SoJ prices RotW

I'm playing D2R since last December and it seems the SOJ's pricing is significantly lower than 15 years ago.

Why is that? Has the market been flooded by Anni's (the initial solution for SoJ duping), and is it in need of a new 'solution'?

I.e. cube 5 anni's into something useful? Like materials to craft affixes for the

Standard of Heroes?

Duping is, as far as I know, not really a thing these days. Botting is definitely the source of most high runes, SoJ etc.

But really, is there a problem with SoJ having a lower price? They tend to run ~2

Ist or a

Vex, which seems OK? Do they need to cost a

Ber? Point is, there is no need for a "solution", because there is no problem, IMO

Back in the day, dclone walks were semi-private as the group triggering them would crowd (and hence largely block) the walk IP. Only a very small share of annis ever made it outside of that group as part of a walk for the lucky handful of people who happened to also be on that IP.

Today, every walk hits the entire region.

As a result, annis have dropped massively in value since the olden days, simply because plenty of people can actually participate in walks now and get their own.
And as a result of that, the SoJs for those walks also dropped massively in value.

Additionally, especially since RotW, things like

Opalvein have replaced SoJ as BiS for a few builds, dropping value even further.

Really the only thing propping up SoJ value at all still is the streamers who buy them en masse for their walk events. But those are largely reliant on bot markets so it doesn't actually add too much value to the normal player trading side of it.
Beyond that, SoJ is still a solid ring but BiS for less, precious little value (or just not taken from the player economy) for walks anymore and there are no rolls to worry about, making each one inherently perfect. So basically, there's just no reason left to further inflate the value.

Another aspect concerning the low price is that most players who play d2r since a while now have sojs on every char that needs them. SoJ has fixed attributes, so there is no competition in min/maxing. Both results in lower demand besides the mentioned streamers

Schnorki wrote: 4 hours ago

Additionally, especially since RotW, things like

Opalvein have replaced SoJ as BiS for a few builds, dropping value even further.

A bit off-topic, but for what builds you consider

Opalvein being better than soj? Cold Sorc and Dragondin come to my mind, but isn't +5% elemental damage worse than +1 Skill on most builds?

In my experience with my magic Warlock, 5% and +1 to skills are very close damage-wise. Of course, +1 to skills from the SoJ also benefits secondary skills and

Battle Orders and the like. But

Opalvein has all res, 10 FCR and also life and mana per kill. So, it's a great ring!

Blubbalutsch wrote: 3 hours ago

Schnorki wrote: 4 hours ago

Additionally, especially since RotW, things like

Opalvein have replaced SoJ as BiS for a few builds, dropping value even further.

A bit off-topic, but for what builds you consider

Opalvein being better than soj? Cold Sorc and Dragondin come to my mind, but isn't +5% elemental damage worse than +1 Skill on most builds?

I can only speak for my Cold Sorc, but there on top of the +5% elemental damage it opened up the possibility to use

Death's Fathom instead of

The Oculus and still reach 105 FCR which in turn brings a massive plus on the damage (in my case +38/-10 on top of the

Opalvein).

Blubbalutsch wrote: 3 hours ago

A bit off-topic, but for what builds you consider

Opalvein being better than soj? Cold Sorc and Dragondin come to my mind, but isn't +5% elemental damage worse than +1 Skill on most builds?

Firedruid - yes x2, remove 2/19+ amulet
Windruid - one to open one of amulet/glove/helmet slot
Flamezon - yes
Icezon - yes
Javazon - yes
Lightsorc - no
Coldsorc - yes
Firesorc - no
Bone/Poison Necro - yes x2
Hammerdin - yes, if goal is to open two of gloves/amulet/head slots instead of one and still reach 125 fcr while taking a damage hit of 2%.
Warcrier - doesn't up warcries :'(
Trapassin - yes x2
MAssin - doesn't matter

dragondin/auradin don't use sojs

Queegon wrote: 3 hours ago

dragondin/auradin don't use sojs

Thanks for the extensive list. My Dragondin uses soj for the mana. It's QoL as you don't have to W for

Redemption CTA that much when charging. Tried a lot of options and SoJ was the keeper in the end. Although perfect fire

Opalvein would change that as damage is more important.

Blubbalutsch wrote: 3 hours ago

Schnorki wrote: 4 hours ago

Additionally, especially since RotW, things like

Opalvein have replaced SoJ as BiS for a few builds, dropping value even further.

A bit off-topic, but for what builds you consider

Opalvein being better than soj? Cold Sorc and Dragondin come to my mind, but isn't +5% elemental damage worse than +1 Skill on most builds?

Depends. For my sorc, SoJ still comes out on top. Dragondin (without looking at it) should gain though as +skill doesn't help with the item aura or synergies whereas the flat % dmg on an opal actually does improve the item auras.

For some other classes/builds (e.g. some necros, some locks, some sins, ...) the damage alone can pull ahead but even if in and by itself it doesn't, it can still win overall because the 10 FCR allows you to potentially replace other gear pieces for gains that outweigh what you might lose in a pure "soj vs. opal" comparison. Same Principle as

Sling for magic builds in that regard.
For opal, that's especially true if you insist on getting res capped as the up to 8 res then do the same thing and allow for even more optimization on other pieces.

Ultimately, there are a fair few builds for which having at least 1, if not 2 is BiS (3 of my chars for example). But which those are on a general level depends on your priorities (e.g. block vs. no block, max res vs. don't care and so on) as those then dictate just how "pressed for stats" you are and what gains you might get from

Sling or opal beyond just the raw dmg.