Phat Loot Phriday: Jaina's Signet Ring
As promised, we're going husky this week (which means we're choosing a midlevel item that has some significance to gameplay, rather than a high-end epic item to drool over).
Name: Jaina's Signet Ring (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowwiki)
Type: Uncommon Ring
Damage/Speed: N/A
Attributes:
+3 Strength, +7 Stamina
This ring is actually more notable for what it isn't than what it is. It's more or less the final reward in the Missing Diplomat questline, which spans ten Alliance levels from 28 to 38. And yet, after traversing half the world and uncovering a gigantic mystery, all you get is some XP, a nice chunk of reputation, and this little ring. Unfortunately, most players are of the opinion (with good reason, if you ask me), that a piddly little ring like this probably isn't worth all of the trouble. This is probably one of the quests Jeff Kaplan would probably say wasn't quite done correctly.
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But it is a fun quest, and it does have some nice significance to the lore: it basically covers the backstory of why the King of Stormwind was (previously) missing from the game. And it brings you into direct contact with none other than Jaina Proudmoore, a fan favorite character who's got quite a backstory with our current Dark Lord (and who we'll probably be seeing more of soon). Which begs the question: why is Jaina's ring, a signet ring of a legendary Mage, equipped with Strength and Stamina? Maybe that's why she's giving it away to you.
This actually used to be the last reward in the Missing Diplomat quest, but actually, with the Dustwallow revamp a few patches ago (which I'm playing right now and which you should check out if you ever level a character from 30-40 again), there is more to the story. After this quest, you move on to another chain, which eventually reveals exactly who the Missing Diplomat was and how exactly he went missing. That culminates in a better final scene with Jaina, and a few much nicer rewards.
But those of us who leveled up before the revamp will always remember Jaina's Signet Ring, one of the biggest let-downs in quest rewards so far. If you happen to come upon it with your alt, you might as well keep it around as a reminder for Blizzard on how do to quests incorrectly.
How to Get It: Whoops, we already told you that -- it's from the Missing Diplomat quest line. The whole line actually begins around level 28 in Stormwind. It's a long and arduous series of quests, and you can't do it all at once (it takes ten levels, which is another thing Kaplan said Blizzard shouldn't ever do), but it's worth doing for the lore -- pick up the quest when you can, and you'll likely end up traveling past all of the questgivers anyway.
Getting Rid of It: Rings are still somewhat hard to come by at this level, so if you don't have one on already, you might as well equip it. But if you're a caster and you already have two rings, you can sell it back to vendors for 46s 30c. And it'll disenchant into a Vision Dust or a Greater Mystic Essence.
