I don't know of anything that would eat epoxy and not damage the rest of the rod. The heat thing usually works, but it can take several cycles of heat/cool to break the bond. It takes heat over 200 degrees F to get at most epoxies, prehaps the hair dryer isn't strong enough?

You might also try a combination of heat and extreme cold. Try heating it up then rubbing it with a piece of dry ice.

You could make a 'ferrule puller' device to give you a better grip on things. This is a block of wood with a hole drilled in it of the same diameter (or slightlty smaller) than the metal ring. Cut the wood in half thru the center of the hole and add some thru bolts to make it into a clamp. Build one for the ring and one for the reel seat and you will have a lot more force. You could even add some threaded rods and nuts between the two blocks and turn it onto a sort of 'wheel puller' tool.

I use a industrial heat gun, continously variable temp from 100 F to 3000 F, it's actuall hot enough that you can solder copper pipe with it! A setting somwhere around 350 F and lots of time has work for me so far.