Disclosed is a piston ring having a substrate to which a wear resistant coating is applied that includes at least one first element with a melting point Tm>760° C. The wear resistant coating contains at least one second element with a melting point Tm>760° C. The wear resistant coating also includes droplets which have a diameter and which contain at least the first element, where at least 90% of the droplets have a value 1 μm≤D≤10 μm. In the method for producing a wear resistant coating using an arc evaporation techniques, the target material includes at least one first element with a melting point Tm>760° C. and at least one second element with a melting point Tm>760° C., wherein the quantity of the second material contained in the target material is such that the melting point Tm of the target material >1000° C.