Written for Diablo Patch 1.09

1. Introduction
     1.1 Description and properties
     1.2 Advantages
     1.3 Disadvantages
2. Some miscellaneous FAQs about the constricting ring
3. How to find the constricting ring: an interview with Jarulf
     3.1 Unique item probability table for the constricting ring
4. Alternatives to the constricting ring
5. Usage and Techniques
     5.1 General proper usage
     5.2 Berserker Technique
     5.3 Triangle switch
     5.4 Double switch
     5.5 Single switch
6. Ring design for the character class and level
     6.1 Low-level characters
     6.2 Mid-level characters
     6.3 High-level characters
7. Final thoughts
Addendum
     A-1 Thieves suffix bug
     A-2 Mana shield bug

For those considering the constricting ring as equipment, read this:

The constricting ring allows max resistance to all magic, fire, and lightning. Maximum resistance means 75% resistance to the particular type of spell, the "maximum" you can obtain. Therefore, you get a triple resistance with only one piece of jewelry placed on you. However, the catch to the constricting ring is that you steadily lose a constant number of hitpoints (or manapoints when using the mana shield) while playing.

What makes this unique fascinating is that it is worthwhile to actually keep it and its usefulness spans the breadth of the character's mid- and high-level development. Furthermore, even if your preference is not the constricting ring, the buyback rate for this find is 15,500 gold pieces (therefore, the actual price comes to be around 62k gold pieces). This is equivalent to 3 slots of gold at 5000 pieces each, saving you a net of 2 slots and making it an excellent money-storage. You'll easily be able to sell this back to Griswold without feeling any loss or having second thoughts, especially when you're scrounging for money in order to obtain better armor.

So what are the advantages of this ring? Triple resistance is surely useful at the caves and hell levels. Seriously, it's what you should have when you enter hell, especially in nightmare and hell difficulties. Magistrates, succubi, and etc. purely use magic to inflict you and have no actual melee attack. Therefore, you can be hurt without impunity by ranged attacks. Fireballs (fire-based), bloodstar (magic-based), and charged bolts (lightning-based) are just a few examples that are constantly used by your enemies. Triple resistance can reduce all of these attacks by quite of an amount.

Nevertheless, there's always a small repercussion that goes along with a unique that is too good to be true. The constant loss of hp can be very bothersome, if not annoying. What's considered annoying? The idea that you lose 1.25 hp/sec is annoying. The fact that you have to use a potion even when you're not hit yet may be vexing for the player. Why deal with that fact? Isn't there better jewelry to put on than that item? Although the constricting ring covers the three types of resistance, there are other possible alternatives than using constricting ring.

What does the constricting ring look like?
The physical properties of this unique is a gold ring with an reddish-orange triangular gem on top. The ring icon is distinguishable from all other uniques without identification. Regardless, you'll need to identify the ring in order to invoke its properties.

Where can I find the constricting ring?
The constricting ring is an item level 5 unique (a pretty low level item!). Please refer to Jarulf's Guide on the long story of what "qlvl 5" signifies. To sum it up shortly, this means that the item will usually be found in the earlier parts of the game. For instance, one constricting ring was found on first level of the catacombs (level 5) from a regular Stone Clan, an arrow-shooting goatman (in normal difficulty). This particular unique is not exactly difficult to find nor is it rare. Please refer to Section 3: How to find the constricting ring, for further information.

What happens if I equip the Gotterdamerung as well as the constricting ring?
The Gotterdamerung is a great helm (AC 60) that gives +20 to attributes, -4 damage from enemies, and -40% light radius. In addition, the interesting attribute about the helm is that it reduces the resistances to 0%. That will conflict with the constricting ring's attributes of maxing out resistances. A paradox indeed, but if both items are equipped, unfortunately, resistances are kept at 0%.

Do I lose hp if I'm still wearing the constricting ring when I'm in the town of Tristram?
No. The constricting ring will not consume hitpoints when you're in town. Therefore, it is safe to have the constricting ring equipped. Nevertheless, it's quite pointless because the second you step into a level, the hitpoints start decreasing.

