Heavy Mace

A Heavy Mace is a common Mace-class weapon available throughout the Golden Sun series.

Basic Description by Game
In all its appearances, a Heavy Mace increases the wielder's base Attack rating by 26 points. As a common item, it can be repeatedly bought from Vendors for 500 coins each and sold for 375 coins each.

In Golden Sun it is sold in Bilibin, Imil, and Kolima and can be equipped by Isaac, Garet, and Mia. In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the Heavy Mace is sold in Alhafra and Garoh and can be equipped by Felix, Sheba, and Piers.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Heavy Maces are sold in Harapa and Kaocho, and can be equipped by Matthew, Tyrell, Eoleo, and Rief. Due to revisions to the Unleash system, the Heavy Mace gains two Unleashes: Critical Strike, and Rolling Attack. Critical Strike is a non-elemental physical attack that inflicts 50% more damage as a standard attack. Rolling Attack is a Jupiter-based physical Attack that inflicts 10% more damage than a standard attack and has a range of up to three targets.

Analysis
In Golden Sun when it can be first bought in Bilibin, it is only slightly stronger than the Battle Axe which can be bought as early as in the earlier town of Vault, but it is practically twice as expensive, and yet it is also only half as expensive as the strongest weapon in the vendors at that point, Broad Swords. This, along with the fact that Ivan cannot equip maces, severely limits its practical usability.

In The Lost Age, its practical usability is still very limited because both towns where it is sold, Alhafra and Garoh, would only end up having their vendors available to the player after the player's party has already had the ample opportunity to amass much stronger weapons. Alhafra can only be reached through Yampi Desert, and an easy-to-reach chest contains a very powerful-at-that-point Mace artifact named the Blow Mace, which has 45 Attack points and an Unleash. Garoh's vendors are only open after completing Air's Rock and getting the Reveal Psynergy, which is necessary to engage in cutscenes with Garoh's master Maha, and in Air's Rock the strongest weapon in the game you can get yet is the Storm Brand, which has 60 Attack points as an Unleash. To put this in perspective, when Piers joins later on equipped with the next level of mace-class weapon, the Battle Mace, the Storm Brand, as a hand-me-down weapon at that point, is still an even stronger weapon than his Battle Mace for him to equip instantly.

In Dark Dawn, the Heavy Mace will weaker than any weapon Matthew and Rief can equip. It could potentially be an upgrade for Tyrell, but it is worth noting that a stronger Artifact weapon, the Blow Mace, is available on the way to Passaj. Thus, the Heavy Mace can easily be skipped over.