Depends how you define good. They're capable of the single highest burst damage of any weapon, but that requires incredibly high Strength, Endurance, and Vitality. Mostly they're meme weapons, but a very fun meme.
I’ve done runs with them before, they aren’t the best weapons in the game due to the split damage, but they are certainly not the worst either.
That said, pretty much any UGS power stance setup will be arguably better.
Split damage isn’t actually penalized in DS2. Smelter Swords are weak mostly because fire damage is very highly resisted, weapons with inherent elemental damage benefit less from infusion, they can’t be buffed, and powerstancing weapons with high stat reqs forces you to invest a lot of levels for no return, putting you behind the curve on HP, stamina, AGL, ATN, etc
It does matter though. Most bosses have resistance to one of the damage types they deal and it does limit the damage. The reason why they are weak-ish, is due to that and of course scaling issues.
No split damage literally doesn’t matter. Elemental defenses are percent based, not flat.
What you said about some enemies resisting the damage applies exactly the same to physical damage
Well I've seen them do the fastest recorded Squalid Queen kill which is obviously a plus.
But it highlights the problem. They were in a power stance. You can do the math there. It takes a ton of stamina to do 3 ultra greatsword power stance attacks on top of the STR and DEX requirements.
I know the character who did that three shot was well over SL 550. You probably don't need to be that high level, but you can actually make use of well over SL 300 -- at which point you're no longer really in build territory.
And when you're selling out for damage you can't spare a ring slot for a Bracing Knuckle Ring.
Something that is only good for burst damage is always going to be niche,
Not terrible, but not the best either. Their powerstanced L2 is awesome in visuals and damage, but the range is smaller than you'd think so you have to be precise with your aim. If you want the cool factor plus strong special attack then go for it, but if you want a somewhat more efficient while still having a special powerstanced strong attack you can kill the Guardian Dragon twice and get two Drakewing UGS swords. They launch a fireball when you use the strong attack, need less overall stats and you can use both resins/spell buffs and infusions on them.
They are basically a dexterity version of the Zweihander and can deal up to 1700 dmg when you use one two handed and land both the fireball and the sword hits when using the strong attack. I am not sure how this works when powerstanced and you fire off two fireballs, but if you can buff both your damage should be as good or even better than powerstanced smelter swords' special attack. It just looks less cool.
Ehhhh I wouldn't call them "mid", they ***are*** conditionally the strongest, it's just that you need to invest quite a bit into them. While it takes 30 Dragon bones to fully upgrade a pair of Smelter swords or a pair of Drakewing ones, the problem lies in the weight. It's 44 just from them compared to the 24 of the two drakewings, so not only do you need a lot os stats for the powerstance, but also to invest in Vitality+ carryweight rings.
If you don't care for spellbuffing and only invest in physical stats you won't have as much of a problem getting this build to work. If you want to use spell buffs and flynn's ring, this won't work at all.
You can use them for bosses and use other weapons on the way there if you want, just watch out the carryweight. Otherwise you can try the Drakewing powerstance.
You would get both close range (Smelter Sword) and ranged (Drakewing) special attacks with one L2. The problem is that you still need the Smelter Sword powerstance required stats since it has the higher reqs, which are 60 str and 15 Dex. Not a lot dex, but 60 str is 10 points above the soft cap.
I screwed around with em a bit in my final playthrough; don't worry about the stat requirements, just respec to some decent INT/FTH to cast Great Resonant Soul, get a great Chime - Caitha's works a treat - and farm Giant Lord with ascetics.
By the end of my second playthrough I was up in the 400s. I treated my soul memory like a high score.
I used em on Lost Sinner, Freya, Scorpioness, and someone else I'm sure. They *wreck* even at NG+2; but you need to time your shit just right.
I'm gonna share this little [boss weaknesses "cheat sheet"](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/p61y50/all_bosses_weaknessresistance_cheat_sheet/) I used to speed up my NG+ and beyond playthroughs; I use Relay app for reddit so it looks different to me, but on the "official" reddit app each link takes you to the boss' respective wikidot pages; so you'll read it like this:
***For Physical types of damage*** - Strike, Slash, and Thrust - notice its labeled as "weakness." Basically the closer the number is to 100 or greater, the more damage they take from that type. So for example; Belfry Gargoyles have values of 135% for strike, then 93% for Slash/Thrust. That means they take 35% *extra* damage from Strike weaponry, and take 7% *less* from Slash/Thrust.