What happens if the ring drains all my manapoints?
The manapoints will be depleted and the mana shield will wear off. The constricting ring will continue to use up the hitpoints afterwards at 1.25 hp/sec.

What happens if the ring drains all my hitpoints?
Simply death. So it is necessary to carefully monitor your hp and be ready to heal up at all times.

Should I wear the constricting ring?
Well, this is a matter of opinion where many people argue for one side and many more argue for the other. It is more of your own preference at the end because it does require a little adjustment and a little of getting used to the drainage. However, don't ever enter in levels with 0% resistance (when you're expecting monsters that will cast spells) especially in hell and higher difficulties. The constricting ring should be equipped for safety measures in this case.

Once in a while, someone would ask on the DSF, "Where can I find the constricting ring?"

Of course, we would give our opinions, but they were mostly based on our gameplay experiences. Jarulf composed a table on the list of unique items and the best dungeon levels on where to find them. Indeed, this may be useful when answering the above question and other related topics as well. I have extracted from this table the values for the constricting ring. Anyway, I decided to compile a couple of questions for Jarulf so that he can elaborate on this table in further detail. Jarulf is the primary author of Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire which is hosted on the Lurker Lounge. Jarulf's Guide is considered to be the definitive source of all technical information regarding the original Blizzard game and Sierra expansion.

The data above will be explained in the interview.

After reviewing your data table, it seems that the "pos" of the constricting ring is 88. What does the "pos" number refer to in Diablo?

The "pos" is the internal order in which the game has all the unique items listed. My program processes the items in the same order, that is, it goes through the list from position one to the last. This order and the position value have absolutely NO importance whatsoever to the probabilities. For prefixes, suffixes, and base items it has no importance either. For unique items the ONLY thing it affects, is if the game is to drop a specific unique item and there are two unique items of the same base item and of the same qlvl, it will drop the first one in the list.

Technically all such lists goes from 0, or rather, I number them from 0. Most have no number in themselves though. Although when they do use some number, it usually refers to the first entry as 0. In the case of unique items, I start with entry 9 (the tenth entry) as the previous ones are quest uniques and are not findable, and for technical reasons the program (my program, not Diablo) does not handle them correctly as I wrote it with no consideration to quest uniques.

You can basically disregard that number. I added it to facilitate it for me.

For those who don't know what "qlvl" means, can you briefly explain that?

It is the quality level of the item or prefix or whatever. Each source that produces an item has a level too, in my guide called ilvl. This level of the source is for monsters directly linked to its monster level. For a chest it is linked to the dungeon level and so on. When a source, for example a monster or a chest, drops an item, it can only drop unique items, base items, prefixes and so on, that has a quality level (qlvl) equal or lower than its own level. Thus a simple skeleton with a very low monster level will only drop an item that has a low qlvl as well.

Now that we know what qlvl means, it says that the CR has a qlvl ranging from 5-10. I know that the qlvl is 5 for the CR, but I don't know what the 10 stands for.

It is the upper limit. That is, if the ilvl (not modified for difficulty as explained in my Guide) is in the range given (5-10) it will drop the constricting ring. You will notice that if the second number is not 60 (an arbitrary high number I set just to be sure it was higher than any other possible number) there will be another unique item of the same base item that has a qlvl 1 higher than this. In your case, the Ring of Engagement has a qlvl of 11 and thus the constricting ring will never drop when the ilvl of the source reaches 11, only up to 10.

Looking at the tables, how do we interpret the numbers?

The first number would be the average number of games for the item to exist. If it is 320 for example, the item will exist in every 320 games. The chance for a specific game is thus 1/320. Note, the chance of FINDING it will be smaller unless you kill all monsters, open all chests on all levels in every game of course. It is basically calculated from all the information in my Guide as well as some other information I have about item creation. The last number is the most probable dungeon level to find the item on. This assumes you kill ALL monsters and open ALL chests and so on. So if you simply cruise the church and kill all bosses, it may be a different value (you should then look at the values for bosses only).

