Stone of Jordan

The Stone of Jordan (SoJ) is a unique ring. The stats are very useful for mages or caster type characters, and it was one of the most coveted items in the game during D2C. The utility of the item fell considerably with the release of D2X, as other, better unique rings were introduced, and the bonuses provided by the SoJ became more readily available on other items.

Besides its use as an wearable item, the SoJ was hugely desired for its role as a unit of currency, especially during D2C and early in the D2X days.

Since so many SoJs were found and duped, the Uber Diablo quest was added in v1.10 to provide a reward to players who sold SoJs. The aim was to reduce their preponderance in the economy, and though this happened to some degree, adding a valuable quest that could only be enabled by selling SoJs provided some players with additional incentive to dupe them.

Item Stats

Stone of Jordan

• Item level: 39
  
• Clvl req: 29
  
• +20 Mana
  
• +25% Maximum Mana
  
• Adds 1-12 Lightning Damage
  
• +1 to All Skills

Unit of Currency

The larger significance of the Stone of Jordan was as a unit of currency. Since gold was basically worthless in Diablo II, players soon adopted other items as units of trade. Gems were traded at various times, but early on in the days of D2C, the SoJ became the default currency. Top quality items were priced in terms of how many SoJs they were worth, and this value led to massive duping of SoJs, which depressed prices and made it impossible for legitimate players to keep pace with the currency, since finding items was much slower than cheating/duping to create them.

The SoJ lost its place as the chief item of currency during later patches of D2X, as high level runes (HRs) took over that role in the economy. They were duped just as badly as the SoJ had ever been, given their value as currency, and more over their utility for creating runewords.

See the Diablo III economy article for much more detail about how Diablo III's economy will function and which items may become units of currency in the game.