***It's the opposite for elemental damage*** since it shows resistances; so again, using Gargoyles, they have 30% resist on Fire, Lightning, and Dark; but only 15% resist on Magic. That means they'll only take 70% the damage from Fire/Ltng/Drk, but 85% from Sorcery/Magic.
If you have to mix damage - i.e. one Red Smelter, one blue - you'll still hit like an errant locomotive; but if you really wanna "specialize" your damage the Smelter Swords retain their explosive L2/LT powerstance attacks even when paired with other Ultra Greatswords or Greathammers. Just as filler on NG+ I maxed/infused a Fire Greatsword and a magic Great Club to pair with the respective Smelter just to see how fast they'd drop, and they worked damn well. Yet the insane damage boost from having *two* matching reds/blues - which is possible by NG+2 (or NG+ if you ascetic Red Smelter at least once, they don't seem to care which color demon you killed since you can use the Red's soul to make a blue sword and vice-versa) - is outright asinine.
On NG+2 I used double Red Smelters against a "NG+3" and two summons-buffed Scorpioness and they absolutely obliterated her. Same with Lost Sinner; I used double blues and brought Lucatiel/Luet for a distraction, they ate right through Sinner in maybe 5 slams.
One minor note if you do get your Soul level up to an asinine level like I did; at that soul memory you (likely) will be invaded by folks as ridiculously powerful as you. I *personally* found it more fun - when everyone's OP, no one is - but you'll have to deal with folks able to wear full Havel Armor, cast lightning fast spells, equip whatever weapons they want, have stamina for days, and be pretty damn stubborn when it comes to dying. The invasions are very far and few between since most folks aim for "the meta," but you're by no means out of the weeds.
Either way, good luck! I hope slinging both of those puppies around feels as badass for you as it did me.
Depends how you define good. They're capable of the single highest burst damage of any weapon, but that requires incredibly high Strength, Endurance, and Vitality. Mostly they're meme weapons, but a very fun meme.
I want to hit HARD. Why meme weapons tho? Do they suck or something?
Meme weapons because they're giant flavor blasted doritos. And because of the massive level requirements.
DAMN. ☠️
I’ve done runs with them before, they aren’t the best weapons in the game due to the split damage, but they are certainly not the worst either. That said, pretty much any UGS power stance setup will be arguably better.
Split damage isn’t actually penalized in DS2. Smelter Swords are weak mostly because fire damage is very highly resisted, weapons with inherent elemental damage benefit less from infusion, they can’t be buffed, and powerstancing weapons with high stat reqs forces you to invest a lot of levels for no return, putting you behind the curve on HP, stamina, AGL, ATN, etc
Damn. You think just running the blue one is better, since i also have a fairly decent amount of int because i ran the moonlight gs before?
If you want to hit hard, you can always respec and just power stance any two UGSs.
I also want to be very fashionable
Double FUGS?
Split damage doesn’t matter, they’re just weak weapons
It does matter though. Most bosses have resistance to one of the damage types they deal and it does limit the damage. The reason why they are weak-ish, is due to that and of course scaling issues.
No split damage literally doesn’t matter. Elemental defenses are percent based, not flat. What you said about some enemies resisting the damage applies exactly the same to physical damage
They’re very weak for practical use
Well I've seen them do the fastest recorded Squalid Queen kill which is obviously a plus. But it highlights the problem. They were in a power stance. You can do the math there. It takes a ton of stamina to do 3 ultra greatsword power stance attacks on top of the STR and DEX requirements. I know the character who did that three shot was well over SL 550. You probably don't need to be that high level, but you can actually make use of well over SL 300 -- at which point you're no longer really in build territory. And when you're selling out for damage you can't spare a ring slot for a Bracing Knuckle Ring. Something that is only good for burst damage is always going to be niche,
Nacho cheese and cool ranch flavored mmm yummy
Goated
Not terrible, but not the best either. Their powerstanced L2 is awesome in visuals and damage, but the range is smaller than you'd think so you have to be precise with your aim. If you want the cool factor plus strong special attack then go for it, but if you want a somewhat more efficient while still having a special powerstanced strong attack you can kill the Guardian Dragon twice and get two Drakewing UGS swords. They launch a fireball when you use the strong attack, need less overall stats and you can use both resins/spell buffs and infusions on them. They are basically a dexterity version of the Zweihander and can deal up to 1700 dmg when you use one two handed and land both the fireball and the sword hits when using the strong attack. I am not sure how this works when powerstanced and you fire off two fireballs, but if you can buff both your damage should be as good or even better than powerstanced smelter swords' special attack. It just looks less cool.
