Burning Sword

A Burning Sword is a Light Blade-class Artifact weapon found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Visually, the Burning Sword resembles a long, very thin yellow sword with red fire coming off it.

Basic Description
The Burning Sword carries an attack rating of 157 points. It is a pure-element weapon aligned with Mars, which means that its standard attack inflicts Mars-based damage similarly to its Unleash effect. The Burning Sword can be bought for 14600 coins and sold for 10950 coins.

The Burning Sword is acquired by giving a Salamander Tail to Sunshine the Blacksmith in Yallam. He will forge the Salamander Tail into one of several items chosen at random, with the Burning Sword being one option. The Burning Sword, as a Light Blade-class item, can be wielded by Isaac, Garet, Ivan, Felix, Jenna, and Piers.

The Burning Sword has the Unleash effect Blaze Rush, which activates at a rate of 35% (which is standard) and does 54 extra points of base damage, all damage done is converted to Mars elemental damage, and the effect has a chance of lowering the enemy’s defense by 25%. The enemy’s defense can be lowered down further to 50% with a second usage of Blaze Rush. Blaze Rush visually resembles a series of large fireballs flying very quickly from the attacker's general direction and into the target.

Analysis
The Burning Sword is pretty powerful, though if acquired it is often used as a "placeholder" weapon for stronger weapons near the endgame by players. The Masamune and the Tisiphone Edge Light Blades outclass the Burning Sword in terms of potential damage done, and the Fire Brand Long Sword is a similar but superior weapon as well. In a boss fight, though, successfully lowering the defense of the enemy with the Blaze Rush attack proves more effective than using the Impair Psynergy series and then attacking, because Blaze Rush achieves both effects in one Adept’s turn.