, Stamina by 8.5-11.5%, and Equip Load by 5-8%.

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.

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