It seems that I usually find the constricting ring in the catacombs, but the dlvl 2-3 bosses also drop them as well. Care to go a little more in-depth on that?

Well, if one looks at the values, it is clear that the largest source of unique items are actually normal monsters, not bosses. Bosses have a MUCH higher probability compared on a one to one basis to a monster of dropping a unique item. But there are MANY more normal monsters than bosses. One of the fastest ways to find good items is to do a Laz run, mostly, killing all bosses on level 13-15 and simply skip the normal monsters as it takes too long. That is, time wise it is faster to only kill the bosses.

From your findings, it is impossible to find the CR on a Laz run, am I correct? That sounds right from my experiences.

Yup, as for unique items as explained in my Guide, the game will always drop the best unique of that type. For base item, prefixes and so on, it instead picks a random one within a range. On a Laz run, all sources have such a high level that they will always pick the Ring of Engagement over the Constricting ring.

I thought that difficulty level played no role in finding uniques. However, the general trend for finding the constricting ring seems more probable at higher difficulty levels. Why is that so?

Well, base item is affected, so there might be more possible ones. For example, jewelry will be available where it was not on easier levels. For the case of the CR, this is actually THE reason I would say. Especially the fact that more of the 4 base item rings are available for drop by lower level monsters (level 5-10) that can drop the CR.

Thanks for the interview, Jarulf!

For those who are hunting for the constricting ring, consider this instead. I find that other jewelry may be just as effective. I, myself, prefer the obsidian (obs) prefixes ideally. Two of them will give me almost full resistance if not max resistance already. Furthermore, the obs jewelry may also have suffixes that are advantageous to the character. Two zodiac (zod) suffixes will give around +36-40 on all attributes, but, definitely, this is very tough to find. However, to obtain a high resistance usually means having two slots of your equipment to be "obsidian." The constricting ring will take up one slot only, but has no suffix like the possible ones that the obs rings can give. However, the ring is a fairly low level item and not all that difficult to find. Many players use the ring trying to find the obs/zod in order to replace it. What happens if you can't find an obs/zod ring? I usually go with a lower +resist/+all attributes (prefix/suffix) ring, +resist/+magic (for sorcerers as well as the rogues and warriors in the sense that you want to increase your magic more substantially), +resist/+vit (for warriors as they obtain 2hp per vit pt and possibly rogues as they obtain 1.5 hp per vit pt), +resist/hp (for rogues and warriors), or +mana/+magic (for sorcerers in order to make up for the lost of mp from spell attacks).

Information on the proper usage of this unique has been gathered from the accumulated experiences of many players equipping the constricting ring.

Deciding on when to equip the constricting ring prior to entering the battle scene is integral in maximizing its benefits. One should always plan on which types of enemies to expect by determining what level you're planning to set foot in first. Usually, the enemies will be combinations of melee and magic attackers. However, when dealing with mainly magic-based attackers, the constricting ring shines. When fighting against melee attackers, you should ask, "Why do I have this ring on?" Sounds like common sense, but war tends to fog one's mind. Secondly, surveying the beginning area is essential before placing the constricting ring on. Don't begin with the unique already equipped wasting valuable hp or mp for no reason. You should always survey the level before putting on the ring. When entering the stage, you usually do not encounter enemies right away. A quick survey consists of wearing some form of resistance gear just in case if you encounter an enemy dishing spells at you. The average is to expect 3-5 different races on the level. When you encounter at least two of the races, you'll get a general picture of the fauna inhabiting the area. Try to make sure that you don't signal too many enemies at once because you will want to try to dispatch a minimal number of the enemies as possible. This will create a safe haven for the time being and allow you to have time to equip the unique. Just remember to take it off when not facing any monsters. This will save you a couple of hp in and out of the game.

The basic technique for using the constricting ring is the berserker technique. This requires for the players to traverse through the same level twice. When doing a level that makes the constricting ring useful, go all out on killing the monsters fast and efficiently. Don't pick up anything, don't re-arrange inventory, and don't bash barrels or open chests. Keep your number slots filled with potions. A combination of healing potions and rejuvenations should be in the rogue's and warrior's inventory as you'll find yourself in the barrage casting healing repeatedly. Full mana potions for the sorcerers are necessary. Figure on going through the level twice, once to clear the mobs and the second time (with the constricting ring off) to get the goods.

