After many more hours of fruistration, I've come back to the conclusion that I hate dealing with these rings.
Good news though my PL520 in a C6 finally lives!
I tried pressing the ring in the pill first then adding the battery board. Getting the ring in place proved much easier this way. (used a vise) The issue was getting the solder to stick to the ring. I assume as already mentioned the pill was working against me as a heat sink.
Finally I tried what Eudaimonium suggested and soldered some wire to the negative contact on the board and fanned out the other end and pinched it between the pill and the host body.
Getting 80mW (with a g2) at 200mA. It's a little lower then I expected with a G2, but I'm happy with it. Besides I'm not taking this thing apart again.