Cleric's Ring

The Cleric's Ring is a Ring available in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is a very significant piece to consider for transfer into.

In
Unlike many Rings, which are Used like a consumable item to activate their effects, the Cleric's Ring has an equip effect like any other equippable item's effect, such as weapons and armor. Normally, when a character equips a Cursed item, they are occasionally unable to move in a randomly given turn. Equipping the Cleric's Ring allows a party member to use Cursed equipment without this negative effect. However, the Cursed items still cannot be removed except at a Sanctum; not even the Cleric's Ring can change this. In order for the Cleric's Ring to be available in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, it must be transferred from Golden Sun as part of a password-enhanced game.

Technically, having 120 Luck would replace the Cleric's Ring, as the chance to not act is based on luck. It is extremely unlikely to meet this requirement even with deliberate effort. Obtaining such high luck without Easy Mode is doubtful, even if all Lucky Pepper of a linked playthrough were to be given to one character with naturally high luck (Mia or Sheba) and that character also be given equipment, Djinn, and a class that raises their luck.

When the Cleric's Ring is acquired by the endgame of Golden Sun, for the most part it is recommended to equip it on Garet, as he will be able to then profit from the cursed equipment Wicked Mace (or Muramasa) in the weapons department, and the Thunder Crown as well, without their associated negative side effects. (He could also equip the Demon Mail as body armor, but as that piece of armor lowers Jupiter resistance instead of increasing anything other than Defense, there are other pieces of non-cursed armor that are technically better fits for Garet. The Demon Axe is not listed because the Wicked Mace is about as powerful statistically and has a much better Unleash effect.)

Alternatively, Garet could stick with un-cursed equipment and wield a weapon such as an extra Kikuichimonji, and the Cleric's Ring could be equipped on Mia instead; she would benefit from the additional 4 PP of the Thunder Crown, and the Wicked Mace would technically be the strongest weapon she could have to attack enemies with (better than the Blessed Mace, and far better than the only other cursed weapon Mia can equip, the Demonic Staff).

Considerations for
The Cleric's Ring can be transferred to Golden Sun: The Lost Age through data transfer, and is the only way this item can be acquired in that game. It would seem to be a very valuable item to have, because you may equip any of the new Cursed items in the game that can be forged from Dark Matter. And if you are not into acquiring all the best possible equipment for everyone, instead equipping whatever you find, the Cleric's Ring is good for allowing an Adept to equip the strong cursed equipment of the second game. However, none of the cursed equipment in The Lost Age are among the best equipment the game has to offer (items from treasure chests like the Sol Blade, items forged from Orihalcon, and items won as random drops from wild monsters comprise all of the game's best equipment), so "ideally" the Cleric's Ring would not even be necessary to an endgame party.

One exception is the Demon Circlet; if your goal is maximum unleash chance on all of your characters, it is better than a Berserker Band, as the Demon Circlet offers an additional 15% unleash chance, and the Berserker Band doesn't. So the Cleric's Ring could then be used to replace a Berserker Band with the Demon Circlet on Ivan, Mia, Jenna, or Sheba. Actually, with the Demon Circlet, Riot Gloves, Mythril Clothes, a weapon that has a 40% unleash chance by default (in stead of the standard 35%) such as the Atropos' Rod, and a pair of Hyper Boots, one can theoretically get a 102% unleash chance.

The other item that is worth using alongside the Ring is the Darksword, the weapon that has the highest attack rating in the game. While it's Unleash it's not as good as the ones that other endgame weapons have, it's a good option if the adept is going to use attack multiplying psynergies, like Samurai's Quick Strike, Tamer's Gryphon or Ghost Soldier, Ninja's Annihilation or Dark Mage's Call Dullahan, in order to maximize the damage dealt.

In
In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, the Cleric's Ring normally cannot be found until after beating the game, because that is the condition necessary for the whirlpool to Crossbone Isle to appear. However, it can be accessed before that point by using the Endless Wall glitch to walk there directly. Whenever it is obtained, it can be used by Tyrell to equip a Darksword, by Sveta to equip the Bloody Claw, or by Karis, Rief, Amiti, or Himi to equip a Demon Circlet. All three of these items can be effective for an ideal endgame party.

Each setup has its advantages and disadvantages. In Tyrell's case, the Darksword is only used to increase the power the Samurai class series's Quick Strike, as the Darksword has comparatively bad unleashes. However, the Cleric's Ring can eliminate the chance of being frozen during a turn. For Sveta, the Bloody Claw is the strongest weapon she can access, in terms of Attack, and also has Unleashes with good damage multipliers. However, if the player is taking advantage of Beastform, the claw may possibly be overkill, as Sveta's Attack can be easily maxed out in this form.

Meanwhile, the Demon Circlet is the only mage-exclusive headwear to increase Unleash rates. If used, it can be combined with the Mythril Clothes and Mythril Armlet to give a significantly higher Unleash rate. The two main beneficiaries are Himi, who makes very good use of the Demon Circlet's 15% increased unleash rate when using a Tisiphone Edge in the Master class, and Amiti, who can make use of the Sagittarius Bow's above-average damage multipliers.