Mastery of this ring requires finger dexterity, mouse maneuvering, and experience. The theory behind the following technique is that you don't want to necessarily have the constricting ring on. Since no one wants to steadily lose hitpoints, switching the ring back and forth is a possible solution. A small reminder, make sure that switching to the constricting ring won't prevent you from using your armor or weapon, etc. as you may lose attribute points associated with the primary ring taken off. As opposed to running and killing everything in sight as fast as you can (the berserker technique), it's going to require a little more finesse. This technique is more valuable for the warrior class. I personally dubbed this the "triangle switch" because you make a triangular motion in order to switch equipment. My suggestion is to go with a different ring with different attributes designed for melee since your warrior is most likely attacking with the sword and shield or the two-handed axe. What will happen is that you'll find yourself in melee and then the magic ones start appearing when you're finishing up your close-ranged attacks. Magic-users tend to stay on the outskirts of your screen at first and then usually remain at a distance for a ranged-attack. Quickly, pop up the inventory by pressing the hotkey, "I." Right away, click on the ring and drag it into the screen, not back into your inventory. It's easier to just throw it out because you're probably panicking due to being bombarded with spells. In addition, it's not that much distance from the left ring slot to the level area. Return back to the inventory and grab the constricting ring in order to equip it. Do this part more slowly because you don't want to inadvertently drop it. The best place to for the ring is on the upper left corner by itself if possible. You don't want to accidentally click on something else instead. Then replace the jewelry on the left ring slot as it is the closest one. Click "I" or "Space Bar" to get out. You'll be prepared to deal with spell attackers in less than two seconds. I worked on this technique myself where I got it to the point that I could do it without hesitation. Therefore, I averaged around one second for the whole process to occur (aside from the fumbles and the misses). Don't forget to pick up the other ring and remove the constricting ring after the skirmish is over.

Another variation is the double switch. In my opinion, it's easier, faster, and better. Above all that, it seems more logical anyway. Nonetheless, some prefer the triangle switch as they have already committed this technique to memory. Plus, it's a little difficult to break a habit. Finally, it's best to report as many techniques as possible in order to give players the greatest variety in choosing a particular approach to develop on. The double switch uses the same organization of the inventory as the triangle switch. Ideally, the primary ring should remain in the left slot in your gear. The constricting ring should be stored by itself in the upper left corner of the inventory. Drag the constricting ring up from your inventory to the primary ring (probably this should be on the left slot) and switch the two. You should now have the constricting ring in place of the primary ring. Drag the original ring back into the inventory and you're ready to face the magic-users. What are the benefits of the double switch? It takes only three mouse-button clicks instead of four for the triangle switch. Besides, you won't even have to bother searching for a little yellow circle on the ground. What are the benefits of the triangle switch? It may seem hard to comprehend why, but when dropping the primary ring, sometimes there's a little lag associate with the falling ring. This is observed in slower computers, but can even be seen in faster computers with more memory as I have found out from my tests. The slight pause gives players enough time to catch their breath and plan the next strategy. In the double switch, there is no lag associated with the ring switch.

To top it all off, another type of equipment switch, the single-switch approach, should be added onto the above list of techniques. Indeed, this is another variation that is applicable for all equipment changes. Left-click the ring in inventory (in this case, the constricting ring) and move to the ring slot you want to exchange (should be the left-side one, for speed). Click the constricting ring in, then (with the original ring in hand now) close inventory and drop the ring (your finger should still be on the "I" key, or you can hit space bar; it's not recommended do the latter because it closes the map). Quickly click the fallen ring to retrieve it. In this method, there will be no sacrifice in switching the two rings, but there may be a possible lag due to the ring being dropped onto the level. Even still, there may be other variations as well due to the fact that all fighters develop their own playing styles.

What classes would the ring be the most useful for?