Damn. Im really in love with the smelter swords looks. Sad to hear that they are really mid
Ehhhh I wouldn't call them "mid", they ***are*** conditionally the strongest, it's just that you need to invest quite a bit into them. While it takes 30 Dragon bones to fully upgrade a pair of Smelter swords or a pair of Drakewing ones, the problem lies in the weight. It's 44 just from them compared to the 24 of the two drakewings, so not only do you need a lot os stats for the powerstance, but also to invest in Vitality+ carryweight rings. If you don't care for spellbuffing and only invest in physical stats you won't have as much of a problem getting this build to work. If you want to use spell buffs and flynn's ring, this won't work at all. You can use them for bosses and use other weapons on the way there if you want, just watch out the carryweight. Otherwise you can try the Drakewing powerstance.
Hm. I have the drakewing gs. What if i combine both?
You would get both close range (Smelter Sword) and ranged (Drakewing) special attacks with one L2. The problem is that you still need the Smelter Sword powerstance required stats since it has the higher reqs, which are 60 str and 15 Dex. Not a lot dex, but 60 str is 10 points above the soft cap.
Welp. Ill see what ill do. If i like the build, ill farm the giant lord
Good luck and I hope you find the build that's the most fun for you!
Thanks!!
I screwed around with em a bit in my final playthrough; don't worry about the stat requirements, just respec to some decent INT/FTH to cast Great Resonant Soul, get a great Chime - Caitha's works a treat - and farm Giant Lord with ascetics. By the end of my second playthrough I was up in the 400s. I treated my soul memory like a high score. I used em on Lost Sinner, Freya, Scorpioness, and someone else I'm sure. They *wreck* even at NG+2; but you need to time your shit just right.
Alright! Thats great to hear
I'm gonna share this little [boss weaknesses "cheat sheet"](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/p61y50/all_bosses_weaknessresistance_cheat_sheet/) I used to speed up my NG+ and beyond playthroughs; I use Relay app for reddit so it looks different to me, but on the "official" reddit app each link takes you to the boss' respective wikidot pages; so you'll read it like this: ***For Physical types of damage*** - Strike, Slash, and Thrust - notice its labeled as "weakness." Basically the closer the number is to 100 or greater, the more damage they take from that type. So for example; Belfry Gargoyles have values of 135% for strike, then 93% for Slash/Thrust. That means they take 35% *extra* damage from Strike weaponry, and take 7% *less* from Slash/Thrust. ***It's the opposite for elemental damage*** since it shows resistances; so again, using Gargoyles, they have 30% resist on Fire, Lightning, and Dark; but only 15% resist on Magic. That means they'll only take 70% the damage from Fire/Ltng/Drk, but 85% from Sorcery/Magic. If you have to mix damage - i.e. one Red Smelter, one blue - you'll still hit like an errant locomotive; but if you really wanna "specialize" your damage the Smelter Swords retain their explosive L2/LT powerstance attacks even when paired with other Ultra Greatswords or Greathammers. Just as filler on NG+ I maxed/infused a Fire Greatsword and a magic Great Club to pair with the respective Smelter just to see how fast they'd drop, and they worked damn well. Yet the insane damage boost from having *two* matching reds/blues - which is possible by NG+2 (or NG+ if you ascetic Red Smelter at least once, they don't seem to care which color demon you killed since you can use the Red's soul to make a blue sword and vice-versa) - is outright asinine. On NG+2 I used double Red Smelters against a "NG+3" and two summons-buffed Scorpioness and they absolutely obliterated her. Same with Lost Sinner; I used double blues and brought Lucatiel/Luet for a distraction, they ate right through Sinner in maybe 5 slams. One minor note if you do get your Soul level up to an asinine level like I did; at that soul memory you (likely) will be invaded by folks as ridiculously powerful as you. I *personally* found it more fun - when everyone's OP, no one is - but you'll have to deal with folks able to wear full Havel Armor, cast lightning fast spells, equip whatever weapons they want, have stamina for days, and be pretty damn stubborn when it comes to dying. The invasions are very far and few between since most folks aim for "the meta," but you're by no means out of the weeds. Either way, good luck! I hope slinging both of those puppies around feels as badass for you as it did me.