Adamantite Sword

By the time you can smelt this ore you are usually a mechanical boss or two into Hardmode, and what those fights drop outclasses an ore-tier broadsword without much argument. The bars are the real bottleneck: armor, a better pickaxe and a set of wings all want the same stack. Most melee players skip the sword and put the ore into defense instead.

It is a fine stopgap if the mechanical bosses have not gone your way. It swings on its own and reaches further than anything you carried out of pre-Hardmode, which is enough to hold the line until something better drops. Titanium worlds get the matching weapon on that side, and neither is worth rerolling a world over.