Low-level characters: At this range, the constricting ring is ineffective, if not deadly. First of all, there are no characters that will effectively deal a magic-based damage against you at the church and catacomb levels. Secondly, the maximum hitpoints you have obtained right now are too low (most likely, the sorcerer will not have the mana shield either). The ring will drain all your hp in no time. Although you may find the constricting ring at this level of experience, it should kept as a possible use at the higher levels, especially when you have not found a decent piece of equipment that has good resistance. Therefore, it is unadvisable to equip the constricting ring at this point in time.

Mid-level characters: At this level, you should be in the caves and the beginning of hell. For warriors, the hp loss won't really affect you that much because of the high number of hitpoints that you have already. You'll notice the magic attacks hit on you more than the decrease of hit points. For sorcerers, you're on the mana shield. So the valuable life points are dependent on your mana only. The constricting ring shouldn't interfere too much in the way when playing in hell levels. I don't use the constricting ring with rogues at all. I prefer the resists rings instead even if they don't fully give me max resistance. The rogue's hp isn't too high so the drainage may have a toll. The mana is around the same as well so I don't usually use the mana shield for the rogue. Instead, magic would be more effective for healing rather than maintaining a mana shield. From my experiences, the benefits of the constricting ring doesn't usually outweigh the cost at the caves. Nevertheless, the use of the constricting ring in the caves is based on your preference of going with less resistance or with the ring and have hp drainage. If you use it in the caves, you should be on nightmare and hell difficulties.

High-level characters: All three classes may find use for this unique if they have not found an adequate +resist armor. Rogues may be able to handle the constant hp loss, but the +resist is usually preferred over the unique. Warriors and sorcerers should have no problem. For warriors, the most important spell to keep on the F keys is definitely "heal," as you'll find yourself switching back on that. When your resources are depleted, have enough mana to cast town portal (one town portal scroll is better) and have Pepin do his magic. The sorcerers don't get the advantage of healing when they use a mana shield. Instead, they must rely on the mana potions to keep their mana replenished. Nonetheless, in my opinion, I feel that the ring is more advantageous on the wizard than on the warrior. As I have found in the past, this opinion is rather arguable, but let me demonstrate my reasoning. The hp drainage from the ring is 1.25 hp/sec. One advantage that the mana shield gives is that it reduces that damage by a certain percent as well. By casting the mana shield that damage accumulated per hit is reduced by 1/3. This damage reduction is 33% at all levels of the shield. The only exception is when the shield spell level is zero rendering the mana shield unusable. The reduction means that the constricting ring only depletes only 0.94 mana/sec instead. Let me put this in more relative terms. Two minutes after placing the unique on, the sorcerer saves around 37 points more than the warrior. This gets to be quite a lot over a period of time. Secondly, the sorcerer tends to be at a distance, while the warrior is up front and into the fray. The warrior is going to be more worried about melee damage as opposed to spell-based damage. On the other hand, the sorcerer is usually not in the heat of the battle, but casting spells at the ranged-attack level. The types of damage the sorcerer is worrying about are missile attacks and spell attacks. Hence, the constricting ring is the "backup" ring the warrior using the above mastery techniques and the "regular" ring for the sorcerer (it there is no better alternative).

Note: Those of you who are calculating the manapoint reduction may realize that the 0.94 mana/sec is not actually a 33% decrease, but only a 25% decrease from the original 1.25 hp/sec. It is a 0.9375 mp/sec decrease to be exact. It would seem that the constricting ring should consume only 0.83 mana/sec in theory. However, it has been tested that that after two minutes (120 seconds total) the hitpoint loss is 150 (1.25 hp/sec and the manapoint loss is 113 (0.94 mana/sec). Nevertheless, the quirk in the programming of hp and mp loss provides a suitable explanation for this observation. Let's say that the observation is correct that the constricting ring deals 1.25 hp damage per second. Let's also say that the damage is done continuously rather then explicitly once per second. There are 6 hidden bits of precision in the hp count, so representing the damage to express that, we have 80/64 hp (1.25 hp) damage per second. The update speed is 20 frames per second so representing the damage to express that, we have 4/64 hp damage per frame. A mana shield with 33% damage reduction will then give us 2.68/64 mp damage per frame. However, there isn't enough precision to store 2.68/64 mp so that damage figure will be rounded up to 3/64 mp damage per frame (the quirk: the loss of precision will cost us a difference in .32/64 which makes a big difference at the end). This gives us (3/64)*20 = 60/64 = 0.9375 mp damage per second rounding it up to 0.94 mp/sec. Due to this method of calculation and design, the mana shield, unfortunately, provides only a 25% reduction in the drainage by the constricting ring.

