Weapon Infusion

I returned to McDuff in the Lost Bastille with the Dull Ember I'd found in the Iron Keep. This allows him to infuse weapons with the special ore stones to produce Lightning/Magic/Fire etc. weapons. The system is much more straightforward than in the previous games with you just requiring one of the special stones to make a weapon of that type and then it can be reinforced as normal with ordinary titanite. Also having one blacksmith to look after all infusions is way handier.

In DS1 a lot of the special ores you found were useless for your current build as they only reinforced a weapon along one exclusive path. Now there are less special stones (as you only need one to create the weapon) and more universal titanite. This really takes the farming out of weapon building. The fact you can also infuse a weapon at any level (rather than getting it to +5 first) also streamlines the process. Boss weapons can also be infused!

I upgraded my +6 Greatsword to a Lightning Greatsword and got it to +8. I wanted to create a fire weapon from a lighter sword but only the Royal Greatsword fit the bill and it already has a bleed effect which takes away from it's overall stats.