Diablo 4 is reviving a ring that players once used to trade and summon Diablo
It was powerful, copied into oblivion, and valuable enough to become an entire currency.
The best classic items are coming back in Diablo 4 Season 15 as Legacy Uniques. This includes one of the most famous rings in Diablo history: the Stone of Jordan. Anyone who played through Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 definitely heard about this one.
The Diablo 4 version is not going to be completely similar, but the base power remains the same. You can equip it on any class; it gives additional ranks to all skills, makes your resistances equal to your highest resistance, and increases your damage with that element.
We found one during the Season 15 PTR, so you can get a pretty good look at it here.
But the Stone of Jordan has always been much more than just another ring.
The Ring That Became Currency
The Stone of Jordan was first an item in Diablo 2, where it ended up becoming one of the game's most valuable items.
It was just a caster ring that gave skill bonuses and increased Mana, but its real value came from the game's economy. The ring was rare, easy to trade, and small enough to carry around, and that eventually made it a "currency" for high-value trades.
And then things got... messy.
The Stone of Jordan became associated with item duplication, with duplicated rings eventually becoming such a problem that Blizzard implemented systems to detect and remove them. But what was really funny about this ring is the fact that Blizzard also found another use for all those unwanted Stones of Jordan.
Über Diablo.
You basically could sell large numbers of Stones of Jordan to vendors to trigger the appearance of Über Diablo, who dropped the Annihilus charm. The ring that had become a currency had effectively been turned into a resource for summoning Diablo himself.
Not bad for something that was supposed to be a random piece of jewelry.
Diablo 3 Had Its Own Version
The Stone of Jordan returned in Diablo 3, but it did not have such a cool story this time. It remained a powerful legendary ring, eventually gaining bonuses to elemental damage, maximum resources, and damage against elites. Later updates also gave it a unique effect that made elemental damage bonuses use the character's highest elemental damage bonus.
And Blizzard clearly knew the item's reputation by then. Its description just said:
"The Stone of Jordan is far more valuable than its appearance would suggest."
This is probably a pretty good summary of its entire Diablo 2 history.
If you dig a bit more, you also realise that Diablo 3 had something called the Cauldron of Jordan during its beta. The idea was that you could use it to sell items for gold without having to return to town. It was sadly removed before launch, but it is an interesting detail worth pointing out.
But Who Is Jordan?
This is the weird part. We do not really know who Jordan is.
There are a few theories around this, and the most popular explanation connects the name to the River Jordan and the twelve memorial stones mentioned in the biblical Book of Joshua.
That is still only a fan theory, though, and Diablo 4 opens another theory. The new Stone of Jordan is described as being crafted using Ammuit Mage Clan craftsmanship, but that does not exactly provide a proper answer to the mystery.
"Nine out of ten appraisers would see a dull stone. Crudely cut. Simply set. But a trained eye might see past the illusion placed by its Ammuit craftsman... and marvel at the wellspring of magic within."
There is also an NPC called Theodosius Jordan, a High Priest who appears as a Super Unique enemy in Diablo 3, but there is no official connection between him and the ring.
And then there is the theory that I personally choose to believe.
Michael Jordan
Six championship rings
If Basketball is not really your thing, this might be a bit confusing to you, and also hard to believe. To make it short, in the NBA, when a team wins the championship, all the players, coaches, etc, obtain a special ring. Michael Jordan won all six of his NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, and now Diablo has a legendary item called the Stone of Jordan. So the theory is just that this is a sort of easter egg referencing Michael Jordan's legendary 6 Championship rings.
Coincidence? Probably. But I am not ruling it out. Maybe there is one dev somewhere inside Blizzard who sneakily pulled it off for this exact reason. As a Basketball fan, I like to believe in this one.
In the end, whatever the real inspiration was, the Stone of Jordan has definitely had a strange journey through the Diablo series. It went from a powerful caster ring to a form of currency, became entangled in one of Diablo 2's biggest duplication problems, was eventually used to summon Über Diablo, evolved into a powerful legendary in Diablo 3, and now it is coming back once again in Diablo 4.
At least this time, we might finally get to see who Jordan really is. I am not against shooting some hoops in Diablo 4, with an Ammuit mage version of Michael Jordan.
And it brings another question: what other items or systems from previous games would you want to see in Diablo 4?