Their one saving grace is that they can craft Dynamite. Rolling the garbage health bonus at that point will make you want to shoot yourself even more too. Late and end-game, the bonus to aether or chaos resist is often not necessary, as the gear or devotions you have at that point in the game will often cap those resists.
These smiths are useful in the mid-point of the game on your character’s first play-through, but the health bonus is just pure sh.it even at that stage in the game. They offer the same bonuses, which one you choose is purely a matter of convenience, although Fort Ikon’s smith is closer to the Smuggler.
These blacksmith are available at Homestead & Fort Ikon. Angrim offers warrior type weapons, while Duncan offers caster type weapons. One last thing is that they offer 4 different low level (15ish) items that only they can craft. Generally, you should pick Angrim on Normal, Duncan on Elite, and who ever is better for your character on Ultimate.
Although, if the resistances that those other smiths offer would be capped or are capped on your character (bleeding & vitality), then Duncan offers you a chance between the always useful DA, energy regen, or percentile increase Physique.
However, other smiths in the game offer access to that same energy regen bonus. Late and end-game however, Duncan offers convenient access to his bonuses that are better for some caster characters (the energy regen and potential bonus DA). Depending on your choice in the Blacksmith Quest, you will either have Angrim or Duncan.Īngrim is always a solid choice to choose, as early on when you will be using them, extra armor or rare (at that point in the game) pierce resistance is a much better choice than extra energy regen or DA.