Even though I don't prefer the constricting ring as part of my primary gear, it's not exactly the worst ring in the world. After dissecting this ring for over a year, I've found it to be quite useful especially as backup protection after you've died and are in the process of recovering your lost goods. At higher levels, you may be on obsidian, but, as stated, this is one possible backup resistance that takes up only one slot of your inventory. The constant loss of hp is annoying, but the fact is that you'll lose more points anyway from magic attacks than from the loss of hp. In that sense, the ring is a valuable unique (15k of gold is not bad either, a great money storage). The most effective place to use this ring is in hell at all levels of difficulty. Having less resistance is more effective if you're on normal difficulty at the caves. Nevertheless, having full resistances and constant loss of hp is better than no resistances with no loss of hp at all.

Through the comments of Sourceror (FH), Da O'Toth, Jarulf, Gyrefalcon, Erthshade, Dako-ta, and Pete, this revision was made possible. Thanks.

Specifically, the addendum is to address the other bugs that were exploited under the v1.05 patch. However, these were fixed upon the introduction of the v1.07 patch. Some of the alternatives were valid and useful then, but have been modified now making the alternatives obsolete.

Note: "The ring of thieves was modified by the v1.07 patch to accurately fit its description."
Another alternative is to go with a ring of thieves (v1.05). However, the advantages of the thieves suffix is the result of a bug, not an intentional advantage. The ring of thieves not only decreases trap damage by half, but all missile attacks and magic attacks by half as well. The thieves ring can't detect whether or not if the attack came from a monster or from a trap. Therefore, it's like receiving 50% resistance already. If you have a ring of thieves and some +resist item such as jade or amber, this should be just as valuable to a beginner. This is how it works. When you get hit, the thieves ring will reduce the attack by half first, then the resistance % will reduce that number by the percentage. This is how some high level artillery mages play when dealing against magic. They use a ring (or amulet) of thieves, something of absorption, and two obs jewelry. This technique reduces magic attacks to almost virtually zero. Although I'm not a strong fan of the thieves ring either, I think that it is more advantageous because you are given a possibility of having a good prefix to go with the ring of thieves. Furthermore, the recommended item to have the thieves suffix is the shield. This allows the minimum loss of prefixes and suffixes given by the rings that you can find. The reason why I don't like the ring though is that the thieves ring gives you advantages made by a bug. If you're a true pure player, you probably wouldn't use this item. The property for this ring is supposed to be for trap damage only not for everything. On the other hand, it's your choice if you're a legit player. You did rightfully find this ring and it's not your fault that Blizzard made this mistake. Therefore, you're entitled to maximally use this ring. In other words, it's up to you to decide on how legit this ring is. If you feel that it is, then use it. You're still legit. If you don't, then don't. You might have guilty conscience using the ring when you don't feel that the ring is legit.

Note: "The mana shield bug was fixed by 1.07 where the mana shield always reduces the damage by 1/3 at all levels of the shield, except for zero."
Mana shield reduces the damage by 1/3*mana shield spell level of the damage. Therefore, a shield spell of level one will effectively reduce the shield damage by 1/3. This is due to a bug miscalculation made by Blizzard. This is only effective if your shield spell level is at one and no higher. For higher shield levels the damage reduction is very miniscule so it remains at 1.25 mana/sec for the rest of the spell levels. Therefore, the wizard loses way less mana/sec than the warrior's hp. The drainage adds up, believe me.

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